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At a glance
- Condition
- New
- Dimensions
- 6.5 x 1 x 10.25 in
- Weight
- 2.1 lb
- Publisher
- SAR Press
- Publication date
- June 22, 2009
- Edition
- First Edition
- Language
- English
Description
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.From the publisher: The second printing of A History of the Ancient Southwest has corrected the errors noted below. SAR Press regrets an error on Page 72, paragraph 4 (also Page 275, note 2) regarding "absolute dates." "50,000 dates" was incorrectly published as "half a million dates." Also P. 125, lines 13-14: "Between 21,000 and 27,000 people lived there" should read "Between 2,100 and 2,700 people lived there." Read more
Specs 9
| Publisher | SAR Press |
|---|---|
| Publication date | June 22, 2009 |
| Edition | First Edition |
| Language | English |
| Print length | 452 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1934691100 |
| ISBN-13 | 06 |
| Item Weight | 2.1 pounds |
| Dimensions | 6.5 x 1 x 10.25 inches |
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Top Amazon Reviews
A trailblazing reconstruction of southwest archaeology into narrative ancient history
Format: Paperback
A dazzling read, most critically for the concerted attempt at weaving putative narrative history of the region, from both the author’s apparently great erudition (I am but a novice), and certainly not least from his natural wit. (This guy is funny even when he’s not telling jokes, perhaps the hallmark of the truly humorous :) The book seems ahead of its time in this way, if the author’s assertion (if I recall) is true that formerly the more localized archaeologies of this site or that are too much stovepiped relative to wider and potential narrative syntheses involving surrounding sites and regions at various times and places. Perhaps one of his most exciting statements regards the post-WWII florescence of southwest archaeology, how much reported work has been done, thus enabling anyone interested to work the archaeology of all this archaeology, careers to be had in review and synthesis, from both written materials and museum collections. An ongoing and great academic frontier of the ancient American Southwest. Lekson is an eminently engaging and accessible read. Yes, in the opening pages he does warn the uninitiated that his is not an introductory text, so readers new to southwest archaeology might be better served at first with 1 or 2 more fundamental survey treatments that he recommends. And it’s good advice. I think I remember ploughing ahead, anyway, and then following up with fundamental reads. But the interested reader can find all the same in Lekson’s tome, he just warns that because his is not an introduction, he assumes a lot of foreknowledge from the reader. He does not layout like intentional ‘101’ style survey, but all of that info is nonetheless, of course, in the book to be pieced together. For Lekson’s purposes, however, information is presented in the moment needed to serve his thesis for construction of regional histories, influences, and so forth. Worth mentioning by way of review, he also includes a copious full bodied notes section. A reader can find herself constantly flipping back and forth from note number to note. The “extra” info is, of course, worthwhile. For a smoother integrated reading experience, it might even be worthwhile splitting the copy in two, for reading side by side!
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Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2025 by Colin
A tremendous and highly readable account of the history and archaeology of the ancient Southwest
Format: Paperback
Like many American gringos, I am fascinated by the Native Americans of the Southwest -- both those living there today and those who lived there in pre-Columbian times and left thousands of ruins (including an impressive one less than two miles from my house). But I have long had a vague uneasiness about two things. First, I sensed that my perception of Indians of the Southwest might be "reverentially idealized". Second, I was somewhat bewildered by the profusion of "ancients" of the Southwest, scattered over the landscape like so many potsherds. Stephen Lekson's A HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT SOUTHWEST addresses those two personal concerns and much, much more. Lekson has spent his professional career as an archaeologist in the Southwest, and A HISTORY is a summation or synthesis of what he learned. He is intelligent and an independent thinker; he challenges orthodoxies ("Orthodoxies are comfortable, but they are not necessarily correct"); he is chary of faddish academic theories; he has a predisposition towards doing "history", using the plenitude of archaeological data (and working around the numerous gaps) to hypothesize what actually happened; and he tackles big picture issues rather than the quotidian minutia that is the staple of so many archaeology books. Moreover, he writes extremely well, with panache and nada academic pretentiousness, a generous measure of humor, and a refreshing dose of self-deprecation. A HISTORY covers a lot of ground -- far too much to communicate adequately in the space of an Amazon review. Lekson begins his survey in "Time Immemorial" and carries it through about 1600 and the Spanish conquest of the Southwest. He concentrates on the three major regions of prehistoric peoples -- Anasazi, Hohokam, and Mimbres -- and, surprise!, he discusses their interconnections and reciprocal relationships. He covers major settlements -- "capitals" even -- such as Chaco, the Phoenix Basin, and Casas Grande (or Paquimé). Believing that the Anasazi, Hohokam, and Mimbres were not hermetically isolated in the Southwest, Lekson even explores the influences of Mesoamerica and the Mississippi Valley (especially, Cahokia, which was coeval with Chaco). Parallel to his history of the Southwest, Lekson also writes about the history of archaeology of the Southwest -- the evolution of academic theories . . . and biases. He also covers major "external" drivers of the way archaeology has been practiced in the Southwest, such as CRM (cultural resource management) and NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act). One of his themes is that the Indians of the ancient Southwest were not anything like current Native residents, such as the modern Puebloans, Navajo, Hopi, and O'odham. (How could they be the same, Lekson asks, after everything Europeans did to them?) He has a predisposition to examine matters "political" (how the Indians must have organized themselves) and an aversion to matters of ritual and religion. On the issue of religion, here is an excerpt that also serves as an example of Lekson's style: "Please don't ask me about the content of Hohokam religion. It's remarkably difficult to get a handle on the core doctrines of major modern religions, even with popes and ayatollahs laying down the law. Attempting to determine the principles of an ancient religion--gone for almost a thousand years--is probably a waste of time. We might ferret out hints and details, but think how easy it would be to misunderstand major modern religions from only hints and details." If you are wedded to a reverential, touchy-feely, New Age conception of the Indians of the Southwest, Lekson's book is not for you. If you have been trained as an archaeologist specializing in the Southwest, or if otherwise you are a serious student of Southwestern matters, Lekson's book will run counter to much that you have learned and possibly hold dear. But for an interested, intelligent (and, dare I say, "open-minded") layperson, A HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT SOUTHWEST is immensely informative and an exhilarating treat to read. It merits my highest recommendation. P.S.: Don't ignore the endnotes. There are nearly 100 pages of them (as opposed to 250 pages of text), and many of the textual endnotes are as interesting and informative as the principal text -- and even more witty or provocative. The book also contains about seventy illustrations, a lengthy bibliography, and an index.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2015 by R. M. Peterson
A Radical History of the Ancient Southwest
Format: Paperback
The title of this book is best understood in the context of Lekson's reputation as a radical archaeological thinker - that is the only way to properly prepare oneself for the content to be found between these covers. In one sense, this book is a critical history of southwestern archaeology from 1500 to 2005. Lekson presents the evolution of the methods and the theoretical approaches to southwestern archaeology over time. Each punctuation in this evolution seeks to amend the perceived weaknesses of the previous generation. Lekson is no exception, presenting his own systems-thinking theoretical approach to southwestern archaeology as a remedy to the sui generis thinking borne of (among other things) outdated attitudes toward the Pueblos (but carried forward as a theoretical apparatus through inertia even as these attitudes have changed). In another sense, this book is a reinterpretation of the southwestern archaeological body of evidence dating from before 1500 BC to 1600 AD from Lekson's systems-thinking theoretical perspective. His mantra for this reinterpretation is "Everyone knew everything! No coincidences! Distances can be dealt with!" The result is a reinterpretation that ascribes realistic social attributes to the populations of the southwest throughout time. It is a reinterpretation that incorporates not just the Hohokam, the Anasazi, the Mimbres, the Pueblos - but also the Aztecs and Cahokia and so on as the interconnected elements of a continental social system of systems with ebbs and flows of people and ideas across all regions. In a third sense, this book is a hypothetical reconstruction of the history of the ancient southwest based upon the reinterpretation that precedes it. It is a history of the peoples of a region of great climatic adversity, and their response to this adversity in the form of near continuous experimentation with political forms. It is a whirlwind tale of political change, ranging from the Hohokam who achieved large scale public works while rejecting elites, to the Anasazi who achieved monumental architecture by embracing elites, to the Mimbres who picked and chose what was appealing from both, to the Pueblos whose cautionary oral histories are a clear rejection of all that went before. Humankind is creatively at its best in the face of adversity, and so there is a ring of truth to Lekson's working hypothesis. In a fourth sense, this book is an engaging popularization of southwestern archaeology, with the main body of the work oriented toward "those with more than a casual interest". In a fifth sense, this book is for budding and professional archaeologists, with nearly half of the volume devoted to technical notes and references. In being a Jack of all of these things, this book is in effect a masterwork of none of them - and trying to judge it in terms of one of these genres would miss the point. The only way to judge this book is on its own terms. With this book, Lekson's goal is to challenge the reader to reconsider the mainstream theoretical approaches to southwestern archaeology and look at the archaeological body of evidence from a new theoretical perspective. And, for me at least, this book ultimately succeeds in that respect.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2011 by Ideophile
Not for the conservative southwest archaeologist.
Format: Paperback
Steve Lekson makes you think. And he’s funny, too. This book is an updated version of his first book on Chaco culture, The Chaco Meridian, and it’s very I tersting reading. He’s a big picture archeology, and makes the argument for a relationship between the Chaco culture of the San Jusn Basin, Aztec Ruin snd Salmon Ruin to the north, and the Paquime site in northern Mexico, and how these puebloan cultures may relate to the more southern mesoamericsn cultures as well. It reads like a narrative, and he’s often funny, knowing that some of his ideas Area a bit off kilter. The extensive notes backing up his clsims are at the end of the book, for those who want to get into in more detail. He recommends reading one of the more conventional books on ancient southwest culture before tackling this one, if you aren’t familiar with The ancient native cultures of the southwest. This is a good suggestion, which I followed before reading Leksons book. But it’s very readable, and it does make you think. Chaco is a strange puzzle to this day, and the experts are still all over the map on just what it was all about. I quite enjoyed it, and it will definitely make me think when I visit Chaco Canyon this fall.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2018 by Sue M.
Bold and opinionated history and archeology
Format: Paperback
A terrific book for anyone who is interested in Southwestern prehistory and curious about the development of archeology in the region. This is a bold attempt at synthesizing a history of the entire region over the course of the pre-European centuries. The author admits that he may be wrong about some things, but he seems to be making an honest attempt at pulling together all the small-scale work that has been done in the Southwest and turning it into grand history. Although I'm not an archeologist, I have enjoyed immensely the author's accounts of debates within that field, since so many of the issues that he presents correspond to controversies in other areas of the social sciences and humanities. Lekson is a fabulous writer: he is opinionated and iconoclastic, and he writes in a breezy, very readable style. The footnotes are often as compelling as the test. I have loved reading this book!
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Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2018 by formervermonter
Superb Work!
Format: Paperback
If you don't read any other book on this subject, read this one! Stephen Lekson's readable style and sense of humor make this book not only informative, but a pleasure to read. The author presents an unbiased recitation of facts, and gives readers the benefit of other scholar's views as well as logically presenting his own. Those readers familiar with Dr. Lekson through his previous works will not be disappointed, and those unfamiliar with him are in for a treat. Viewed by many as something of a maverick for his unconventional theories intoduced a decade ago in "The Chaco Meridian", this book will do nothing to diminish Dr. Lekson's reputation! A "must read" for anybody interested in the prehistoric southwest!
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Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2010 by BP17
Brings the SW back into its real realm.
Format: Paperback
After having read years of processualist views/studies from an aging generation of isolationists, suddenly, after a prelude from the Chaco Meridian, comes this breath of academic fresh air into the Southwest. This study comes from one of the very few archaeologists who has taken the time to think, really think and reflect, beyond the level of corn, population density and the blah, blah, blah of the highly rhetorical, shallow arguments of many/most of his endogenous peers. I was especially happy to see works of Andre Gunder Frank and Kristian Kristiansen cited in the bibliography, as well as some of the more recent studies on the Aztatlán phenomena of Mexico's northern Pacific Coast, the ancient Southwest's peers and interactive neighbors for centuries. If a student/reader wants to begin to submerge into the ancient Southwest without the gaffers of a lost generation, this is a great place to start, and a stimuli for those experienced to review a basic question that has puzzled many Southwestern and Northern Mexico archaeologists for decades. What is probably Lekson's most important contribution to begin with is having come to terms with the errors of his generation, having stepped aside to lift his very active mind to questions and patterns beyond the short-sighted limits of the present day research. This is something most of his peers will never have the honesty, nor the preparation, to do. This book is a must for those who study the Southwest, as well as those who work in Northern Mexico, this latter group never having stayed from the notion of interaction between the two areas. This book is stimulating and kick-starts the Southwest out of its near comatose research agenda. If one goes on to read Frank's -ReOrient- and Kristiansen's -Europe Before History- one will realize how long the American Southwest has been in need of Lekson's book. Southwesterners- Welcome back, we have been waiting for you, where you been? Steve Lekson- WRITE ON !
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Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2010 by Peter F. Jimenez Betts
Integrated perspective on what must have happened
Format: Paperback
Stephen Lekson has always been a bit controversial, especially with "The Chaco Meridian". But he always presents well-thought-out views of prehistoric culture in the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico. "A History of the Ancient Southwest" gives one possible history of the Southwest and the biases of the archaeologists who unearthed the evidence in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Lekson integrates economic, climactic, hydrological, and cultural influences, and does it across traditional archaeological boundaries. He starts with some basic principles (there are NO coincidences, everyone knew everything, distances can be dealt with) and builds a picture of a civilization that rose and fell with its agricultural technology, conflict over resources, and societal changes. Along with Jared Diamond's "Collapse", Lekson's edited "Archaeology of Chaco Canyon", and several things by Vivian, Lister, McNitt, LeBlanc, and Reed (ed., "Chaco's Northern Prodigies"), "A History of the Ancient Southwest" molded my thinking and theme of my documentary "Tracking The Anasazi - How Great Houses and Stripped Resources Led To Abandonment". A valuable perspective on Anasazi, Mogollon, and Hohokam development - highly recommended to students of Southwestern archaeology.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2010 by Mark W. Bohrer