The preparation and consumption of corn as tortillas involves a great deal of labor by women. As Patricia Crown and Suzanne Fish point out, the appearance of comales for tortilla-making during the Hohokam Classic Period (A.D. 1150-1400) is accompanied by other evidence for changes in women’s workload and status.

This paper examines the archaeological patterning and significance of comales in the Hohokam Classic in more detail. Ethnographic data on tortilla manufacture and labor is presented before describing the appearance of comales in the Middle Gila River basin of Arizona and elsewhere in the region. Despite the nutritional advantages of consuming corn in hominy-based preparations, such as tortillas, comales are not universally adopted in the Classic Period. Such preparations are also less common historically in this area than elsewhere in the Southwest. One explanation is that some women resisted the dramatic changes to their workload and schedule associated with tortilla manufacture.