Religion on the Rocks: Hohokam Rock Art, Ritual Practice, and Social Transformation

by Aaron M. Wright

We are nearly all intrigued by the petroglyphs and pictographs of the American Southwest, and we commonly ask what they “mean”. Religion on the Rocks redirects our attention to the equally important matter of what compelled ancient peoples to craft rock art in the first place. To examine this question, Aaron Wright presents a case study from Arizona's South Mountains, an area once flanked by several densely populated Hohokam villages. Synthesizing results from recent archaeological surveys, he explores how the mountains' petroglyphs were woven into the broader cultural landscape and argues that the petroglyphs are relics of a bygone ritual system in which people vied for prestige and power by controlling religious knowledge. The features and strategic placement of the rock art suggest this dimension of Hohokam ritual was participatory and prominent in village life. Around AD 1100, however, petroglyph creation and other ritual practices began to wane, denoting a broad transformation of the Hohokam social world. Wright’s examination of the South Mountains petroglyphs offers a novel narrative of how Hohokam villagers negotiated a concentration of politico-religious authority around platform mounds. Readers will come away with a better understanding of the Hohokam legacy and a greater appreciation for rock art's value to anthropology.

324 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2014

Reviews

[Alyssa Terrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me a long time to get through. However, I found the approach to rock art deeply insightful. Wright dwells little on the interpretation and aesthetics of rock art and instead focuses on what petroglyphs reveal about religious and social interaction in the Hohokam world (especially during the Preclassic/Classic shift). His theoretical approach, background info and definitions for key terms are laid out explicitly. I'm sure this background knowledge will enhance my thesis.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an epic tome and the first real serious attempt at a social interpretation of rock art. It is very specific to the South Mountains of Phoenix. I was disappointed that a lot of the writing is dense and rather obtuse. Sentences that are very hard to get through! However, his chapters on the Hohokam history and religion which bound the sections on rock art are masterful.