Validity and reliability assessments of established anthropological concepts are rare. In this paper we assess the soundness and dependability of one of the oldest concepts of Southwestern prehistory. T. Mitchell Prudden associated a distinctive kind of Anasazi settlement, the unit type, with a particular form of social organization in 1914. Since then, his idea has played a prominent role in Anasazi archaeological theories. These formulations are justifiable only if Prudden's idea is valid and reliable. Aspects of Anasazi architectural design and construction have been used as empirical indicators of the unit type of settlement. The relationship between Prudden's concept and its architectural indicators is examined with a sample of archaeological sites claimed to be of the unit type. Although they are reliable, we find that the architectural indicators are invalid because they measure concepts other than Prudden's. Moreover, we find that there is more than one unit type of settlement that must be considered in future research.
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