Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest [Paperback]

Stephen Plog (Author), Amy Elizabeth Grey (Illustrator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 050027939X | ISBN-13: 978-0500279397 | Publication Date: April 1998

The American Southwest is home to some of the most remarkable monuments of America's prehistoric past, such as Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Visitors marvel at the impressive ruined pueblos and spectacular cliff dwellings but often have little idea of the cultures that produced these prehistoric wonders. Stephen Plog, who has spent decades working in the region, provides the most readable and up-to-date account of the predecessors of the modern Hopi and Pueblo Indian cultures in this well-received account. Ten thousand years ago, humans first colonized this seemingly inhospitable landscape with its scorching hot deserts and freezing upland areas. The initial hunter-gatherer bands gradually adapted to become sedentary village groups, and the high point of Southwestern civilization was reached with the emergence of cultures known to archaeologists as Anasazi, Hohokam, and Mogollon in the first millennium A.D. Chaco Canyon became the center of a thriving Anasazi cultural tradition. It was the hub of a trading network extending over hundreds of miles, whose arteries were a series of extraordinary roads that are still being discovered and mapped. To the south lay the settlement of Snaketown, focus of the Hohokam, where the inhabitants built courts for a ritual ball game--intriguing echoes of ancient Mexican practices. The Mogollon people of the Mimbres Valley created some of the world's finest ceramics, decorated with human figures and mythical creatures. Interweaving the latest archaeological evidence with early first-person accounts, Professor Plog explains the rise and mysterious fall of Southwestern cultures. As he concludes, despite the depredations and diseases introduced by the Europeans, the Southwest is still home to vibrant Native American communities that carry on many of the old traditions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A graphic, lucid account of...how these ancient cultures evolved so successfully in response to their changing habitat. -- Science News

An informative text that even a layperson can understand. Beautifully produced photography of the landscape, instructive line drawings, maps...make this a wonderful source of information. -- Bloomsbury Review

About the Author

Stephen Plog is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Virginia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 050027939X
• ISBN-13: 978-0500279397
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,168,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good survey of the American SW, July 4, 2000

By 

Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen" (Mpls, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest (Ancient Peoples and Places) (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this volume because I lived briefly in Arizona and saw some of the ruins (Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monument) mentioned. I had read a book on Monte Verde as a child but other than this modest brush with SW archaeology, I knew little or nothing about the prehistory of the area. This volume was a good place to start for information about the material data available and the way it has been assembled to create a clearer picture of the settlement of Native Americans across this part of the continent. I found particularly interesting the notion careful custodianship of available resources of an entire area allowed a fairly large population to thrive without agriculture. The author also points out clearly that even at the stage of nomadic existance, when little material evidence is available, the cultural differences attendant upon a lifestyle of wide range migration following animals as opposed to intensive plant use within smaller areas are still distinguishable and can be seen in material remains--or relative lack thereof--over a region under study. Of interest too was the concept that farming, far from being the panacea for mankind it is often seen as being in the modern world, was actually a double edged sword. It encouraged increased population density--with an increase in food and fewer problems for sedentary mothers raising children and an increased demand for labor creating population pressures for which a natural environment would not be able to provide in emergencies--which left the farming peoples much more vulnerable to weather changes and episodes of famine. Schooled as I had been in 1960s and 70s anthropological concepts of "better life through agriculture," it was a novel notion that the hunter-gatherer forbears of early farmers had actually been better nourished and that their mobility and understanding of a larger range of countryside actually had left them less vulnerable to environmental mishaps than agrarian people. The volume also does an excellant job of describing some of the better known and publicized settled cultures of the SW, such as the Hohokam and Anasazi with which I was somewhat familiar having lived in the Phoenix area, and the less well known Mogollon and Mimbres (known more for their lovely pottery) cultures. The book is well illustrated with maps, drawings and photographs that will help give the reader a fuller understanding of the written information. It also sticks to the interpretation of the data described rather than going into elaborate detail regarding actual excavation in the region, which would probably lose the average reader on the subject. I found the book very informative on the subject, and wish I'd had it to read before I lived in the area. I would probably have gotten more out of my stay.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent First Introduction to the Indians of the Southwest, February 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest (Paperback)

This book is BASIC in its context...don't expect any major revelations except, of course, if you haven't read anything about the Native Americans of the Southwest. It is beatuifully illustrated with some color photos, many excellent charts & maps, and many many turn of the century photgraphs of the area. I live in Phoenix so many of the places are familiar to me. It is amazing to see a freeway going over a Hohokam ballcourt or to note that many of the canals in use TODAY in Phoenix began as Hohokam irrigation canals. All in all, a nice book. The publishers could have cut costs a little, though, if they had used regular paper instead of the heavy glossy paper, but the photos look so great on the heavier paper it is worth the price.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent First Introduction to the Indians of the Southwest, February 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest (Paperback)

This book is BASIC in its context...don't expect any major revelations except, of course, if you haven't read anything about the Native Americans of the Southwest. It is beatuifully illustrated with some color photos, many excellent charts & maps, and many many turn of the century photgraphs of the area. I live in Phoenix so many of the places are familiar to me. It is amazing to see a freeway going over a Hohokam ballcourt or to note that many of the canals in use TODAY in Phoenix began as Hohokam irrigation canals. All in all, a nice book. The publishers could have cut costs a little, though, if they had used regular paper instead of the heavy glossy paper, but the photos look so great on the heavier paper it is worth the price.