Search

The article discusses two separate topics. The first topic is a book review of "Overhaul," which focuses on the history of the AT&SF railroad shops in Albuquerque. The review praises the book for its inclusion of steam technology and repair processes, but criticizes it for lacking sustained archival research. The second topic is a book review of "James Silas Calhoun," which explores the life of the first governor of New Mexico Territory. The review highlights Calhoun's diverse professional background and his time as a consul in Cuba, as well as his interactions with Indigenous groups in New Mexico. The review emphasizes the relevance of studying Calhoun's governance in the context of American imperialism and the administration of New Mexico Territory. [Extracted from the article]

A personal narrative is presented which explores the authors experience of having local gas stations in our small town and collect state road maps, always on the lookout for states beyond the Midwest.

Agent-based modeling of artificial societies allows for the validation and analysis of human-interpretable, causal explanations of human behavior that generate society-scale phenomena. However, parameter calibration is insufficient to conduct data-driven explorations that are adequate in evaluating the importance of causal factors that constitute agent rules that match real-world individual-scale generative behaviors. We introduce evolutionary model discovery, a framework that combines genetic programming and random forest regression to evaluate the importance of a set of causal factors hypothesized to affect the individual's decision-making process. With evolutionary model discovery, we investigated the farm plot seeking behavior of the Ancestral Pueblo of the Long House Valley simulated in the Artificial Anasazi model. We evaluated the importance of causal factors unconsidered in the original model, which we hypothesized to have affected the decision-making process. Our findings, concur with other archaeological studies on the Ancestral Pueblo communities during the Pueblo II period, which indicate the existence of cross-village polities, hierarchical organization, and dependence on the viability of the agricultural niche. Contrary to the original Artificial Anasazi model, where closeness was the sole factor driving farm plot selection, selection of higher quality land, distancing from failed farm plots, and desire for social presence are found to be more important. Finally, models updated with farm selection strategies designed by incorporating these insights showed significant improvements in accuracy and robustness over the original Artificial Anasazi model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nineteenth biennial meeting of the Society took as its general theme 'Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Saxonists in the Southwest'. The conference was attended by 121 registrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines multiple lines of evidence to argue Ancestral Pueblo peoples engaged in pitched battle and thereby challenges the common view that warfare in the North American Southwest primarily took the form of raiding. Although various tactics likely coexisted in the martial repertoire of Prehispanic peoples, I highlight that raiding has generally been overemphasized by Southwestern archaeologists. After critically reflecting on how scholars interpret tactics, the bulk of this manuscript is devoted to examining evidence of battle among Prehispanic and post-Contact Pueblo peoples. I argue the earliest solid evidence of battle tactics dates to around AD 1300 and possibly as early as AD 1200. I develop a case for a shift in tactics tied to changes in weaponry along with groups aggregating for protection and the resulting spatial needs of large communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Western Puerco region of east-central Arizona figured prominently in foundational studies of the Early Pueblo period (AD 650-950) yet remains on the periphery of recent research. This article presents new survey and chronometric data from three communities located in a densely occupied portion of the Western Puerco, the Petrified Forest. These data suggest that the Petrified Forest hosted the earliest known aggregated settlement in the region, ca. AD 700-800, before residents transitioned to a dispersed settlement pattern that remained in place through the Chaco era. Neighboring portions of the Western Puerco, however, only hosted settlements of a similar size from AD 840 forward. Chaco great houses were founded in these communities during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Unlike better known examples of aggregation in the northern San Juan region that unfolded within only a few generations, similar developments in the Petrified Forest were likely the culmination of hundreds of years of local population growth, increasing sedentism, and use of prominent natural features on the landscape. The lack of fit between the causal factors proposed for village formation in the northern San Juan and eighth-century aggregation in the Petrified Forest suggests alternative models are needed to explain the formation of early population aggregates in the Western Puerco and across much of the western portion of the northern Southwest more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over two decades archaeologists and bioarchaeologists have identified evidence to suggest that there was a system of captivity and subjugation in the American Southwest before the arrival of Europeans. However, to understand the practice of taking captives in the region, we must attempt to determine why people are subjugated and who is at risk of being enslaved. The focus of this paper is to understand the signs of captivity in the archaeological and bioarchaeological record, and parse out possible motivations for why slavery or raiding for captives was practiced among the Ancestral Pueblo. Using evidence from oral traditions and historical texts of the Spanish colonizers, archaeological evidence of environmental stress, changes in paleodemography at sites, and data obtained from human skeletal remains, this paper explores the likelihood that the practice of captive-taking was present among the Ancestral Pueblo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeogenomic studies of a burial crypt in Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, NewMexico, have demonstrated the presence of an elite matrilineal descent group that spanned most of the 300+ years the great house was occupied, confirming, among other things, the deep antiquity of matrilineal ideologies among the Ancestral Pueblos of the northern Southwest. This article explores the sociopolitical implications of matrilineal descent, matrilocal residence, and Iroquois-Crow alliance structures among the Ancestral Pueblos of Chaco and elsewhere. It argues that matrilineal ideologies helped shape community forms and intercommunity relations throughout the Pueblo Southwest. It argues further that kinship provides insights into Chaco's eleventh-century expansion that dispersed "outlier" great houses over much of the southeastern Colorado Plateau. The article concludes with a call for archaeologists and cultural historians to pay more attention to kinship, the principal idiom of social, economic, and political relations in nonstate societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Towards the end of the thirteenth century, the Albuquerque Basin of New Mexico saw a significant increase in population from Puebloan peoples migrating into the valley. By the time of the Coronado expedition in 1541–1542, this area contained 12 large pueblos along the roughly 55 km long by 5 km wide Rio Grande floodplain, resulting in one of the densest concentrations of pueblos and agricultural fields in the Eastern Pueblo region. Zooarchaeological analyses of Classic Period faunal assemblages have yielded an abundance and diversity of wild bird remains with an emphasis towards migratory birds that reside in the region during the winter. These avifauna are almost entirely absent from the archaeological record of the preceding Developmental Period. This paper argues that changes in Puebloan farming practices between the two periods had a direct effect on shifting the traditional wintering grounds of these migratory birds northwards into the Albuquerque Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background:The genetic composition of human North African populations is an amalgam of different ancestral components coming from the Middle East, Europe, south-Saharan Africa and autochthonous to North Africa. This complex genetic pattern is the result of migrations and admixtures in the region since Palaeolithic times. Aims:The objective of the present study is to refine knowledge of the population history of North African populations through the analysis of complete mitochondrial sequences. Subjects and methods:This study has sequenced complete mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) in several North African and neighbouring individuals. Results:The mtDNA haplogroup classification and phylogeny shows a high genetic diversity in the region as a result of continuous admixture. The phylogenetic analysis allowed us to identify a new haplogroup characterised by positions 10 101 C and 146 C (H1v2), a sub-branch of H1v, which is restricted to North Africa and whose origins are estimated as ∼4000 years ago. Conclusions:The analysis of the complete mtDNA genome has allowed for the identification of a North African sub-lineage that might be ignored by the analysis of partial mtDNA control region sequences, highlighting the phylogeographic relevance of mtDNA complete sequence analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Gallina heartland was abandoned around AD 1275. The fate of the Gallina people after this abandonment is not well understood. This study uses biological distance analysis to evaluate possible migratory patterns of the Gallina people after their decline. Is there evidence for population continuity of the Gallina in the Rio Grande Valley, or did cultural pressures drive them to more distant areas such as the Mogollon Rim or Greater Southwest? We use dental morphological data to compare individuals from Gallina with samples representing the Rio Grande Valley, as well as the Arizona Mountain Mogollon and Northern Mexico dating after AD 1300. Our results indicate the Gallina possibly migrated to the Middle Rio Grande region, and refute hypotheses that the Gallina people were culturally and biologically isolated from other American Southwest populations. We emphasize the importance of combining archaeological, linguistic, and biological data to evaluate migratory patterns of past populations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cryptanthus comprises 72 species endemic to eastern Brazil with a center of diversity in the Atlantic Forest. The majority of the species are threatened due to habitat loss. We reconstructed phylogenetic relationships in Cryptanthus based on amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) including 48 species and 109 accessions. The Bayesian phylogenetic analysis revealed four major lineages in Cryptanthus and provided further evidence for the paraphyly of subgen. Hoplocryptanthus , while subgenus Cryptanthus was resolved as monophyletic. Monophyly of previously recognized morphological species groups at sectional level could not be confirmed. Based on the phylogenetic reconstruction we inferred the evolution of the sex system in Cryptanthus via maximum likelihood (ML) ancestral character reconstruction. Homoecy, the possession of hermaphrodite flowers only, was reconstructed as the ancestral state in the genus and characterizes three of the four main lineages within Cryptanthus . Andromonoecy, the possession of male and hermaphrodite flowers on the same plant, evolved only once and represents a synapomorphy of the fourth main lineage, C. subgen. Cryptanthus . The ancestral biome analysis reconstructed Cerrado (semiarid scrublands and forests) and campos rupestres (rock fields) as the most likely ancestral biomes for the genus. A shift to the Atlantic Forest biome was reconstructed to have occurred twice, in the ancestor of the first diverging lineage within the genus and in the ancestor of the C. subgen. Cryptanthus clade. A shift to the Caatinga (tropical dryland savanna) and one reversal to Cerrado (campos rupestres - rock fields) was reconstructed to have occurred once, in C. bahianus and C. arelii , respectively. The ancestral biome reconstruction indicates a high degree of niche conservatism within Cryptanthus with rare biome shifts throughout the evolution of the genus. Further, our results imply that the current infrageneric taxonomy of Cryptanthus is problematic and requires revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid rise of the "Chaco phenomenon" in northern New Mexico in the ninth century AD invites a search for either historical precursors or generative processes that might have explanatory utility. We analyze one candidate system, the well-known Basketmaker III and Pueblo I communities investigated by the Dolores Archaeological Program in southwestern Colorado, to determine whether there is evidence of change through time in the direction of more inequality of households. We use the Gini index to quantify concentration in the distributions of living space, storage space, and total household space. We see no prominent trend toward increasing inequality in these data, but we do note possible evidence for leveling, in that inequality in an "income" measure is higher than in a "total wealth" measure. These leveling processes seem to be stronger for households in villages than for those in dispersed settings. Comparably produced Gini coefficients for other ancient settings would greatly enhance the comparative search for the causes of higher levels of household inequality frequently manifested in agricultural societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liebmann's (2017) essay on the relationship between Jemez Pueblo and the Valles Caldera of northern New Mexico seems to imply that the Jemez Pueblo had an exclusive relationship with the caldera, particularly Redondo Peak, and the major obsidian source Cerro del Medio (CDM). This is curious given that abundant obsidian provenance studies from the region exhibit equal to or nearly equal proportions of Cerro del Medio obsidian that are not considered ancestral to Jemez Pueblo. Liebmann's regional perspective based on landscape theory appears flawed by a lack of regionally specific data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeologists working in the Ancestral Pueblo region of the American Southwest have documented variability in sociopolitical and economic complexity, landscape use, community organization, mobility, and violence at a wide range of temporal and spatial scales from AD 500-1700. Recent studies have a strong synthetic orientation, employ methods that track material culture, mobility, and social networks at macroregional scales, and benefit from a renewed engagement with indigenous peoples. Much of this research relies on integrating vast amounts of data from numerous academic and cultural resource management projects and demonstrates the promise of an archaeology that relies on the cumulative acquisition and sharing of data. Given the scale and depth of this research, Ancestral Pueblo archaeology is an exceptional comparative case for archaeologists considering similar processes, especially at fine temporal and wide geographical scales, in ancient farming societies across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding exchange is essential for understanding past societies. The exchange of knowledge and goods undeniably influenced the development of Pueblo culture. Previous studies within Southwestern archaeology have mostly focused on the exchange of material goods such as ceramics or prestige items since these items do not decay, while other day-to-day exchanges, such as the exchange of food items, are relatively undetectable in archaeology. Sahlins () notes that in small-scale societies, food exchange is essential for the survival of individuals in patchy landscapes. Moreover, Sahlins's research shows that cross-culturally in small-scale societies, the exchange of food is one of the fundamental structuring mechanisms for alliances. With this knowledge, we may want to study the exchange of food within societies, but without being able to see the actual exchange, how can archaeologists explore the impact of food exchange given the relatively sparse archaeological record? In this paper, I use computer simulation to explore the extent to which food-sharing practices would have been instrumental for the survival of Ancestral Pueblo people across the patchy landscape of the Prehispanic American Southwest and suggest that we can see direct evidence of exchange through the aggregation of households into clustered settlements. Social networks would have created stable bonds among these exchanging individuals, further helping the survival of those individuals and their progeny. Specifically, I engage Sahlins's notion of balanced reciprocal exchange networks (BRN; when unrelated individuals rely upon reputation building to inform exchange relationships) within the experimental test-bed of the Village Ecodynamics Project's agent-based simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines patterns of infant and juvenile growth in a diachronic sample of ancestral Pueblo Indians (AD 1300-1680) from the American Southwest. An assessment of growth patterns is accompanied by an evaluation of pathological conditions often considered to be indicators of nutritional deficiencies and/or gastrointestinal infections. Growth patterns and the distribution of pathological conditions are interpreted relative to culturally relevant age categories defined by Puebloan rites of passage described in the ethnographic literature. A visual comparison of growth distance curves revealed that relative to a modern comparative group our sample of ancestral Pueblo infant and juveniles exhibited faltering growth beginning soon after birth to about 5 years of age. A comparison of curves describing growth relative to adult femoral length, however, indicated reduced growth occurring later, by around 2 years of age. Similar to previous studies, we observed a high proportion of nonsurvivors exhibiting porotic cranial lesions during the first 2 years of life. Contrary to expectations, infants and juveniles without evidence of porotic cranial lesions exhibited a higher degree of stunting. Our study is generally consistent with previous research reporting poor health and high mortality for ancestral Pueblo Indian infants and juveniles. Through use of a culturally relevant context defining childhood, we argue that the observed poor health and high mortality in our sample occur before the important transition from young to older child and the concomitant initial incorporation into tribal ritual organization. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Anasazi', the term archaeologists have used since the 1930S to describe the ancient Pueblo inhabitants of the American Southwest, is today a contested word — contested for misconstruing the Navajo concept of Anaasází, misrepresenting the Pueblo past, misleading the public, and misdirecting archaeological research. This essay examines how this single word, when unpacked, can provide insights into the larger issues of identity, affinity, and authority infused in archaeological practice. I argue that the fundamental questions about archaeology's operation in the world are prompted by — and perhaps ultimately can be resolved by — collaborating with descendant communities through methods that move across anthropology's disciplinary boundaries, from archaeology to ethnography. Who is — and who should be — empowered to interpret the ancient past? This is the tangled question at the heart of the controversy over 'Anasazi'. Its answer will help not only elucidate archaeology's labyrinthine past with Native peoples, but also illuminate the potential for the discipline's engaged and ethical future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A basic requirement in all human activity concerned with architectural planning and construction is measurement. This paper is addressed to this topic within one specific Pre-Columbian culture—the Chaco Canyon Anasazi. By use of the quantum hypothesis, 480 room dimensions from the sites of Pueblo Bonito and Pueblo del Arroyo were examined to derive not only the dimensional values for their unknown units of measure, but also to determine the aspects of social behavior represented by them. Five different measurement units were isolated, ranging from 20 to 30 inches in length. By the spatial-temporal pattern of their distribution, some inferences into the social organization of the ancient builders and architects of these towns are inferred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Great kivas played an important role in the social and ritual integration of pre- historic Pueblo societies in the northern Southwest. Early great kivas are found throughout the region, and a partially excavated example from Grass Mesa Village is used to develop an architectural roof design for a Pueblo I great kiva. Based on this design, the required diameters of the primary beams, secondary beams, and roof-support columns are calculated, and the construction costs are estimated using results from replicative building experiments. Based on climate and vegetation reconstructions for the area around Grass Mesa Village, it appears that the necessary materials were available locally. The results indicate that the construction project would require approximately 8,850 person-hours. Based on probabilistic estimates, the population of Grass Mesa Village at the time of great kiva construction (late A.D. 700s) was 38 to 58 households. If 40 households each contributed one laborer for 50 hours per week, the project could have been completed in less than five weeks. Because the Grass Mesa great kiva was the only structure of its kind in the area at that time, a much larger regional population could have participated in construction and completed it even more quickly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The architectural term "kiva" was fixed in archaeological usage prior to the establishment of a systematic, self-critical field of Southwestern archaeology. Early development of the idea of the kiva reflected the Southwesternists' political concern for the Pueblos, and government policy toward the Pueblos. Alternate interpretations of kivas are both possible and useful. Through the Pueblo Ill period, structures called kivas probably functioned as domestic architecture, analogous to the earlier pit house. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]