The meaning of the word “urban” has shifted considerably since I was a graduate student. Does anyone read V. Gordon Childe’s article “The Urban Revolution” (1950) anymore? https://twitter.com/tac_org/status/1199525010404192262">https://twitter.com/tac_org/s...

For example, ten years ago Michel Heckenberger applied the concept of “urbanism” to networks of large villages in the Xingu valley of Brazil.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/18755979">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/...

In 2016, Chris Fisher and colleagues identified “a city” in eastern Honduras that a previous generation would have referred to as a large village or perhaps a small town. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0159890">https://journals.plos.org/plosone/a...

As I was taught, “urbanism” applied to settlements such as the Mesopotamian city of Uruk, in which the majority of residents were engaged in activities other than agriculture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruk ">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruk...

What are your working definitions of these?

For me:

Village - ca. 200-2000 people; most of population engaged in subsistence activities.

Town - ca. 2000-20,000; significant % of full-time non-agricultural specialists.

City - >20,000; majority are non-agricultural specialists.

Why it should be a headline that “Native Americans once thrived in bustling urban centers” is perplexing.