Southwest Culture Area

Southwest Culture Area

The Anasazica. 2100 BP and 700 BP

The AnasaziAncestors of the Pueblo Ancestors of the Pueblo

PeoplePeople

Anasazi bowl

AnasaziAnasazi

• “Anasazi” – a Navajo word • Pre-Columbian Civilization• ca. 2100 BP and 700 BP• ? disappearance ?

Town Dwellers

Cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde

Chetro Ketl

Anasazi and Pueblo

• Ancestors to contemporary Puebloan peoples

• “ethnographic analogy” • Why such change?• Transitioned into smaller-scale society

Economy / Subsistence

• Corn – Intensive processing

and preparation

– Evidence of extreme arthritis

• Farming– Three sisters

– “Dry farming”

Corn cribs

Mano and Metate

Social Organization

• Matrilineal • Lineage elders held significant

power– Elder : Chief– Kinsmen pay tribute

• Work collectively• Surplus

– Elaborate ritual etc.

RoadsRoads Evidence of extensive

trade, or something else?

• social organization / stratification – Trade routes (?)– Religious/Political service (?)– Both (?)– Regulation – Valley of Mexico (?)

• Turquoise• Obsidian (?)

Theocracy • Rule by priests

– Calendric rituals – “Time keepers”

• Chiefs & Priest = upper stratum of society– Tribute

Astronomy• Architectural features suggest observatories

– Prior to architectural forms, natural features were used to mark passage of sun or celestial objects

• Timing and scheduling

• Control the calendar – control the society

Cosmology

• Layered universe• Upper world is permanent• sacredness is to transport

between worlds– Sipapu – opening

• Four worlds• Each ends in catastrophe

– 4th (present) world

Kachinas

• Emerge from 3rd world via sipapu

• Not “dolls” but masked figures

• Represent sacred beings– kachina figurines– assist memory

Kachina in rock painting?

Ritual: Calendric

• return of the sun after solstice

• rainy summer season.– Hopi snake dance

• Anasazi not exactly the same, but quite similar to modern Pueblo peoples.

Rock Art

Hunting Magic?

Kokapelli and Friends

hands 6-toed feet Sacred contact? Sipapu?

Kiva • Provides point of contact • Emergence of sacred beings• Sipapu

– Originally humans re-emerge after death

– Coyote covered it up.

Anasazi kiva (reconstruction)

Kiva at Chaco Canyon

Kiva-archaeology• “Basketmaker” phase lived in “pit houses”

• many groups continued to live in pit houses.

• Anasazi developed pueblo-style housing

– retain kivas as ritual space

KivaGender and Society

• Secular as well as Sacred space – Two sacred periods

• winter and summer

– Remaining secular periods• “men’s club.”• foster solidarity among adult men

– Some women allowed on occasion• uncommon

– Women of childbearing age generally kept out.