32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Applied archaeology, December 27, 2003
This review is from: Anasazi America: Seventeen Centuries on the Road from Center Place (Paperback)
Impressive. The implications of Professor Stuart's analysis of the Chaco Canyon and later Pueblo cultures in Anasazi America blows one away. Certainly some of the social data from our own culture and time period, which he uses for comparison, are scary! The book has a very interesting concept, namely that we can apply what we know of modern economics to the ancient world and what we discover of economic outcomes in the ancient world to our own. While I'm none too certain this is a valid premise, it certainly made for interesting reading! I am by no means an expert in prehistoric Southwestern America, but I have done some reading on the subject, and I can't recall when I've read a volume that made so much sense of the mystery of the collapse of ancient indigenous culture
Unlike many students of ancient history and culture, this author does not stop with a simple description of the data or the sequence of events. He extrapolates principles relevant to all cultures, including our own. Most authors on the American Southwest make much of the climate changes which made life in the area nearly impossible; Stuart's analysis of this data and of the timing of the furious building activity that occurred toward the end of the phase uses economic principals and modern sociology. This technique makes the period come alive. Stuart points out that all human behavior is motivated, and motivated not just by basic biological needs but by social and cultural needs and expectations as well. Stuart uses evidence of violence, even of possible cannibalism that occurred as a climax to the period to understand the implications of decline, violence and collapse on the evolution or extinction of a society. He also applies what he discovers of human behavior in this setting to what he sees as occurring in our own culture. As middle and lower socio-economic classes feel more and more disenfranchised, modern society is facing a possible withdrawal from its principles and leadership.
Some of Stuart's summary of the succession of cultures in New Mexico and the Four Corner's region are arguably speculative. The assumptions he makes about why people did things-like move away from their homes and property-so long as they relate to such factors as climate, infant and maternal mortality rates, nutrition and malnutrition, etc. seem quite sound. When it comes to less quantifiable issues-like personal values, the sense of community among society's constituency, religious intent, etc,-his observations, while certainly very credible, are also not testable.
With these caveats in mind, the reader will discover through this discourse that our own lifestyle as it is currently practiced, may not be indefinitely sustainable. The US might well be facing a cultural disintegration not unlike that of the Anasazi. If the social statistics in the author's final analysis are correct, and they certainly seem reliable to me, the effects of our rather profligate style of consumerism are already producing negative outcomes for a significant portion of the US population. We may share more in common with the ancient Anasazi than we realize. We may evolve into a more sustainable society as the Pueblo people did, or we may go extinct as the Anasazi people did.
As the author points out in his introduction, the book arose as the result of a very favorably received classroom style that stressed the relationship between economics and social cohesion, using archeology as the medium of introduction. In doing so the professor made his specialty relevant to the lives of his students in a way that inspired them. It inspired me too. Unmentioned by the author is the fact that much of our culture is shared by the world, and while the third world may not be politically incorporated into the US or into the privileged portion of the world, it is definitely part of the globalized culture that has arisen as a result of more rapid communication and transportation. It is not inconceivable that the collapse that Stuart envisions for the US cultural milieu might actually extend to the world. It gives one pause to think.
This book could and probably should be included in the reading lists of courses in economics, cultural anthropology, history, sociology, and political science. It might be useful in high school classes that include any or all of these topics. FOR THOSE WRITING PAPERS: this book shows an intersting use of history, anthropology and archaeology as applied to modern day problems. One might find it profitable to: 1) contest the author's conclusions with your own ideas or with quotes from other authors, 2) agree with his conclusions and say why in your own experience you believe what he says, 3) compair his assumptions with someone more versed specifically in economics or sociology than the author is, 4) check his sources to see if you can find errors in his data or in his use of it or to suggest a different interpretation of the date or a different use of it , 5) write a paper on whether or not you believe that it is valid to use anthropological or historical data in this way.
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A superb written contribution to Native American studies, January 23, 2001
This review is from: Anasazi America: Seventeen Centuries on the Road from Center Place (Paperback)
At the height of their power in the late 11th Century, the Chaco Anasazi dominated a territory in the American Southwest that was larger than any European nation at the time. The Anasazi enjoyed a vast and powerful alliance of thousands of farming hamlets and nearly one hundred major towns integrated through economic and religious ties, with the whole system being interconnected with hundreds of miles of roads. It took the Anasazi more than seven centuries to lay the agricultural, organizational, and technological groundwork for the creation of classic Chacoan civilization. Only to have it last a mere two hundred years and completely collapse in 40 years. Anasazi America explains what such a great society collapsed, who survived the collapse, how they survived, and what useful lessons modern societies can draw from the Anasazi experience. Anasazi America is a superb written contribution to Native American studies and reading lists.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Serious Anasazi Interest, October 17, 2001
The Anasazi America is a book which answers the request for *more detail* about the Anasazi of the Chaco Canyon region. Dr. Stuart writes with an engaging style while satisfying the thirst for knowledge and understanding about these not-so-ancient people. The book is full of referenced details. This material may be too much if this is your first book on the Anasazi unless you have already visited the ruins or share genetics with the Anasazi. If you have been lit on fire with a desire to know more, and if that fire is burning in your soul, then while you read this book you will thank Dr. Stuart and Susan Moczygema-McKinsey for their efforts in bringing so much research about the Anasazi into your hands!
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