Region-wide, systematic investigations were carried out in the Hongshan periphery and core zone to investigate how the earliest chiefly polities in northeastern China came into being. Possible causal factors, such as high levels of regional populations and intra-community conflict, were rejected by those regional survey projects. Economic or productive differentiation as an alternative and plausible explanation was proposed in this research background to explain the greater and more impressive material culture in the Hongshan core zone. Seeing pottery networks as a most direct indicator for economic interdependence between households, a geochemical study was carried out on 715 sherds selected from 16 Hongshan households in three residential areas (Sanjia, Dongshanzui, and Erbuchi) in the core zone. The geochemical study was complemented by a mineralogical investigation on a smaller sample from the same sherd pool. The results suggested that pottery-making was organized in different residential areas using local raw materials; non-utilitarian vessels were clearly produced with more labor investment and probably a low level of specialization, but they were no different from utilitarian ones in terms of procurement sources of pottery raw materials. Altogether, an ordinary Neolithic village economy is indicated for Hongshan core zone communities. The pottery distribution patterns suggested a wide and open pottery network crossing different neighborhoods, residential areas, and political entities. Economic connections were clearly established between Hongshan households from a few nearby districts, and the transfer of pottery created a chain of interaction that connected one end of the Hongshan zone to the other indirectly and facilitated cultural sharing of styles and other behaviors that helped create the Hongshan culture. In each residential area, a very few households stood out against others for their higher household status, and they all demonstrated a much stronger economic tie with fewer pottery producers. Yet, considering that higher-status households did not have exclusive access to certain pottery producers and nor did they rely strongly on the same producers, control over production and distribution of pottery seems not likely to be the only (or even a major) strategy that some Hongshan individuals or households employed to achieve their eliteness or power.