Any attempt to compile a comprehensive volume covering the archaeology of the American Southwest is a mammoth undertaking. This volume successfully delves into some of the major topics, culture areas, and diverse interpretations currently pertinent in Southwestern archaeology. Encyclopedic chapters provide concise, well-written, and accessible overviews of many topics, and they provide valuable references for those interested in pursuing the topics that are covered in the chapters.
The volume is 916 pages long, with 44 chapters and an introduction by the volume editors. Most chapters range from 10 to 15 pages, with some at about 20 pages. Individual chapters are organized to give background information on the topic, to address current debates, and often to provide directions for future research. Each chapter is unique, but many touch on overarching themes, such as historiography, identity, movement, and landscapes.
In their introduction (Part I), Severin Fowles and Barbara J. Mills present the goal of the volume, which is to examine the “long-term historical development of the people and cultures of the American Southwest” (p. 3). They then trace the history of the field using a series of “Revolutions” that have had major impacts on Southwest archaeology. The introduction is a dense read, but it sets the stage for the themes and material that are addressed in subsequent chapters.
Part II, “The Shape of History,” is divided into three sections: “Conceptualizing the Past,” “Incorporating the Histories of Descendant Communities,” and “Archaeological Histories.” In the first section, six chapters discuss some of the current theoretical paradigms that shape archaeological interpretations and dialogues in Southwest archaeology. These include Oral Traditions, Narrative Histories, the Direct Historical Approach, Historical Linguistics, Evolutionary Theory, and Path Dependence Theory. It is an interesting mix of humanistic and evolutionary approaches. Most of the chapters provide brief histories of these theoretical frameworks and therefore place them in historical contexts following the goals stated in the introduction.
Three chapters (7, 8, 9) in Part II fall under “Incorporating the Histories of Descendant Communities.” They address a range of topics that are important for archaeologists working with Indigenous groups anywhere, not just the Southwest. Chapter 7 examines issues associated with incorporating tribal perspectives in archaeological fieldwork and interpretations from tribal perspectives. Chapter 8 is an overview of Traditional Cultural Properties and the importance of a landscape perspective in interpreting these properties. Chapter 9 focuses on the impact of land grants and place making in New Mexico.
The third section in Part II, “Archaeological Histories,” contains the bulk (20) of the chapters in the volume. This section begins with three chapters covering the broad temporal periods of the Paleoindian, Archaic, and Early Agricultural periods and then includes overviews that cover some of the major archaeological “culture areas” in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico (Ancestral Pueblo, Hohokam, Trincheras, Casas Grandes). Several chapters provide details on particular areas such as Chaco, Mesa Verde, and Mimbres. These chapters summarize the archaeological data from each area and offer insights into the controversies and debates specific to each area. The cultural and temporal periods highlighted in Chapters 13–22 are primarily focused on Puebloan groups and post–AD 1000 time periods. Some chapters include brief descriptions of pithouse occupations that preceded pueblo construction, but the primary focus is on the later pueblo period. Two chapters (21 and 22) address the historical development of the Hopi and Zuni, and Chapter 23 discusses Mesoamerican connections with Southwest groups. Notably missing are chapters on the Jornada region, upland Mogollon, Salado (except for a brief discussion in Chapter 22 on Classic period Hohokam), and Virgin Puebloan groups, which, in my opinion, would have strengthened this section significantly.
Chapters 24–29 move away from precolonial archaeology to address later populations in the Southwest, including Navajo, Apache, Plains/Pueblo interaction, the Early Colonial period, Pobladores in New Mexico, and Territorial and Early Statehood periods. It was refreshing to see these chapters included, because publications on Southwest archaeology often do not discuss postcolonial periods. These chapters explore many nuances of Indigenous interactions with European and Euro-American colonists. They discuss the complex dynamics involved in these interactions and their impact on identity, both native and non-native.
Part III, “The Stuff of History,” contains 15 chapters that examine the various material and ecological categories that are common in the analysis of Southwest archaeological data. They are divided into three sections: “Material Culture,” “Landscapes,” and “Ecologies.” Chapters in the material culture section cover built environment, cooking technology, hunting, perishable technology, and iconography. Each chapter concisely summarizes the material remains, technology, and analytical methods for each category, often supplementing the general discussion with examples from areas across the Southwest. The focus is on what these material remains can tell us about the archaeology of particular times and regions. These chapters were the most traditional in approach of all chapters in the volume, and the information they provide will be useful for students and others interested in Southwest materials.
Landscapes are examined in four chapters that use the historical perspective outlined in the introduction to explore how different landscapes formed through varying social processes and material conditions. They look at anthropogenic influences, particularly focusing on fire regimes; agricultural features and their distribution and integration with larger subsistence and social systems; movement and migration, including the multiple scales on which movement occurred and varying impacts of this movement on both those who migrated and those who stayed; and sacred geographies, examining natural features that are integral to the lifeways of both pre- and postcolonial native groups.
The final section, “Ecologies,” emphasizes environmental factors and natural forces influencing past peoples of the Southwest. These chapters are more focused on methodology than the others in the volume, and they provide current information about techniques used to address many of the issues raised in the “Archaeological Histories” section. The chapters cover methods for reconstructing past climates and evaluating their impacts on past groups, minerals commonly present in artifacts and the techniques used for sourcing and then analyzing the movement of goods, cultigens found at archaeological sites and how plant data contribute to studying subsistence practices and social issues, hunting strategies and ritual uses of fauna, contributions of bioarchaeological data to understanding past Southwest groups, and recent work addressing nonhuman agency and the spirit world.
All chapters are authored by scholars who have worked extensively on the topics they write about, and their chapters are therefore authoritative overviews of current ideas and interpretations. Most of the chapter authors are academic archaeologists, and the one criticism I have of the volume is that it did not include many cultural resource management (CRM) practitioners. Given the amount of work being done by CRM archaeologists in the Southwest today, I think the volume would have benefited from the inclusion of more CRM archaeologists.
Overall, however, the volume serves as an exemplary handbook. The editors have done a remarkable job at keeping most of the chapters on task. Each chapter stands well both on its own and as part of a larger whole. The volume will be especially useful to students, avocationalists, and archaeologists from other areas with interests in Southwest archaeology.
