The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient SouthwestSouthwestern archaeologists have long pondered the meaning and importance of the monumental 11th-century structures in Chaco Canyon. Now, Stephen H. Lekson offers a lively, provocative thesis, which attempts to reconceptualize the meaning of Chaco and its importance to the understanding of the entire Southwest. Chaco was not alone, according to Lekson, but only one of three capitals of a vast politically and economically integrated region, a network that incorporated most of the Pueblo world and that had contact as far away as Central America. A sophisticated astronomical tradition allowed for astrally aligned monumental structures, great ceremonial roads and upon the abandonment of Chaco Canyon in the 12th century the shift of the regional capital first to the Aztec site, then Paquime, all located on precisely the same longitudinal meridian. Lekson's ground-breaking synthesis of 500 years of Southwestern prehistory with its explanation of phenomena as diverse as the Great North Road, macaw feathers, Pueblo mythology, and the rise of kachina ceremonies will be of great interest to all those concerned with the prehistory and history of the American Southwest." |
Contents
Pourparlers | 13 |
Plan of the Book | 15 |
COMPLEXITY IN THE PUEBLO SOUTHWEST | 16 |
MONDO CHACO | 18 |
Lords Of The Great House | 23 |
THE SOCIAL DVINAMICS OF CHACO PREHISTORY | 26 |
The Regional SYSTEM | 28 |
Out On The Edges | 35 |
Notes | 108 |
A BEAUTIFUL FAQ KILLED BY AM UGLY THEORY | 111 |
They Do Things Differently There | 112 |
Cant Get There From Here | 121 |
ROADS THROUGH TIME | 127 |
How Can you Be In Two Places At Once ? | 129 |
high Crimes And Misdemeanors | 130 |
Notes | 149 |
Redistribution Revisited | 43 |
Chaco Hegemony | 46 |
Prestige Deflated | 51 |
Chaco And Mimbres | 53 |
Mondo Chaco Just So | 60 |
Life After Mimbres | 62 |
Notes | 63 |
MERIDIAN NEXUS | 66 |
Umiquitv And Mobius Logic | 68 |
A Tale Of Two nearurban Centers And One Wannabe | 69 |
Regional Integration | 99 |
Their Chequered Careers | 104 |
CONCLUSIONS? | 155 |
Emergent Order | 159 |
Cognition | 163 |
APPLY Within | 168 |
Notes | 171 |
TShaped Doors | 173 |
Culiacán | 181 |
REFERENCES | 187 |
AUTHOR INDEX | 221 |
225 | |
233 | |
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Common terms and phrases
11th-century Acoma adobe Albuquerque Anasazi ancient Anthropology archaeological architectural Arizona Aztec Ruins ballcourts Black-on-white building built Casas Grandes century ceremonial city Chaco and Aztec Chaco and Mimbres Chaco and Paquime Chaco Basin Chaco Canyon Chaco Meridian Chaco world Chaco-Aztec-Paquime Chaco-Paquime Chacoan Chacoan region Chacoan roads chiefdoms Chihuahua Chimney Rock colonnades Colorado complex Culiacán Culture economies edited elite error excavated exotica Fenner Hohokam House John Stein kachina kachina ceremonialism Kiva km² landscape Lekson ley lines macaws maps masonry McKenna meridian alignment Mesa Verde Mesoamerican Mexican Mexico Mimbres Mimbres Valley Mogollon monumental North Road northern San Juan outliers Paquime's Peso Peso's platform mounds plaza political population post-Mimbres pottery Prehistoric Press Pueblo Alto Pueblo Bonito Pueblo world Ravesloot redistribution Research Rinaldo River Salmon Ruins San Juan Basin Santa Fe scale Sofaer Southwestern space structures T-doors tri-wall turquoise Twin Angels Pueblo unique unit pueblos University Zuni