Researchers suspect that families from different hamlets cooperated with one another, gathering together to carry out rituals or provide food for one another when crop yields were low. But, over time, the regional population grew. As more people moved into the region, more competition over resources would have developed.

Many small hamlets were burned, so archaelogists think that with the increased regional population, movement from hamlet to hamlet became more restricted, and people living in small groups became more vulnerable to raiders.