Abstract:Drinking vessels provide information on changes in drinking practices, crafting, exchange patterns, rituals, and the creation of status differences in Chacoan society. They reveal a gradual sequence of change in vessel forms, followed by dramatic intensification of drinking activity in the AD 1000s that provided opportunities for differentiation among Chaco residents, particularly at Pueblo Bonito. Termination of the most iconic drinking vessel form, the cylinder vessel, and the rituals surrounding it around A… Show more
“…Our understanding of artefact density is based on materials from the two largest sites in the Chaco World—Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, and Aztec Ruins on the Animas River, 75km to the north. Pueblo Bonito’s Room 33 alone contained as much worked and unworked turquoise as recovered from any other site in the Southwest (Neitzel 2003), and nearby Room 28 held more whole pottery vessels than any other single Southwestern context (Crown 2018). More shell trumpets and macaws were recovered at Pueblo Bonito than at any contemporaneous Puebloan or non-Puebloan sites (Mills & Ferguson 2008; Watson et al .…”
Section: Extravagancementioning
confidence: 98%
“…They document several cases of polydactylism among individuals in the Chaco World, depicted in rock art, painted on pottery and shaped into stone and ceramic objects. A set of six-toed footprints was embedded in the plastered walls of Room 28 (one of two rooms that accessed Room 33), where a unique assemblage of cylinder jars was found, and which were used for ceremonial drinking before the room was ceremonially burned (Sturm & Crown 2015; Crown 2018).…”
“…Our understanding of artefact density is based on materials from the two largest sites in the Chaco World—Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, and Aztec Ruins on the Animas River, 75km to the north. Pueblo Bonito’s Room 33 alone contained as much worked and unworked turquoise as recovered from any other site in the Southwest (Neitzel 2003), and nearby Room 28 held more whole pottery vessels than any other single Southwestern context (Crown 2018). More shell trumpets and macaws were recovered at Pueblo Bonito than at any contemporaneous Puebloan or non-Puebloan sites (Mills & Ferguson 2008; Watson et al .…”
Section: Extravagancementioning
confidence: 98%
“…They document several cases of polydactylism among individuals in the Chaco World, depicted in rock art, painted on pottery and shaped into stone and ceramic objects. A set of six-toed footprints was embedded in the plastered walls of Room 28 (one of two rooms that accessed Room 33), where a unique assemblage of cylinder jars was found, and which were used for ceremonial drinking before the room was ceremonially burned (Sturm & Crown 2015; Crown 2018).…”
“…Many other studies add to a growing trend of archaeological research focused on how objects not only represent but also manifest social claims (Crown ; Davies ; Newman ; Wilkinson ). Such studies cast off earlier archaeological presumptions that suggest that material styles simply mark or correspond to political and cultural entities.…”
Section: Situated Learning Things and Assemblagesmentioning
Anthropological archaeology has long been a process of categorization. The history of the subdiscipline could be rendered in terms of an ongoing project to create, critique, and then refashion the categories by which archaeologists understand and explain social and ecological processes. Despite ever-changing theoretical tides, many archaeologists have continued to adhere to a lingua franca that demarcates their object of study, whether "the past," "nature," complexity, material culture, or historical knowledge. In 2018, strong currents in archaeological scholarship have both challenged and washed out the boundaries of many of these epistemological mainstays. This was more than a postmodern exercise to question metanarratives of history or to destabilize supposed social universals. The recent scholarship develops innovative theoretical perspectives and sophisticated methodological tools to shed light on the varied human interactions, practices, and projects that were previously occluded by research too sharply focused on bounded categories such as periods, polities, adaptations, and meanings. Furthermore, archaeologists are now more than ever critically examining the colonial institutions that they perpetuate and seeking to establish new common ground with Indigenous communities. A decidedly archaeological perspective seems to be taking shape.This is a view that sees social life from the ground up in terms of complicated relationships between people, things, and other organisms that cannot be reduced to catchall categories. [year in review, archaeology, archaeological theory, current issues, Indigenous archaeology, environmental anthropology] RESUMEN La arqueología antropológica ha sido durante mucho tiempo un proceso de categorización. La historia de la subdisciplina podría ser descrita en términos de un proyecto continuo de crear, criticar y luego rehacer las categorías a través de las cuales los arqueólogos entienden y explican los procesos sociales y ecológicos. A pesar de las mareas teóricas siempre cambiantes, muchos arqueólogos han continuado adhiriéndose a una lengua franca que demarca su objeto de estudio, ya sea "el pasado", "naturaleza", complejidad, cultura material o conocimiento histórico.En 2018, corrientes fuertes en la investigación arqueológica han tanto retado como difuminado los límites de muchos de los pilares epistemológicos. Esto fue más que un ejercicio posmoderno para cuestionar metanarrativas de la historia o para desestabilizar supuestos universales sociales. La reciente investigación desarrolla perspectivas teóricas innovadoras y herramientas metodológicas sofisticadas para arrojar luz sobre las variadas interacciones humanas, prácticas y proyectos que estuvieron previamente ocluidos por investigación excesivamente enfocada en categorías delimitadas tales como períodos, unidades políticas, adaptaciones y significados. Además, los arqueólogos ahora están más que nunca examinando críticamente las instituciones coloniales que perpetúan y buscando establecer un nuevo terreno común con las c...
“…New upper-storey Room 28b covered both lower Rooms 28 and 28a, and was fitted with two side-by-side T-shaped doorways. This unique configuration may have been important for ceremonial processions into the West Court (Crown 2018). A stairway framed inside masonry/mud walls was constructed from the West Court down to lower Room 28 (Judd 1954: 27), permitting individuals to enter and leave the now-underground set of rooms shown in Figure 8.Figure 9Configuration of north-central rooms after addition of a new wall on the northern side of the West Court.…”
Section: Origins: What Lies Beneathmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Similar fires destroyed the adjacent rooms along the northern arc of the West Court (Figure 9). These were probably part of termination or retirement rituals, which closed the rooms from further use and removed the power from objects accorded animacy as spiritual beings (Mills 2008: 103; Mills & Ferguson 2008; Crown 2018). It is possible that another depopulation prompted this termination at Pueblo Bonito.…”
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