Stephen H. Lekson

War in the Southwest, War in the World

The study of warfare in the ancient Pueblos of the U.S. Southwest has become politicized and contentious, and southwestern data are only rarely used to address larger anthropological theories of war. A cross-cultural model of violence proposed by Carol and Melvin Ember (1992) suggests that war in pre-state societies is predicted by resource unpredictability and socialization for fear. The Ember and Ember model is evaluated using syntheses of southwestern warfare by Steven LeBlanc (1999), environmental variability by Jeffrey Dean (1988, 1996), and political history by Stephen Lekson (1999). The fit between the southwestern data and the model is close, and supports the Ember and Ember model.

THE IDEA OF THE KIVA IN ANASAZI ARCHAEOLOGY

Abstract 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 III period, structures called kivas probably functioned as domestic architecture, analogous to the earlier pit house.

Migrations in the Southwest: Pinnacle Ruin, Southwestern New Mexico

ABSTRACT Ceramic assemblages from Pinnacle Ruin (LA 2292) at Cañada Alamosa, southwestern New Mexico, contain significant proportions of Magdalena Black-on-white, which resembles McElmo and Mesa Verde black-on-white pottery. The 150-room site sits atop a defensible butte. Excavations in a midden, a room, and a possible subterranean structure indicate Pinnacle Ruin dates to the late thirteenth through the late fourteenth centuries. Pinnacle Ruin may have been a migrant community from the Mesa Verde region of the Four Corners area.

The Mangas Phase in Mimbres Archaeology

ABSTRACTThe validity of the Mangas phase, a stage of small masonry units transitional between Three Circle phase pit houses and large Mimbres phase pueblos, has been questioned by several archaeologists associated with the Mimbres Foundation. This paper presents evidence for the existence of such a stage in the Gila Valley of southwestern New Mexico and perhaps in the Mimbres Valley as well. The recognition of the archaeological pattern referred to as the Mangas phase allows several alternative interpretations of Mimbres archaeology.

Implications for Migration and Social Connections in South-Central New Mexico Through Chemical Characterization of Carbon-Painted Ceramics and Obsidian

Magdalena Black-on-white ceramics from two sites (Gallinas Springs and Pinnacle Ruin) in west-central and southwestern New Mexico have been interpreted as evidence of a migration of Northern Pueblo groups from the Four Corners region into southwestern New Mexico during the thirteenth century. They also appear to be linked to sites with similar carbon-painted ceramics on the Rio Puerco of the east and beyond. An additional site (Roadmap Village) reveals import of Magdalena Black-on-white ceramics produced at Gallinas Springs as well as possible local production. Limited quantities of carbon paint ceramics have been found on El Paso Phase sites in south-central New Mexico that have previously been attributed to contemporaneous carbon-painted pottery produced at communities in the Galisteo Basin and the upper Rio Grande. Recent compositional analysis of carbon-painted ceramics from the Gallinas Springs, Pinnacle, and Roadmap sites has identified characteristic chemical signatures that suggest local production of carbon paint ceramics at all three sites and distribution of carbon paint ceramics from Gallinas Springs to Pinnacle and Roadmap in the eastern Black Range of southwestern New Mexico. Analysis of carbon paint ceramics from Madera Quemada, an El Paso Phase site in the Tularosa Basin indicates that the carbon paint wares found in El Paso Phase sites were acquired through trade connections from the Black Range rather than from more northern sources. The overall Magdalena Black-on-white production patterns are contrasted with the obsidian procurement data from the same sites to reveal a complex and divergent pattern.

A New Deal for Chaco Canyon

transformations of identity and culture witnessed by some on the Advisory Committee. Field neglects to tell his readers that he was warned of this by scholars who have the local expertise he lacks. Thus, with a conceptual framework that takes identity as a proxy for origins and with a method lacking rigor, Field erases some outstanding collaboration and the Natives and scholars who practice it. It is fair to question the ethics of this. In promoting collaboration, Field attends to why anthropologists need collaborators but not to why they need us. A feature that attracts collaborators is our ability to influence others, arguably the very same anthropological authority that Field repeatedly disavows. Because he is fascinated with Native intellectuals more than their social contexts, we never know precisely what Field is giving us. Without sound methods, ethics, and concepts, Field’s self-congratulatory collaborative approach permits the same kinds of mistakes that he is so critical of in others. It would be wise to think of collaboration, then, as a useful tool, but not a panacea.

Museums and the market: Exploring Santa Fe

Private and public antiquities collections present disturbing parallels. What differentiates the art market and the museum? Modes of acquisition, at least in part; and the curatorial mandate to preserve, study, and display collections, however imperfectly applied. But there remain areas of troublesome confusion, illustrated by the historical relationship of museums and collectors in Santa Fe, New Mexico