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Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest
Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 13, 2019
This is a good introductory history of the main three Indian groups in the Southwest U.S. (the Anasazi-Pueblo, Hohokam, and Mogollon cultures), generally from the beginnings of the Current Era to the arrival of the Spanish, though the roots of these cultures go back to 10,000 plus years .
Surprisingly, the history of these peoples seems highly speculative, but the book is old (1961) so this may have changed over the last sixty years. Understandably, the focus is on the hard evidence left behind - the stonework and pottery - and the cultural groupings are made based on geographic similarities as they evolved over time. The author discusses some cross-fertilization among the groups discussed but, generally, questions about the validity of this comparative methodology are not covered regarding, say, the role of individual and cultural innovation among the same cultural grouping (i.e., does each group/site merely imitate what other groups do?) and whether the differences seen may be due to the availability of construction material (types of rock, mortar, wood).
It seems to me that the assertions about the social organization of these groups might be more sketchy than not. General statements are made by some in the anthropological field that hunter-gatherers were "egalitarian" whereas the settled groups engaged in agricultural practices that allowed for surpluses and specialization constituted the beginnings of hierarchical social organization. The author, however, characterizes the pueblo cultures, variable as they may have been (hunter-gatherer to permanent settlement) as having a "democratic form of government" and a "democratic way of life." This was, the author notes, "long before the signing of the Magna Carta and many centuries before the signing of the American Declaration of Independence." The evidence the author provides is his statement that "all the living quarters were essentially equal" and there was "no evidence of an aristocracy or a ruling class." At the end of the book, the author extends this notion somewhat by saying that this benign view of social organization applied to all the Indian cultures of the Southwest when he writes that these people "believed that the cultivation of the land, the creation of beautiful as well as useful objects, and keeping in harmony with the great natural forces of the universe, were more important that the subjugation or destruction of their fellow man." This is a nice picture of what one might like to see, but it struck me as a statement that overruns the available evidence, at least as presented by Wormington.
Surprisingly, the history of these peoples seems highly speculative, but the book is old (1961) so this may have changed over the last sixty years. Understandably, the focus is on the hard evidence left behind - the stonework and pottery - and the cultural groupings are made based on geographic similarities as they evolved over time. The author discusses some cross-fertilization among the groups discussed but, generally, questions about the validity of this comparative methodology are not covered regarding, say, the role of individual and cultural innovation among the same cultural grouping (i.e., does each group/site merely imitate what other groups do?) and whether the differences seen may be due to the availability of construction material (types of rock, mortar, wood).
It seems to me that the assertions about the social organization of these groups might be more sketchy than not. General statements are made by some in the anthropological field that hunter-gatherers were "egalitarian" whereas the settled groups engaged in agricultural practices that allowed for surpluses and specialization constituted the beginnings of hierarchical social organization. The author, however, characterizes the pueblo cultures, variable as they may have been (hunter-gatherer to permanent settlement) as having a "democratic form of government" and a "democratic way of life." This was, the author notes, "long before the signing of the Magna Carta and many centuries before the signing of the American Declaration of Independence." The evidence the author provides is his statement that "all the living quarters were essentially equal" and there was "no evidence of an aristocracy or a ruling class." At the end of the book, the author extends this notion somewhat by saying that this benign view of social organization applied to all the Indian cultures of the Southwest when he writes that these people "believed that the cultivation of the land, the creation of beautiful as well as useful objects, and keeping in harmony with the great natural forces of the universe, were more important that the subjugation or destruction of their fellow man." This is a nice picture of what one might like to see, but it struck me as a statement that overruns the available evidence, at least as presented by Wormington.
October 31, 2016
Terribly dated, but with a few weirdly entertaining lines now and again.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews