Becoming Aztlan: Mesoamerican Ingluence in the Greater Southwest, A.D 1200-1500

Description

For decades archaeologists insisted that southwestern cultures such as the Anasazi| Hohokam| and Mogollon had little or no relation to peoples south of the border. Now American archaeology is beginning to take seriously the notion that goods| gods| and even humans may have passed with some frequency between the high cultures of Mexico and the Southwest. In his latest book| Carroll Riley presents an ambitious overview of the continuities he sees in the geographically vast and culturally complex American Southwest and the adjacent northwest of Mexico. Aided by extensive illustrations| he argues that although the Southwest remained southwestern in its basic economy| there were drastic changes beginning around A.D. 1200 that transformed socio-religious life throughout the region. Riley calls this period Aztlan| a name adopted from the mythic Aztec land of origin. A Pueblo Indian in A.D. 800 would have gathered and farmed the same foods as his descendants| but by 1400 those distant relatives had a very different concept of the physical and spiritual universe. In addition to bringing vast erudition and jargon-free prose to bear on a complex subject| Riley’s conclusions have potentially sweeping implications for the future of archaeological studies in the greater Southwest.