Decolonizing the curriculum in the American Southwest: the role of education in the maintenance of the colonial hierarchy

2021 ◽  
pp. 130-147
Author(s):  
Alexis Álvarez ◽  
Rebecca Álvarez
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF PROTO-TEWA SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE: MAKING THE CASE FOR FLOODPLAIN FARMING IN THE OHKAY OWINGEH HOMELAND, NEW MEXICO

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 397-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Sunday Eiselt ◽  
J. Andrew Darling ◽  
Samuel Duwe ◽  
Mark Willis ◽  
Chester Walker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Subsistence Agriculture ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Rio Chama ◽  
Land Farming ◽  
Scholarly Discourse

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.

Pots, Parties, and Politics: Communal Feasting in the American Southwest

2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Potter
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Political Resource

Communal feasting is evaluated as a political resource in the northern Southwest from A.D. 850 to present along three axes: scale of participation and finance, frequency and structure of occurrence, and the resources used. Feasting is a recurrent social practice that has consistently facilitated social integration within Southwest communities, but has shown considerable variation through time. Prior to about A.D. 1275 communal feasting appears to have been more of a source of differentiation within communities than it was after this date, when feasting became truly communal and integrative, as it is today within Puebloan communities. At the same time, feasting also became inter-communal in scale and apparently played a role in the ritual differentiation of individual communities within larger clusters. It is suggested that these changes in the role of feasting had little to do with ecological or environmental variables, but instead reflect the pervasive cultural, social, and religious changes that occurred at this time throughout the Southwest.

Population Aggregation in the Prehistoric North American Southwest

1996 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 597-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy A. Kohler ◽  
Lynne Sebastian
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
North American ◽  
Demographic Factors ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Mesa Verde ◽  
Ancestral Puebloan ◽  
Population Aggregation ◽  
North American Southwest

We attempt to clarify the role of demographic factors (size, density, history, and trajectory) in aggregation in the ancestral Puebloan Southwest, which we found obscure in Leonard and Reed (1993). In addition, we question one of the case studies from Chaco Canyon that they used to support their model, and we suggest that data from the Mesa Verde region between A.D. 700 and 1300 argue against the generality of their explanation for aggregation.

scholarly journals The Role of the Anthropologist in the Identification of Migrant Remains in the American Southwest

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 432-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce E. Anderson ◽  
M. Kate Spradley
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest

Conceptual Metaphor in the Archaeological Record: Methods and an Example from the American Southwest

2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 613-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott G. Ortman
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Textile Fabrics ◽  
Archaeological Cultures ◽  
Preliminary Application ◽  
Psychological Experiments

This paper attempts to unify recent theorizing on cultural meaning in material culture using the notion of conceptual metaphor. Research in several disciplines suggests that conventional metaphorical concepts are central to cultural cognition. Ethnographic studies and psychological experiments indicate that conceptual metaphors are expressed in numerous forms of human expression, including speech, ritual, narrative, and material culture. Generalizations on the nature and structure of metaphor emerging from cognitive linguistic research can be used to develop methods for reconstructing ancient metaphors from archaeological evidence. In a preliminary application, I argue that pottery designs from the Mesa Verde region of the American Southwest were conceptualized as textile fabrics, and suggest that connections between these media derived from a worldview grounded in container imagery. The ability to decipher conceptual metaphors in prehistoric material culture opens up many new avenues for research, including the role of worldview in cultural evolution, and the discovery of cultural continuities between archaeological cultures and historic ethnolinguistic groups.

Resource Specialization, Population Growth, and Agricultural Production in the American Southwest

1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert D. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Adaptive System ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Specific Adaptation ◽  
Resource Specialization ◽  
Explanatory Mechanism

The prehistoric period of the northern American Southwest is characterized by increased population, increased agricultural production, and regional depopulation. Most current models of evolutionary change that attempt to explain these phenomena are defined at the scale of "culture" or of a specific adaptation, e.g., "Anasazi adaptive system." I suggest that for most purposes these are not productive constructs, and that their application makes useful explanations difficult, if not impossible to formulate. As a further liability, these models ignore the role of natural selection as an explanatory mechanism, preferring instead to seek explanation through the premature application of the concept of adaptation. The application of a selectionist perspective, as opposed to the more popular adaptationist model, leads to the conclusion that the operation of natural selection favoring productive specialization accounts for the characteristics noted above for the prehistoric American Southwest.

Perishable Technologies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward A. Jolie ◽  
Laurie D. Webster
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Past Research ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Research Themes ◽  
Excellent Preservation

The American Southwest is renowned for its excellent preservation of perishable organic artifacts in dry alcoves and cliff dwellings. This chapter discusses past research on and current trends in the study of perishable artifacts such as textiles, baskets, mats, footwear, and worked wood and hides from Southwest archaeological sites. Following a review of prior research, the chapter details the salient research objectives and outcomes of studies investigating the importance of perishable technologies. Prominent research themes include perishables in daily life, the potential for perishable artifact technological and stylistic variability to inform on social interaction, boundaries, and identities, and the role of perishables in ritual practice.

scholarly journals Changes Beyond Limits: Proofreading in an American University

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Ahmad I Alhojailan
Keyword(s):  
Educational System ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
English Department ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
American University ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Term Papers ◽  
Good Reputation

Students are usually asked to submit term papers, reports, research proposals, dissertations, theses, etc. for assessment purposes. Unfortunately, not all students are able to write at the level that their professors expect. Therefore, students are encouraged by their professors to have their papers carefully proofread before submission. This study investigates the beliefs, practices, and experiences of proofreaders who proofread students’ writing, along with different issues related to proofreading. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two proofreaders studying for their Ph.D. in the English Department in a university in the American Southwest. The results show that a misunderstanding of the role of a proofreader exists between proofreaders and student writers and among proofreaders themselves. My findings also show that proofreading is used only for academic survival. I highlight how the educational system and the proofreaders' qualifications have affected the description of proofreading. The results emphasize the need for implementing regulations for proofreading services to guarantee that they are standardized and administered consistently to avoid misrepresentation of students' true writing abilities, and to maintain a good reputation for universities with respect to their graduates' writing skills.

The Never-Changing and the Ever-Changing: the Evolution of Western Pueblo Ritual

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Plog ◽  
Julie Solometo
Keyword(s):  
American Southwest ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Social Harmony ◽  
Complete Understanding ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
New Models ◽  
Late Prehistoric Period

The evolution of Western Pueblo ritual has long been a focus of ethnographic and archaeological research in the American Southwest. Most of these studies emphasize the continuities between the late prehistoric period and the early historic era and highlight the role of katsina ritual in promoting social harmony or controlling weather and fertility. We suggest that a more complete understanding of ritual change during this time span requires a closer examination of the highly dynamic social landscape of the the thirteenth through eighteenth centuries. In particular, we suggest that the increasing evidence for raiding, conflict, and social opposition must be incorporated into new models of social and ritual change.

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