Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Cultural Identity and the Archaeological Construction of Historical Narratives: An Example from Chaco Canyon

  • Published:
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Bonito Phase (ca. AD 850 to 1140) in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, is widely assumed by archeologists to reflect the growth and decline of a coherent sociopolitical entity, one of the classic examples of emergent social complexity among ancient indigenous North American populations ending in a societal collapse. This understanding of Chaco is based, in part, on the interpretation of temporal changes in material culture as intentional efforts to maintain cultural identity and continuity in the face of social disruption. In this study, I suggest that the Bonito Phase actually encompassed at least one major episode of cultural discontinuity, calling into question the perception of a distinct “Chaco society.” Instead, patterns of material production in Chaco point to multiple cultural identities linked to serial reoccupation of the canyon.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. A number of widely referenced works on Chaco great house architecture utilize schematic ground plans that simplify site architecture, especially angles and alignments, often creating the impression of rigid adherence to right angles and straight lines where skewed trapezoids actually describe buildings and rooms (e.g., Soafer 2007; Stein et al. 2007). If intentional wall alignments or angles represent cosmological meanings, then those meanings must have involved an avoidance of 90° angles.

  2. It is puzzling that tri-wall structures have been accorded great importance in cosmological reconstructions at great houses north of Chaco but essentially none in the canyon. Tri-walls are extremely distinctive, post-date AD 1100 and are clearly associated with architecturally dense settlements (see Vivian 1990).

  3. Even the famous “Great North Road” extending from Pueblo Alto is not exactly cardinal and has some interesting wriggles. Dating is unclear but likely to be in the AD 1100s. The northern terminus occurs near Angel Peak Ruin, a small McElmo-style structure. Since most specialists assume that much of the “road system” post-dates the peak of occupation in Chaco, any cosmological role for the roads came after this apex. This is the basis of the so-called time portal hypothesis in which some younger roads were connected to older great houses as a way of establishing a physical connection, or memory, to the past.

  4. These tree-ring data are drawn from a large database assembled by Thomas C. Windes over the course of several decades of herculean altruism (Windes and Ford 1996; Windes 2003). These data are available currently at the Chaco Digital Initiative website (www.chacoarchive.org) but Windes considers the database incomplete and not yet fully edited. Users are urged to treat these data and the subset used in this study as subject to potential change in the future.

  5. Wijiji is Classic-style but conventionally assigned a 1110 AD construction date based on a single unprovenienced tree-ring date. Thus, there is no reliable chronometric basis for assigning Wijiji to any specific time frame.

References

  • Adler, M. A. (2007). The architecture of pottery mound. In P. Schaafasma (Ed.), New perspectives on pottery mound pueblo (pp. 29–54). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Akins, Nancy (1984). Temporal Variation in Faunal Assemblages. In W. J. Judge and J. D. Schelberg (Eds.), Recent Research on Chaco prehistory (pp. 225–240). National Park Service, Albuquerque: Reports of the Chaco Center 8, Division of Cultural Research.

  • Akins, Nancy (1986). A biocultural approach to human burials from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. National Park Service, Washington, DC: Reports of the Chaco Center 9, Branch of Cultural Research.

  • Akins, N. J., & Schelberg, J. D. (1984). Evidence for organizational complexity as seen from the mortuary practices at Chaco Canyon. In W. J. Judge & J. D. Schelberg (Eds.), Recent research on Chaco prehistory reports of the Chaco center no. 8 (pp. 89–102). Albuquerque, NM: National park Service.

  • Beacham, E. B., & Durand, S. R. (2007). Eggshell and the archaeological record: New insights into Turkey husbandry in the American Southwest. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34, 1610–1621.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, M. E., & Hill, M. E. (2004). Rubbish, relatives, and residence: The family use of middens. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 11, 297–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, R. A., Bolender, D. J., Brown, J. D., & Earle, T. K. (2007). Eventful archaeology: The Place of space in structural transformation. Current Anthropology, 48, 833–860.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, C. (1992). Ritual theory, ritual practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benson, L. V., Stein, J. R., & Taylor, H. E. (2009). Possible sources of archaeological maize found in Chaco Canyon and Aztec Ruin, New Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Science, 36, 387–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernardini, W. (2008). Identity as history: Hopi clans and the curation of oral tradition. Journal of Anthropological Research, 64, 483–510.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, Z. (1971). Site Bc236, Chaco Canyon National Monument, New Mexico. Washington, DC: Division of Archaeology, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, National Park Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brand, D. D., Hawley, F. M., & Hibben, F. C. (1937). Tseh So, a small house ruins, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Bulletin 308.

  • Breternitz, C. D., & Doyel, D. E. (1987). Methodological issues for the identification of Chacoan community structure: Lessons from the Bis Sa’ani community study. American Archaeology, 6, 183–189.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, G. M., Thomas, C. W., & Peter, J. M. (2008). Animas anamnesis: Aztec ruins or Anasazi Capital? In P. F. Reed (Ed.), Chaco’s northern prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the ascendancy of the Middle San Juan Region after AD 1100 (pp. 231–250). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bustard, W. (1996). Space as place: small and great house organization in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico AD 1000-1150. Albuquerque: Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico.

  • Bustard, W. (2003). Pueblo Bonito: When a house is not a home. In J. E. Neitzel (Ed.), Pueblo Bonito: Center of the Chacoan world (pp. 80–93). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, C. (1998). Coursed adobe architecture, style and social boundaries in the American Southwest. In M. T. Stark (Ed.), The archaeology of social boundaries (pp. 183–207). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, C. (1999). Hopi dwellings: Architectural change at Orayvi. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, C. (2008). Comparing great house architecture: Perspectives from the Buff Great House. In P. F. Reed (Ed.), Chaco’s northern prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the ascendency of the Middle San Juan region after AD 1100 (pp. 251–273). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. (2004). Tracking cultural affiliation: Enculturation and ethnicity. In B. J. Mills (Ed.), Identity, feasting, and the archaeology of the greater Southwest (pp. 42–43). Boulder: University Press of Colorado.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coltrain, J. B., Janetski, J. C., & Carlyle, S. W. (2007). The stable- and radio-isotope chemistry of western basketmaker burials: Implications for early puebloan diets and origins. American Antiquity, 72, 301–321.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, L. (1995). Space syntax analysis of Chacoan great houses. Tucson: Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cordell, L. S., Judge, W. J. (2001). Perspectives on Chaco Society and Polity. In Linda S. Cordell and W. James Judge (Eds.), Chaco Society and Polity: Papers from the 1999 Conference (pp. 1-12). Albuquerque: New Mexico Archaeological Council Special Publication No. 4.

  • Cordell, L. S., Toll, H. W., Toll, M. S., & Windes, T. C. (2008). Archaeological corn for Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico: Dates, contexts, sources. American Antiquity, 73, 491–511.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crown, P. L. (1994). Ceramics and ideology: Salado polychrome pottery. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

  • Crown, P. L. (2001). Learning to make pottery in the Prehispanic Southwest. Journal of Anthropological Research, 57, 451–470.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crown, P. L. (2007). Life histories of pots and potters: Situating the individual in archaeology. American Antiquity, 72, 677–690.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crown, P. L., & Wills, W. H. (2003). Modifying pottery and kivas at Chaco: Pentimento, restoration, or renewal? American Antiquity, 68, 511–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dean, J. S., & Van West, C. (2002). Environment–behavior relationships in Southwestern Colorado. In M. D. Varien & R. H. WIlshusen (Eds.), Seeking the center place: Archaeology and ancient communities in the Mesa Verde Region (pp. 81–100). Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean, Jeffery S. and R. L. Warren (1983). Dendrochronology. In Steven H. Lekson (Ed.), The Architecture and dendrochronology of Chetro Ketl, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (pp. 104–240). National Park Service, Albuquerque, NM: Reports of the Chaco Center No. 6, Division of Cultural Research

  • Diamond, J. (2005). Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. New York: Viking.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dietler, M., & Hayden, B. (2001). Digesting the feast: Good to eat, good to think. In M. Dietler & B. Hayden (Eds.), Feasts: Archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics, and power (pp. 1–20). Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dietler, M., & Herbich, I. (1998). Habitus, techniques, style: An integrated approach to the social understanding of material culture and boundaries. In M. T. Stark (Ed.), The archaeology of social boundaries (pp. 232–263). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobres, M. A. (2000). Technology and social agency. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doyel, D. E. (1992). Exploring Chaco. In D. E. Doyel (Ed.), Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System (pp. 3–14). University of New Mexico, Albuquerque: Anthropological Papers No. 5, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.

  • Doyel, D., Breternitz, C. D., and Marshall, M. P. (1984). Chacoan Community Structure: Bis sa’ ani and the Chaco Halo. In W. J. Judge and J. D. Schelberg (Eds.), Recent research on Chaco prehistory (pp. 37–54). National Park Service, Albuquerque: Reports of the Chaco Center 1, Division of Cultural Research.

  • Driver, J. (2002). Faunal variation and change in the northern San Juan region. In M. D. Varien & R. H. Wilshusen (Eds.), Seeking the center place: Archaeology and ancient communities in the Mesa Verde region (pp. 143–162). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duff, A. (2002). Western pueblo identities: Regional interaction, migration, and transformation. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, W. N. (2005). Understanding veneration and violation in the archaeological record. In G. F. M. Rakita, J. E. Buikstra, L. A. Beck & S. R. Williams (Eds.), Interacting with the dead: Perspectives on mortuary archaeology for the new millennium (pp. 207–227). Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durand, S. R. (1992). Architectural change and Chaco prehistory. University of Washington: Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology.

  • Durand, S. R., and Durand, K. R. (2000). Notes from the edge: Settlement pattern changes at the Guadalupe Community. In J. Kantner and N. M. Mahoney (Eds.), Great house communities across the Chacoan landscape (pp. 101–110). Tucson: Anthropological Papers No. 64. University of Arizona Press.

  • Durand, K. R., & Durand, S. R. (2008). Animal bone from salmon ruins and other great houses: Faunal exploitation in the Chaco world. In P. F. Reed (Ed.), Chaco’s northern prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the ascendancy of the Middle San Juan region after AD 1100 (pp. 96–112). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dutton, B. P. (1937). Leyit Kin, a small house ruin, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. M.A. Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

  • Eighmy, J. L., and Sternberg, R. S. (Eds.) (1990). Archaeomagnetic dating. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.

  • Fagan, B. (2005). Chaco Canyon: Archaeologists explore the lives of an ancient society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Force, E. R., Vivian, R. G., Windes, T. C., & Dean, J. S. (2003). Relation of “Bonito” paleo-channels and base-level variations to Anasazi occupation, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Tucson: Arizona State Museum Archaeological Series 194.

  • Franklin, H. and Ford, D. (1982). Attribute analysis of Cibola and San Juan McElmo black-on-white ceramic types. In C. D. Breternitz, D. D. Doyel and M. P. Marshall (Eds.), Bis sa’ani: A late Bonito phase community on Escavada Wash, Northwest New Mexico Vol. 3 (pp. 935–954). Window Rock, Arizona: Navajo Nation Papers in Anthropology No. 14.

  • Fritz, J. (1978). Paleopsychology today: Ideational systems and human adaptation in prehistory. In C. L. Redman, M. J. Berman, E. V. Curtin, W. T. Lanhorne, N. M. Versaggi & J. C. Wanser (Eds.), Social archaeology: Beyond subsistence and dating (pp. 37–59). New York: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goody, J. (1971). The developmental cycle in domestic groups. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamann, B. (2002). The social life of pre-sunrise things: Indigenous Mesoamerican archaeology. Current Anthropology, 43, 351–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hastorf, C. A. (2003). Community with the ancestors: Ceremonies and social memory in the middle formative at Chiripa, Boliva. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 22, 305–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haury, E. (1958). Evidence at Point of Pines for a prehistoric migration from northern Arizona. In R. H. Thompson (Ed.), Migrations in new world culture history (pp. 1–6). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawley, F. (1934). The significance of the dated prehistory of Chetro Ketl, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Bulletin, Monograph Series 1(1).

  • Hayden, B. (2001). Fabulous feasts: A prolegomenon to the importance of feasting. In M. Dietler & B. Hayden (Eds.), Feasts: Archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics and power (pp. 23–64). Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press.

  • Hayden, B., & Cannon, A. (1983). Where the garbage goes: Refuse disposal in the Maya Highlands. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2, 117–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hegmon, M., Ortman, S. G., & Mobley-Tanaka, J. L. (2000). Women, men and the organization of space. In P. L. Crown (Ed.), Women & men in the Prehispanic Southwest: Labor, power and prestige (pp. 43–90). Santa Fe: School of American Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hewett, E. L. (1936). The Chaco Canyon and its monuments. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobsbawm, E., & Ranger, T. (1983). The invention of tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horne, L. (1993). Occupational and locational instability in arid land settlements. In C. Cameron & S. A. Tomka (Eds.), Abandonment of settlements and regions: Ethnoarchaeological and archaeological approaches (pp. 43–53). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Irwin-Williams, C. and Shelley, P. (Eds.) (1980). Investigations at the Salmon Site: The structure of Chacoan society in the Northern Southwest. Portales, NM: Eastern New Mexico University

  • Joyce, R. A. (2007). Comment. Current Anthropology, 48, 849–850.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judd, N. M. (1925). Everyday life in Pueblo Bonito. National Geographic Magazine 48, 22–262.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judd, N. M. (1954). The material culture of Pueblo Bonito. Smithsonian miscellaneous collections (Vol. 124). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judd, N. M. (1959). Pueblo del Arroyo, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections Vol. 138(1). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judd, N. M. (1964). The architecture of Pueblo Bonito. Smithsonian miscellaneous collections (Vol. 147). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judge, W. J. (1989). Chaco Canyon—San Juan Basin. In L. S. Cordell & G. J. Gumerman (Eds.), Dynamics of southwest prehistory (pp. 209–262). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judge, W. J. (2004). Chaco’s golden century. In D. G. Noble (Ed.), In search of Chaco: New approaches to an archaeological enigma (pp. 1–6). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judge, W. J., & Cordell, L. S. (2006). Society and polity. In S. H. Lekson (Ed.), The archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An eleventh-century pueblo regional center (pp. 189–210). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

  • Kantner, J. (2003). Rethinking Chaco as a system. Kiva, 69, 207–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kantner, J., & Kintigh, K. W. (2006). The Chaco world. In S. H. Lekson (Ed.), The archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An eleventh-century pueblo regional center (pp. 153–188). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kantner, J. and N. M. Mahoney (2001). Great House Communities and the Chacoan Landscape (pp. 17-27). Tucson: Anthropological Papers No. 64. University of Arizona Press.

  • Kluckhohn, C. and Paul Reiter (1939). Preliminary report on the 1937 excavations: BC 50–51, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Bulletin 345.

  • Kohl, P. L. (2008). Shared social fields: Evolutionary convergence in prehistory and contemporary practice. American Anthropologist, 110, 495–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohler, T. A., & Turner, K. K. (2008). Raiding for women in the Prehispanic Northern Southwest? A pilot examination. Current Anthropology, 47, 1035–1045.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuijt, I. (2008). The regeneration of life: Neolithic structures of symbolic remembering and forgetting. Current Anthropology, 49, 171–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lechtman, H. (1977). Style in technology: Some early thoughts. In H. Lechtman & R. S. Merrill (Eds.), Material culture: Styles, organization, and dynamics of technology (pp. 3–20). St. Paul, MN: American Ethnological Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lekson, S. H. (1984). Great Pueblo architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. National Park Service, Albuquerque: Publications in Archaeology 18B, Chaco Canyon Studies.

  • Lekson, S. H. (1999). The Chaco meridian: Centers of political power in the ancient Southwest. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lekson, S. H. (2006). Chaco matters: An introduction. In S. Lekson (Ed.), The archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An eleventh-century Pueblo regional center (pp. 3–44). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lekson, S. H. (2007). Great house form. In S. Lekson (Ed.), The architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (pp. 7–44). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lekson, S. H., & Cameron, C. M. (1995). The Abandonment of Chaco Canyon, the Mesa Verde Migrations, and the reorganization of the Pueblo world. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 14, 184–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lekson, S. H., Windes, T. C., Stein, J. R., & Judge, W. J. (1988). The Chaco Canyon community. Scientific American, 256, 100–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lekson, S. H., McKenna, P. J., & Windes, T. C. (2006). Architecture. In S. Lekson (Ed.), The archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An eleventh-century pueblo regional center (pp. 67–116). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lightfoot, K. G., Martinez, A., & Schiff, A. M. (1998). Daily practice and material culture in pluralistic social settings: An archaeological study of culture change and persistence at Fort Ross, California. American Antiquity, 63, 199–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lister, R. H., & Lister, F. C. (1981). Chaco Canyon: Archaeology and archaeologists. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahoney, N. M. (2000). Defining the Scale of Chacoan Communities. In J. Kantner and N. M. Mahoney (Eds.), Great house communities across the Chacoan landscape (pp. 19-27). Tucson, Arizona: Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona No. 64.

  • Marinakis, Y. (1995). Attenuation of effects of climate change in a prehistoric human population. Albuquerque: Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico

  • Marshall, M. P. (1997). The Chacoan roads—a cosmological interpretation. In B. H. Morrow & V. B. Price (Eds.), Anasazi architecture and American design (pp. 62–74). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. L., Akins, N. J., Crenshaw, B. J., & Stone, P. K. (2008). Inscribed in the body, written in the bones: The consequences of social violence at La Plata. In D. L. Nichols & P. L. Crown (Eds.), Social violence in the prehispanic American Southwest (pp. 98–122). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

  • Martin, D. L., Akins, N. J., Goodman, A. H., Toll, H. W. and Swedlun, A. C. (2001). Totah: Time and the rivers flowing. Vol. 5: Harmony and discord: Bioarchaeology. Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe: Notes 242, Office of Archaeological Studies.

  • Mathien, F. J., & Windes, T. C. (1986). Historic structure report: Kin Nahasbas Ruin, Chaco Culture National Historic Park. National Park Service, Santa Fe: Branch of Cultural Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKenna, P. J. (1984). The architecture and material culture of 29SJ1360. National Park Service, Albuquerque: Reports of the Chaco Center, No. 7. Division of Cultural Research.

  • McKenna, P. J. and Truell, M. T. (1986). Small site architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. National Park Service, Santa Fe: Publications in Archeology 18-D. Chaco Canyon Studies.

  • Meyer, D. A. (1999). Masonry and Social Variability in the Chaco System. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary.

  • Mills, B. J. (2002). Recent research on Chaco: Changing views on economy, ritual, and society. Journal of Archaeological Research, 10, 65–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills, B. J. (2004). The establishment and defeat of hierarchy: Inalienable possessions and the history of collective prestige structures in the Prehispanic Southwest. American Anthropologist, 106, 238–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills, B. J. (2007). Performing the feast: Visual display and suprahousehold commensalim in the Puebloan Southwest. American Antiquity, 72, 210–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills, B. J. and Ferguson, T. J. (1988). Wood reuse in puebloan architecture: Evidence from historic zuni architecture. Phoenix, Arizona: Papers presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

  • Mills, B. J., Goetze, C. E., & Zendeño, M. N. (1993). Interpretation of ceramic artifacts. Across the Colorado Plateau: Anthropological studies for the Transwestern Pipeline Expansion Project (Vol. XVI). Albuquerque: Office of Contract Archaeology, University of New Mexico.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minar, J., & Crown, P. L. (2001). Learning and craft production: An introduction. Journal of Anthropological Research, 57, 369–380.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortner, S. B. (1984). Sherpas through their rituals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Panofsky, E. (1951). Gothic architecture and scholasticism. Latrobe, Pennsylvania: Archabbey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pauketat, T. (2000). The tragedy of the commoners. In M. A. Dobres & J. E. Robb (Eds.), Agency in archaeology (pp. 113–129). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pepper, G. H. (1909). The exploration of a burial-room in Pueblo Bonito, New Mexico. In Anthropological essays presented to Frederic Ward Putnam in honor of his seventieth birthday, April 16, 1909 (pp. 196–252), Cambridge MA: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University

  • Potter, J., & Chuipka, J. (2007). Early pueblo communities and cultural diversity in the Durango area: Preliminary results from the Animas-La Plata Project. Kiva, 72, 407–430.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed, P. F. (ed.) (2006). Thirty-five years of archaelogical research at Salmon Ruins, New Mexico. Tucson, AZ: Center for Desert Archaeology.

  • Reed, L. (2008a). Ceramics of the Middle San Juan region: Potters, recipes, and varieties. In P. F. Reed (Ed.), Chaco’s northern prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the ascendancy of the Middle San Juan region after AD 1100 (pp. 42–64). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed, P. F. (2008b). Prodigy, rebel, or stepchild? The Middle San Juan Region vis-`a-vis Chaco Canyon. In P. F. Reed (Ed.), Chaco’s northern prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the ascendancy of the Middle San Juan region after AD 1100 (pp. 379–388). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riggs, C. R. (2007). Architecture and Identity at Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona. Journal of Anthropological Research, 63, 489–514.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, F. H. H. (1991[1927]). The ceramic sequence in the Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, and its relation to the cultures of the San Juan Basin. New York: Garland.

  • Robinson, W. J., Harrill, B. G., & Warren, R. L. (1974). Tree-ring dates from New Mexico B: Chaco-Gobernador Area. University of Arizona, Tucson: Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothschild, N. A., Mills, B. J., Ferguson, T. J., & Dublin, S. (1993). Abandonment at Zuni farming villages. In C. Cameron & S. A. Tomka (Eds.), Abandonment of settlements and regions: Ethnoarchaeological and archaeological approaches (pp. 123–137). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sackett, J. R. (1990). Style and ethnicity in archaeology: The case for isochrestism. In M. Conkey & C. Hastdorf (Eds.), Uses of style in archaeology (pp. 32–43). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sassaman, K. E. (2007). Comment. Current Anthropology, 48, 850–851.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sassaman, K. E., & Rudolphi, W. (2001). Communities of practice in the early pottery traditions of the American Southeast. Journal of Anthropological Research, 57, 40–425.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schillaci, M. A. (2003). The development of matrilocality in Chacoan culture. American Antiquity, 67, 343–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sebastian, L. (1991). Sociopolitical complexity and the Chaco system. In P. L. Crown & W. J. Judge (Eds.), Chaco and Hohokam: Prehistoric regional systems in the American Southwest (pp. 109–134). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebastian, L. (1992). The Chaco Anasazi: Sociopolitical evolution in the prehistoric Southwest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebastian, L. (2006). The Chaco synthesis. In S. Lekson (Ed.), The archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An eleventh-century regional center (pp. 393–420). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soafer, A. (2007). The primary architecture of the Chacoan culture: A cosmological expression. In S. Lekson (Ed.), The architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (pp. 225–245). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stark, M. T., Elson, M. D., & Clark, J. J. (1998). Social boundaries and technical choices in Tonto Basin prehistory. In M. Stark (Ed.), The archaeology of social boundaries (pp. 208–231). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein, J. R., & Lekson, S. (1992). Anasazi Ritual Landscapes. In D. Doyel (Ed.), Anasazi regional organization and the Chaco system. Anthropological papers no. 5 of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology (pp. 87–100). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein, J. R., & McKenna, P. J. (1998). An archaeological reconnaissance of a late Bonito phase occupation near Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico. National Park Service, Santa Fe: Southwest Cultural Resources Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein, J., Friedman, R., Blackhorse, T., & Loose, R. (2007). Revisiting downtown Chaco. In S. Lekson (Ed.), The architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (pp. 199–224). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tainter, J. A. (1988). The collapse of complex societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toll, H. W. (1985). Pottery, production, public architecture, and the Chaco Anasazi system. Boulder: Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado.

  • Toll, H. W. (1990). A reassessment of Chaco cylinder jars. In M. Duran and D. Kirkpatrick (Eds.), Clues to the past: Papers in Honor of William Sundt (pp. 273–305). Albuquerque: Archaeological Society of New Mexico Papers No. 16.

  • Toll, H. W. (2001). Making and breaking pots in the Chaco world. American Antiquity, 66, 56–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toll, H. W. (2008). The La Plata, the Totah, and the Chaco: Variations of a theme. In P. F. Reed (Ed.), Chaco’s northern prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the ascendancy of the Middle San Juan region after AD 1100 (pp. 309–333). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toll, H. W., and McKenna, P. J. (1997). Chaco ceramics. In F. J. Mathien (Ed.), Ceramics, lithics, and ornaments of Chaco Canyon, analyses of artifacts from the Chaco Project, 1976–1978, Vol. 1 (pp. 17–530). National Park Service, Santa Fe: Publications in Archeology 18G, Chaco Canyon Studies.

  • Toll, H. W., Thomas C. Windes, and Peter J. McKenna (1980). Late ceramic patterns in Chaco Canyon: The pragmatics of modeling ceramic exchange. In R. E. Fry (Ed.), Models and methods in regional exchange (pp. 95–118). Washington, DC: Society for American Archaeology Papers No. 1

  • Toll, H. Wolcott, Marcia T. Newren, and Peter J. McKenna (2005). Always there, often overlooked: The roles and significance of small house sites in Chaco Canyon. Salt Lake City: Paper presented at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting.

  • Van Dyke, R. (2004). Memory, meaning and masonry: The late Bonito Chacoan landscape. American Antiquity, 69, 413–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Dyke, R. (2007). The Chaco experience: Landscape and ideology at the center place. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Dyke, R. M. (2008). Sacred landscapes: The Chaco-Totah connection. In P. F. Reed (Ed.), Chaco’s northern prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the ascendancy of the Middle San Juan Region after AD 1100 (pp. 334–350). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

  • Varien, M. D. (2007). Analytic criteria for pottery types. www.crowcanyon.org/ResearchReports.

  • Vivian, R. G. (1970).An Inquiry into Prehistoric Social Organization in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. In W. Longacre (Ed.), Reconstructing prehistoric pueblo societies (pp. 59–83). School of American Research and University of New Mexico Press.

  • Vivian, R. G. (1990). The Chacoan prehistory of the San Juan Basin. San Diego: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vivian, R. G. (2005). Chaco phenomenon on the southern periphery. In E. K. Huber & C. Van West (Eds.), Fence lake project: Archaeological data recovery in the New Mexico transportation corridor and first five-year permit area, fence lake coal mine project, Catron County, New Mexico (pp. 40.1–40.23). Tempe, AZ: Technical Series 84, Statistical Research, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vivian, R. G. (2008). The Middle San Juan and Chaco Canyon. In P. F. Reed (Ed.), Chaco’s northern prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the ascendancy of the Middle San Juan Region after AD 1100 (pp. 366–378). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vivian, G. and Mathews, T. W. (1964). Kin Kletso: A Pueblo III Community in Chaco Canyon. New Mexico. Arizona: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association Technical Series Vol. 6, Part 1. Globe.

  • Vivian, R. G., Van West, C., Dean, J. S., Akins, N., Toll, M., & Windes, T. C. (2005). Chacoan ecology and economy. In S. Lekson (Ed.), The archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An eleventh-century pueblo regional center (pp. 429–457). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, W. H. (2008). Witches, practice, and the context of pueblo cannibalism. In D. Nichols & P. L. Crown (Eds.), Social violence in the Prehispanic American Southwest (pp. 143–182). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, L. D. (2008). An initial assessment of perishable relationships among Salmon, Aztec, and Chaco Canyon. In P. F. Reed (Ed.), Chaco’s northern prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the ascendancy of the Middle San Juan Region after AD 1100 (pp. 167–189). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

  • Wells, P. S. (1998). Identity and material culture in the later prehistory of Central Europe. Journal of Archaeological Research, 6, 239–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox, D. (1996). Comments. www.colorado.edu/Conferences/chaco/chroncom.html.

  • Wills, W. H. (2000). Political leadership and the construction of Chacoan great houses, A.D. 1020–1140. In B. Mills (Ed.), Alternative leadership strategies in the Prehispanic Southwest (pp. 19–44). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wills, W. H. (2001). Ritual and mound formation during the Bonito Phase in Chaco Canyon. American Antiquity, 66, 433–452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wills, W. H., & Crown, P. L. (2004). Commensal politics in the Prehispanic Southwest: An introductory review. In B. J. Mills (Ed.), Identity, feasting, and the archaeology of the greater southwest (pp. 153–172). Boulder: University Press of Colorado.

    Google Scholar 

  • Windes, T. C. (1985). Chaco-McElmo Black-on-White from Chaco Canyon with an emphasis on the Pueblo del Arroyo collection. In N. L. Fox (Ed.), Prehistory and history in the southwest, papers of the archaeological society of New Mexico No. 11 (pp. 19–42). Santa Fe: Ancient City Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Windes, T. C. (1987a). Investigations at the Pueblo Alto Complex, Chaco Canyon, Volume I. Summary of Tests and Excavations at the Pueblo Alto Community. National Park Service, Santa Fe: Publications in Archeology 18F, Chaco Canyon Studies.

  • Windes, T. C. (1987b). Investigations at the Pueblo Alto Complex, Chaco Canyon, Volume II. Summary of tests and excavations at the Pueblo Alto Community, Publications in Archeology 18F, Chaco Canyon Studies, National Park Service, Santa Fe.

  • Windes, T. C. (2003). This old house: Construction and abandonment at Pueblo Bonito. In J. E. Neitzel (Ed.), Pueblo Bonito: Center of the Chacoan World (pp. 14–32). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Windes, T. C., & Ford, D. (1996). The Chaco Wood Project: The chronometric reappraisal of Pueblo Bonito. American Antiquity, 66, 119–140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Windes, T. C., & McKenna, P. J. (2001). Going against the grain: Wood production in Chacoan society. American Antiquity, 61, 295–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful to the journal editors for their support and encouragement and to the manuscript reviewers for insightful and constructive criticism. Thanks also to Jeff Clark, Patty Crown, Steve Durand, Sarah Herr, and Rich Wilshusen for reading and commenting on the paper as it progressed through stages. Tom Windes and Gwinn Vivian have been extremely influential in my thinking about the “McElmo Problem” and I hope I have not done too much damage to their original work. Much of the stimulus for addressing the migration issue at Chaco comes from Patty Crown and I would not have completed this without her low tolerance for waffling.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 87131, NM, USA

    W. H. Wills

Authors
  1. W. H. Wills
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to W. H. Wills.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wills, W.H. Cultural Identity and the Archaeological Construction of Historical Narratives: An Example from Chaco Canyon. J Archaeol Method Theory 16, 283–319 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-009-9064-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-009-9064-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation