Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest

Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest
Author: Alan P. Sullivan
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780816525140

Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest is the first volume dedicated to understanding the nature of and changes in regional social autonomy, political hegemony, and organizational complexity across the entire prehistoric American Southwest. With geographic coverage extending from the Great Plains to the Colorado River, and from Mesa Verde to the international border, the volumeÕs ten case studies synthesize research that enhances our understanding of the ancient SouthwestÕs highly variable demographic, land use, and economic histories. For this volume, ÒhinterlandsÓ are those areas whose archaeological records do not disclose the ceramic, architectural, and network evidence that initially led to the establishment of the Hohokam, Chaco, and Casas Grandes regional systems. Employing a variety of perspectives, such as the cultural landscapes approach, heterarchy, and the common-pool resource model, as well as technical methods, such as petrographic and stylistic-attribute analyses, the volumeÕs contributors explore variation in hinterland identities, subsistence ecology, and sociopolitical organization as regional systems expanded and contracted between the 9th and 14th centuries AD. The hinterlands of the prehistoric Southwest were home to a substantial number of people and were often used as resource catchments by the inhabitants of regional systems. Importantly, hinterlands also influenced developments of nearby regional systems, under whose footprint they managed to retain considerable autonomy. By considering the dynamics between hinterlands and regional systems, the volume reveals unappreciated aspects of the ancient SouthwestÕs peoples and their lives, thereby deepening our awareness of the regionÕs rich and complicated cultural past.

New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology

New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology
Author: Barbara J. Roth
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2018-11-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816539073

In the early 1970s, understanding of the Mimbres region as a whole was in its infancy. In the following decades, thanks to dedicated work by enterprising archaeologists and nonprofit organizations, our understanding of the Mimbres region has become more complex, nuanced, and rich. New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology brings together these experts in a single volume for the first time. The contributors discuss current knowledge of the people who lived in the Mimbres region of the southwestern United States and how our knowledge has changed since the Mimbres Foundation, directed by Steven A. LeBlanc, began the first modern archaeological investigations in the region. Many of these authors have spent decades conducting the fieldwork that has allowed for a broader understanding of Mimbres society. Focusing on a variety of important research topics of interest to archaeologists—including the social contexts of people and communities, the role of ritual and ideology in Mimbres society, evidence of continuities and cultural change through time, and the varying impacts of external influences throughout the region—New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology presents recent data on and interpretations of the entire pre-Hispanic sequence of occupation. Additional contributions include a history of nonprofit archaeology by William H. Doelle and a concluding chapter by Steven A. LeBlanc reflecting on his decades-long work in Mimbres archaeology and outlining important areas for the next wave of research.

Mimbres Society

Mimbres Society
Author: Valli S. Powell-Marti
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2019-11-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816540888

The enchanting pottery created by the Mimbres people of southwestern New Mexico is considered by many scholars to be unique among all the ancient art traditions of North America. Distinguished by their elaborate hand-painted black-on-white designs, Mimbres vessels have inspired artists and collectors, and many insist that they are unrivaled in several millennia of pottery making. While the attention to the extraordinary Mimbres painted pottery is well merited, the focus on its artistry alone has obscured other equally remarkable achievements and compelling questions about this unique and sophisticated society. Was the society as truly egalitarian as it has often been suggested? Was the pottery produced by specialists? How did Mimbres architecture—among the first to break living spaces into apartment-style room blocks—reflect the relationships among individuals, families, and communities? Did aggregate housing units translate into social equality, or did subtle hierarchies exist? Tracing the way technology evolved in ceramic decoration, architecture, and mortuary practices, this collection of eight original contributions brings new insights into previously unexplored dimensions of Mimbres society. The contributors also provide vivid examples of how today’s archaeologists are linking field data to social theory.

Dynamics of Southwest Prehistory

Dynamics of Southwest Prehistory
Author: Linda S. Cordell
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2006-05-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0817353518

Emerging from a School of American Research, this work reviews the general status of archaeological knowledge in 9 key regions of the Southwest to examine broader questions of cultural development, which affected the Southwest as a whole, and to consider an overall conceptual model of the prehistoric Southwest after the advent of sedentism.

Mimbres Archaeology at the NAN Ranch Ruin

Mimbres Archaeology at the NAN Ranch Ruin
Author: Harry J. Shafer
Publisher: UNM Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780826322043

Following two decades of excavations and research at the NAN Ranch Ruin in southwestern New Mexico, Harry Shafer offers new information and interpretations of the rise and disappearance of the ancient Mimbres culture that thrived in the area from about A.D. 600 to 1140. The NAN Ranch site gives evidence of a fascinating restructuring of Mimbres culture and society, owing to the introduction of irrigation agriculture in the late ninth century. The social restructuring that accompanied this shift in technology resulted in changes that are visible in architecture, mortuary practices, and ceramic decoration. The NAN Ranch ruin has yielded the largest body of evidence ever gathered at a single Mimbres site and thus offers the clearest picture to date of who the ancient Mimbreños were in relation to their Anasazi and Hohokam neighbors to the north and east. Shafer introduces us to the Mimbres people, gives a history of archaeological research in the Mimbres Valley, and traces the occupation of the NAN Ranch site from pithouses to classic pueblo to abandonment. Social customs, subsistence, biological information, and the symbolism of the distinctive Mimbres designs in their ceramics, pottery, stone artifacts, textiles, and jewelry are all addressed in this comprehensive survey.

Birds of the Sun

Birds of the Sun
Author: Christopher W Schwartz
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2022-03-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816544743

"The multiple, vivid colors of scarlet macaws and their ability to mimic human speech are key reasons they were and are significant to the Native peoples of the southwestern U.S. and northwest New Mexico. Although the birds' natural habitat is the tropical forests of Mexico and Central America, they were present at multiple archaeological sites in the region. Leading experts in southwestern archaeology explore the reasons why"--

Archaeology of the Mimbres Region, Southwestern New Mexico, USA

Archaeology of the Mimbres Region, Southwestern New Mexico, USA
Author: Stephen H. Lekson
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN:

Mimbres is the archaeological term for ancient Native American peoples who lived along the Rio Mimbres and several other valleys in the southwestern corner of the state of New Mexico. They flourished, artistically, from about A.D.

The American Southwest and Mesoamerica

The American Southwest and Mesoamerica
Author: Jonathon E. Ericson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2013-11-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1489911499

Regional approaches to the study of prehistoric exchange have generated much new knowledge about intergroup and regional interaction. The American South west and Mesoamerica: Systems of Prehistoric Exchange is the first of two volumes that seek to provide current information regarding regional exchange on a conti nental basis. From a theoretical perspective, these volumes provide important data for the comparative analysis of regional systems relative to sociopolitical organization from simple hunter-gatherers to those of complex sociopolitical entities like the state. Although individual regional exchange systems are unique for each region and time period, general patterns emerge relative to sOciopolitical organization. Of significant interest to us are the dynamic processes of change, stability, rate of growth, and collapse of regional exchange systems relative to sociopolitical complexity. These volumes provide basic data to further our under standing of prehistoric exchange systems. The volume presents our current state of knowledge about regional exchange systems in the American Southwest and Mesoamerica. Each chapter synthesizes the research findings of a number of other researchers in order to provide a synchronic view of regional interaction for a specific chronological period. A diachronic view is also prOvided for regional interaction in the context of the developments in regional SOciopolitical organization. Most authors go beyond description by proposing alternative models within which to understand regional interaction. The book is organized by geographical and chronological divisions to pro vide units of the broader mosaic of prehistoric exchange systems.

The Mimbres

The Mimbres
Author: Jesse Walter Fewkes
Publisher:
Total Pages: 200
Release: 1989
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

This reissue of three early essays on Mimbres archaeology and design fills a major gap in the literature on the Mimbres, whose pottery has long fascinated students of the prehistoric Southwest. Fewkes, one of the eminent archaeologists of the early twentieth century, introduced Mimbres art to scholars when he published these essays with the Smithsonian Institution between 1914 and 1924, under the titlesArchaeology of the Lower Mimbres Valley, New Mexico, Designs on Prehistoric Pottery from the Mimbres Valley, New Mexico,andAdditional Designs on Prehistoric Mimbres Pottery.Long out-of-print, these essays represent the first analysis and description of the complex abstract and representational designs that continue to fascinate us 2,000 years after they were painted.

Pottery and People

Pottery and People
Author: James M. Skibo
Publisher: University of Utah Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1999-01-14
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 0874805775

This volume emphasizes the complex interactions between ceramic containers and people in past and present contexts. Pottery, once it appears in the archaeological record, is one of the most routinely recovered artifacts. It is made frequently, broken often, and comes in endless varieties according to economic and social requirements. Moreover, even in shreds ceramics can last almost forever, providing important clues about past human behavior. The contributors to this volume, all leaders in ceramic research, probe the relationship between humans and ceramics. Here they offer new discoveries obtained through traditional lines of inquiry, demonstrate methodological breakthroughs, and expose innovative new areas for research. Among the topics covered in this volume are the age at which children begin learning pottery making; the origins of pottery in the Southwest U.S., Mesoamerica, and Greece; vessel production and standardization; vessel size and food consumption patterns; the relationship between pottery style and meaning; and the role pottery and other material culture plays in communication. Pottery and People provides a cross-section of the state of the art, emphasizing the complete interactions between ceramic containers and people in past and present contexts. This is a milestone volume useful to anyone interested in the connections between pots and people.