The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest

Front Cover
Rowman Altamira, 1999 - Political Science - 235 pages
Southwestern 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
SUBJECT INDEX
225
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
233
Copyright

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Popular passages

Page 197 - Fowler. Andrew P. John R. Stein, and Roger Anyon 1987 An Archaeological Reconnaissance of West-Central New Mexico: The Anasazi Monuments Project.
Page 208 - Love, Marian F. A survey of the distribution of T-shaped doorways in the greater southwest.

About the author (1999)

Stephen H. Lekson teaches at the University of Colorado.

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