Current public discourse compels us to think about the importance of borders and boundaries in our world. So too have our traditional ways of partitioning the archaeological record. Any Southwest US prehistorian is familiar with the lines we have drawn around “culture” as expressed in the material remains left by groups referred to as the Hohokam, Mogollon, and others. This book focuses on areas between these zones of material culture similarities to tease out patterns that are not so frequently studied or well understood. The introductory chapter defines different types of edge regions—joint-use territories, frontiers, uncontested areas, and contact zones—and the nine chapters that follow each consider such edge regions within the US Southwest.
Peeples and Mills conduct social network analysis on boundary areas by focusing on ceramic consumption, an approach that prioritizes social interactions over demographic and geographic factors. The chapter is internally sound and logical with respect to its assumptions, but the humanistic aspects of social interactions are not well developed here.
Fowles considers evidence of countercultural movements in the Taos region of New Mexico as acts of rejection of the Chaco phenomenon beginning around AD 900 and lasting into the thirteenth century. Taos is sometimes considered a frontier of the Rio Grande valley, but Fowles argues instead that Taos represents a countercultural place of emergence. His chapter stands out primarily for its attempt to include Puebloan perspectives in interpreting archaeological evidence.
Applying geosocial network analysis, Bork argues that a local atavistic movement in the Gallina area of northwest New Mexico manifested a rejection of the northern Southwest's social landscape, but without a centralized leadership authority in the Gallina region. Although the argument is logical and consistent, the nature of the material record relevant to the argument may not warrant such inferential interpretations.
Defining southeastern Nevada as an uncontested area, Harry and Watson argue for indigenous cultural development and suggest that Virgin Anasazi culture was an intentional hybridization of Great Basin and Ancestral Pueblo cultures. Overall, the authors make a compelling case for the intentionality of selectively embracing advantageous adaptations from neighboring groups, although there is a tendency to focus interpretations around gender stereotypes related to hunting and domestic activities.
Throgmorton argues that the Puerco River valley of northern Arizona was transformed from a joint-use to a frontier region between AD 600 and 900. His discussion of place-making focuses on the architecture and attributes of houses, and although his argument is compelling, it would be strengthened with greater reference to Pueblo ethnography regarding the activities of primary clans.
Herr and Clark focus on late Preclassic Hohokam groups in Arizona, with interest in what they call “enculturative” or “active” forms of identity. They consider domestic architecture, hearth styles, ceramics, ceremonial architecture, evidence of exchange, and other datasets to illustrate the high degree of social and cultural variability within the vast expanse of Hohokam territory during the late first millennium AD. They show two strong enculturative traditions centered around the Phoenix Basin and the Tucson Basin within the Hohokam region.
Miller notes the long history of identity expression and ideological movements in the Jornada Mogollon region of southern New Mexico. His discussion of identity is refreshing because it ties identity specifically to a landscape, and Miller argues that the Jornada Mogollon area can be best described not as a core or periphery but as a landscape with “reservoirs of social memory.” His argument would be strengthened by explicit reference to local indigenous perspectives.
Gilman examines identity in the Mimbres Valley and adjacent areas of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. She focuses on pottery and architecture to argue that groups in these areas maintained distinct community identities while engaging in persistent interactions with one another.
Jelinek and Brenneman evaluate contact-period cultural interactions in the Pimería Alta, on the northern frontier of the Spanish colonial world. In many ways, this chapter is the most powerful because it benefits from reference to documentary sources, which add depth to discussions of identity. Their discussion reveals the complexity of ethnic identity, coresidence, and interactions that were present at the time of Spanish contact, involving indigenous identities that archaeologists would be hard-pressed to identify based on material culture alone.
An issue with the volume is the quality of its figures, which are printed so poorly and at such small sizes that many are illegible. This issue aside, the book's major contribution is its demonstration that edge regions were settings for complex cultural interactions. Southwestern archaeologists have long attempted to fit suites of material culture into preexisting categories. As this volume makes clear, however, the spaces in between the major culture areas of the Southwest are equally important and complex.
