Mesoamerican Antecedents of Sikyatki-Style Geometric Patterns on Textiles Depicted in Murals from the American Southwest

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy K. Washburn

This paper uses plane pattern symmetries to describe the structural arrangement of motifs in Sikyatki-style patterns on textiles depicted in fourteenth and fifteenth century AD kiva murals from Awat'ovi and Kawaika'a in Arizona and Pottery Mound in New Mexico. The analysis reveals that these textiles have pattern structures in common with designs on textiles, ceramic artifacts, and architectural decorations in the Postclassic Mixteca-Puebla style. These shared patterns and pattern structures were introduced into the American Southwest woven on fabric structures of textiles brought north from Mesoamerica via trade and migration routes along the Mexican West Coast and through the Sierra Madre.

Author(s):  
Catherine M. Cameron ◽  
Scott G. Ortman

Movement is a fundamental concept among Native peoples of the American Southwest, and early archaeologists adopted a strong interest in migration from Native groups with whom they interacted. Over the past two decades, southwest archaeologists have made significant contributions to method and theory in migration studies, including ways of identifying migrants as they move across the landscape, the ways in which migrants interact with Indigenous residents, and the size of migrating groups. Study has focused especially on the vast thirteenth- through fifteenth-century population movements that resulted in dramatic changes in population distribution, particularly in the northern Southwest. The passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) initiated a re-engagement with contemporary Native peoples that has transformed perspectives on the relative importance of movement (and sedentism) and has produced new understandings of how social identity was constructed in the ancient Southwest.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Credo ◽  
Jaclyn Torkelson ◽  
Tommy Rock ◽  
Jani C. Ingram

The geologic profile of the western United States lends itself to naturally elevated levels of arsenic and uranium in groundwater and can be exacerbated by mining enterprises. The Navajo Nation, located in the American Southwest, is the largest contiguous Native American Nation and has over a 100-year legacy of hard rock mining. This study has two objectives, quantify the arsenic and uranium concentrations in water systems in the Arizona and Utah side of the Navajo Nation compared to the New Mexico side and to determine if there are other elements of concern. Between 2014 and 2017, 294 water samples were collected across the Arizona and Utah side of the Navajo Nation and analyzed for 21 elements. Of these, 14 elements had at least one instance of a concentration greater than a national regulatory limit, and six of these (V, Ca, As, Mn, Li, and U) had the highest incidence of exceedances and were of concern to various communities on the Navajo Nation. Our findings are similar to other studies conducted in Arizona and on the Navajo Nation and demonstrate that other elements may be a concern for public health beyond arsenic and uranium.


The Auk ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott F Lovell ◽  
M Ross Lein ◽  
Sean M Rogers

Abstract Eastern (Vireo gilvus gilvus) and western (V. g. swainsoni) forms of the Warbling Vireo have essentially allopatric breeding ranges across north-central North America, but come into contact in central Alberta, Canada. In 1986, Jon Barlow presented preliminary morphological and song evidence suggesting that the Warbling Vireo complex might comprise more than one valid species. However, to date, Barlow’s suggestion is supported by only limited DNA evidence, demonstration of molt and migration differences between the taxa, and anecdotal accounts of differences in song, morphology, plumage, and ecology. We analyzed variation in both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA in birds from Alberta and surrounding areas to determine the levels of genetic differentiation and hybridization occurring in the contact zone, and whether the two taxa warrant recognition as separate biological species. Our analyses reveal that Warbling Vireos in Alberta and the surrounding areas are separated into two well-defined, genetically differentiated, and monophyletic clades corresponding to previously recognized taxonomic groups. The two taxa come into contact in a narrow (~85 km) zone in Barrhead County, northwest of Edmonton, Alberta. They show evidence of limited hybridization. The distinct genetic differences are maintained in the contact zone, where individuals of the two taxa may occupy neighboring territories. Differences in spring arrival dates, molt schedules, and migration routes indicate that a migratory divide may play an important role in reproductive isolation. We suggest that the two taxa are distinct cryptic species: an eastern form, Vireo gilvus, and a western form, Vireo swainsoni.


2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 397-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Sunday Eiselt ◽  
J. Andrew Darling ◽  
Samuel Duwe ◽  
Mark Willis ◽  
Chester Walker ◽  
...  

Previous research on agriculture in the American Southwest focuses overwhelmingly on archaeological survey methods to discern surface agricultural features, which, in combination with climatological, geological, and geographical variables, are used to create models about agricultural productivity in the past. However, with few exceptions, the role of floodplain irrigation and floodwater farming in ancestral Pueblo agriculture is generally downplayed in scholarly discourse. Using a variety of methods, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), satellite imagery, pedestrian survey, and supervised classification of remotely sensed imagery, we examine this issue through a consideration of how ancestral Ohkay Owingeh (Tewa) people solved the challenges of arid land farming in the lower Rio Chama watershed of New Mexico during the Classic period (A.D. 1350–1598). Based on acreage estimates, our results indicate that runoff and rainwater fields in terrace environments would have been insufficient to supply the nutritional needs of an ancestral Tewa population exceeding 10,000 individuals. Based on these observations, we present a case for the substantial role of subsistence agriculture in the floodplain of the Rio Chama and its associated tributaries.


2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Piwowarczyk

Abstract Orobanche coerulescens has a Eurasian distribution. The species is classified as extinct at most of its localities at the western limit of its range. Its populations are very scarce and critically endangered in Central Europe. This work presents the current distribution of O.coerulescens in Poland, based on a critical revision of herbarium and literature data as well as results of original field research, and reviews its distribution in Central Europe (partly in Eastern Europe). Habitats, plant communities, and migration routes of O.coerulescens in Central Europe are discussed. The species was initially known in Poland from now historical localities in Pomerania and the valley of the lower Vistula. In 2000-2011 it was recorded at 9 localities in Podlasie, the Małopolska Upland (Wyżyna Małopolska), and the Łódź Hills (Wzniesienia Łódzkie). Its abundance at the localities ranged from a few to over 1000 shoots. These are the largest populations of O.coerulescens at its western and north-western range limits.


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-280
Author(s):  
William S Kiser

Abstract This article explores the continuities of forced labor in the Southwest, where peonage and the partido system lasted for more than a century after the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery, and places it within the broader context of modern global slavery. Debt peonage and peasant sharecropping—known locally as the partido—are usually classified as two different forms of unfree labor, but in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Southwest they had much in common and were oftentimes mutually reinforcing. Through the legal and cultural intricacies of the partido system, thousands of landless Hispanos in the northern half of New Mexico and southern reaches of Colorado worked full-time in exchange for a small share of the annual wool harvest. Many of those same men became debt-bound to the tiny percentage of wealthy families who owned the sheep herds and grazing ranges. Through these means, partidarios (sheep renters) lost much if not all of their autonomy and became, to varying degrees depending on the disposition of their creditor and benefactor, debt peons.


1995 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian S. Shaffer ◽  
Christopher P. Schick

Prehistoric horticulturalists of the American Southwest relied on crop complexes for much of their vegetal diet, but also relied heavily on hunting and trapping. Permanent settlement by the Mogollon resulted in resource depression of larger animal taxa (primarily artiodactyls) in some areas that could not withstand sustained human predation. This resulted in the predation of smaller animals (primarily jackrabbits, cottontail rabbits, and rodents) that could withstand intensive predation. The extent to which small animal taxa were incorporated into the prehistoric food regime is closely tied to the inability of the site catchment environments to support viable populations of larger taxa capable of withstanding human predation. This scenario is exemplified by five Mogollon sites from western and southwestern New Mexico.


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