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Title: Anasazi America: 17 Centuries on the Road from Center Place by David E. Stuart ISBN: 0-8263-2179-8 Publisher: University of New Mexico Press Pub. Date: July, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fantastic review by Michael Adler in "SCIENCE" magazine
Comment: "[David Stuart's]characterization of an emerging Chacoan elite is convincingly argued. These debates are far from over, but Stuart's contributions reach out with commendable clarity, backed by well-researched discussions of archaeological evidence and impressive endnotes. Perhaps the book's greatest contribution is a well-crafted dialogue that unites archaeology with our present world. ANASAZI AMERICA contrasts community conflit one thousand years ago with the bloodshed in Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland, making links that bring the Native American past into a tumultuous yet understandable present. Stuart relates the painful circumstances of high infant mortality among the ancestral Pueblo peoples to similarly devastating conditions in less economically developed parts of our own world. Stuart's depiction of the Chaco system as a failed experiment in power politics and overspecialized agricultural startegies is both compelling and correct. From a dry and dusty archaeology, Stuart crafts an understandable story that is depicted in a thought-provoking and contemporary context."--Michael Adler, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX. (c)2000 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Rating: 5
Summary: Parallels of Two Worlds - Past and Present!
Comment: For decades, anthropologists and archaeologists alike have expressed their concerns to the government about the parallels of past civilizations and their downfalls to modern America - usually to no avail. However, a book has finally been written that combines archaeological and anthropological data with modern statistics to show the world how close we really are to self-destruction.
Stuart takes his reader into the world of the Chacoan Anasazi and walks us through their powerful rise and fall in prehistoric New Mexico 1000 years ago. He then parallels the stark reality of modern America problems with the Chacoan Anasazi and how we are closely following in their footsteps. Stuart goes on to show how efficient societies (modern Puebloans) will likely survive through economical collapse and how the rest of us with our gadgets and money may never make it through that collapse.
Anasazi America is a must read for Americans who truly care for their children's future. Anasazi American should be required reading in any Intro Anthropology/Archaeology class and definitely a must for economic classes.
Rating: 5
Summary: Applied archaeology
Comment: Impressive. The implications of Professor Stuart's analysis of the Chaco Canyon and later Pueblo cultures in Anasazi America blows one away. Certainly some of the social data from our own culture and time period, which he uses for comparison, are scary! The book has a very interesting concept, namely that we can apply what we know of modern economics to the ancient world and what we discover of economic outcomes in the ancient world to our own. While I'm none too certain this is a valid premise, it certainly made for interesting reading! I am by no means an expert in prehistoric Southwestern America, but I have done some reading on the subject, and I can't recall when I've read a volume that made so much sense of the mystery of the collapse of ancient indigenous culture
Unlike many students of ancient history and culture, this author does not stop with a simple description of the data or the sequence of events. He extrapolates principles relevant to all cultures, including our own. Most authors on the American Southwest make much of the climate changes which made life in the area nearly impossible; Stuart's analysis of this data and of the timing of the furious building activity that occurred toward the end of the phase uses economic principals and modern sociology. This technique makes the period come alive. Stuart points out that all human behavior is motivated, and motivated not just by basic biological needs but by social and cultural needs and expectations as well. Stuart uses evidence of violence, even of possible cannibalism that occurred as a climax to the period to understand the implications of decline, violence and collapse on the evolution or extinction of a society. He also applies what he discovers of human behavior in this setting to what he sees as occurring in our own culture. As middle and lower socio-economic classes feel more and more disenfranchised, modern society is facing a possible withdrawal from its principles and leadership.
Some of Stuart's summary of the succession of cultures in New Mexico and the Four Corner's region are arguably speculative. The assumptions he makes about why people did things-like move away from their homes and property-so long as they relate to such factors as climate, infant and maternal mortality rates, nutrition and malnutrition, etc. seem quite sound. When it comes to less quantifiable issues-like personal values, the sense of community among society's constituency, religious intent, etc,-his observations, while certainly very credible, are also not testable.
With these caveats in mind, the reader will discover through this discourse that our own lifestyle as it is currently practiced, may not be indefinitely sustainable. The US might well be facing a cultural disintegration not unlike that of the Anasazi. If the social statistics in the author's final analysis are correct, and they certainly seem reliable to me, the effects of our rather profligate style of consumerism are already producing negative outcomes for a significant portion of the US population. We may share more in common with the ancient Anasazi than we realize. We may evolve into a more sustainable society as the Pueblo people did, or we may go extinct as the Anasazi people did.
As the author points out in his introduction, the book arose as the result of a very favorably received classroom style that stressed the relationship between economics and social cohesion, using archeology as the medium of introduction. In doing so the professor made his specialty relevant to the lives of his students in a way that inspired them. It inspired me too. Unmentioned by the author is the fact that much of our culture is shared by the world, and while the third world may not be politically incorporated into the US or into the privileged portion of the world, it is definitely part of the globalized culture that has arisen as a result of more rapid communication and transportation. It is not inconceivable that the collapse that Stuart envisions for the US cultural milieu might actually extend to the world. It gives one pause to think.
This book could and probably should be included in the reading lists of courses in economics, cultural anthropology, history, sociology, and political science. It might be useful in high school classes that include any or all of these topics. FOR THOSE WRITING PAPERS: this book shows an intersting use of history, anthropology and archaeology as applied to modern day problems. One might find it profitable to: 1) contest the author's conclusions with your own ideas or with quotes from other authors, 2) agree with his conclusions and say why in your own experience you believe what he says, 3) compair his assumptions with someone more versed specifically in economics or sociology than the author is, 4) check his sources to see if you can find errors in his data or in his use of it or to suggest a different interpretation of the date or a different use of it , 5) write a paper on whether or not you believe that it is valid to use anthropological or historical data in this way.
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Title: The Chaco Handbook: An Encyclopedic Guide (Chaco Canyon Series) by R. Gwinn Vivian, Bruce Hilpert, R. Gwiin Vivian ISBN: 0874807050 Publisher: Univ of Utah Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Four Corners : History, Land, and People of the Desert Southwest by Kenneth A. Brown ISBN: 0060927593 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 06 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Hiking Ruins Seldom Seen by Dave Wilson ISBN: 1560448342 Publisher: Falcon Pub. Date: 01 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: People of Chaco: A Canyon and Its Culture by Kendrick Frazier ISBN: 0393318257 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest by Stephen H. Lekson ISBN: 0761991816 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (non NBN) Pub. Date: 24 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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