According to archaeologist Stephen H. Lekson, much of what we think we know about the Southwest has been compressed into conventions and classifications and orthodoxies. This book challenges and reconfigures these accepted notions by telling two parallel stories, one about the development, personalities, and institutions of Southwestern archaeology and the other about interpretations of what actually happened in the ancient past. While many works would have us believe that nothing much ever happened in the ancient Southwest, this book argues that the region experienced rises and falls, kings and commoners, war and peace, triumphs and failures. In this view, Chaco Canyon was a geopolitical reaction to the "Colonial Period" Hohokam expansion and the Hohokam "Classic Period" was the product of refugee Chacoan nobles, chased off the Colorado Plateau by angry farmers. Far to the south, Casas Grandes was a failed attempt to create a Mesoamerican state, and modern Pueblo people--with societies so different from those at Chaco and Casas Grandes--deliberately rejected these monumental, hierarchical episodes of their past.

About the Author
Dr. Stephen Lekson earned his doctorate from the University of New Mexico. After a decade with the National Park Service and shorter stints with the Arizona State Museum, the Museum of New Mexico, and Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, he landed at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, where he has been curator of anthropology.

Awards
Winner of New Mexico Book Awards (Anthropology/Archeology) 2010.



Book Information
ISBN 9781934691106
Author Stephen H. Lekson
Format Paperback
Page Count 452
Imprint SAR Press
Publisher SAR Press