In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma (Popular Archaeology) [Paperback]

David Grant Noble (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2004

Startling discoveries and impassioned debates have emerged from the Chaco Phenomenon since the publication of New Light on Chaco Canyon twenty years ago. This completely updated edition features seventeen original essays, scores of photographs, maps, and site plans, and the perspectives of archaeologists, historians, and Native American thinkers. Key topics include the rise of early greathouses; the structure of agricultural life among the people of Chaco Canyon; their use of sacred geography and astronomy in organizing their spiritual cosmology; indigenous knowledge about Chaco from the perspective of Hopi, Tewa, and Navajo peoples; and the place of Chaco in the wider world of archaeology. For more than a century archaeologists and others have pursued Chaco Canyon's many and elusive meanings. In Search of Chaco brings these explorations to a new generation of enthusiasts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In Search of Chaco serves as an excellent basic introduction to Chaco studies over the past two decades; basic but not simplistic. It's an updated edition of the author's 1984 SAR publication, New Light on Chaco Canyon. There are contributions here from many eminent lights of Southwestern archaeology and Chaco research. And there are a bountiful number of photographs (including color), maps and figures to enrich the armchair explorer's journey. [The book] can serve as a leisurely read for the interested visitor to Chaco or insightful overview for the avocational archaeologist, while bearing the authoritative imprimatur of some of its most eminent researchers. --Charles Swenson, Dirtbrothers.org, 1/2010

About the Author

David Grant Noble is a writer and photographer who has authored and edited many books on the history and archaeology of the Southwest.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: School of American Research Press; Paper edition edition (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930618425
• ISBN-13: 978-1930618428
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #723,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ruth M. Van Dyke (PhD, University of Arizona) is Associate Professor of Anthropology at SUNY Binghamton. Her research interests include landscape, architecture, visual representation, social power, memory, identity, and ideology. She has conducted fieldwork throughout the U.S. Southwest, with a focus on Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico. In 2000-2001, she was NEH Resident Scholar at the School for American Research, Santa Fe. She is the author of The Chaco Experience (SAR Press, 2007), senior editor of Archaeologies of Memory (Blackwell, 2003), and author of over 25 articles and book chapters on Chacoan archaeology.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Amazing Ruin, April 24, 2005

By 

Smallchief - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma (Popular Archaeology) (Paperback)

Chaco Canyon is in the middle of nowhere, a unexceptional canyon in the New Mexico desert where nobody in his right mind would try to make a living. All the more amazing is that this barren place was the center of the Anasazi civilization. The Great House of Pueblo Bonito is the largest pre-historic building north of Mexico, counting 800 rooms and constructed about 1,000 years ago.

Chaco is mysterious and this book of seventeen essays by authorities in several fields explores those mysteries. One is given the point of view of the scholars as well as representatives of the Pueblo, Hopi, and the Navajo Indians. Good charts, maps, and photos, some in color, support the text. Perhaps the most interesting of all the mysteries is how the Anasazi fed themselves in this unpromising environment and a brief sidebar talks about Chaco agriculture -- although not enough.

The most interesting essay in the book is titled "The Chaco Navajos" and is about the coming of the Navajos, the Spaniards, and the Anglos to Chaco Canyon long after the Anasazi had disappeared. Included is a brief account of pioneer archaeologist, Richard Wetherill, killed in a gunfight with a Navajo in 1910. "Richard Wetherill Anasazi" by Frank McNitt is a fine biography of Wetherill, a character worthy of legend.

"In Search of Chaco" is an attractive, up-to-date look at current theories and thinking about Chaco. One suspects there's a lot more to learn. One quibble: I despise the politically correct term "Ancestral Pueblo" used by the scholars for the people who built Chaco. The old and romantic name, "Anasazi," is far preferable.

Smallchief

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview of Chaco culture, October 16, 2009

By 

E. Gray - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma (Popular Archaeology) (Paperback)

This book was recommended for my new job as a volunteer at Chaco. It is an excellent read, interesting, beautifully illustrated, without being too technical.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good introduction to Chaco Canyon ruins, September 30, 2010

By 

lordhoot "lordhoot" (Anchorage, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma (Popular Archaeology) (Paperback)

This book is a collection of essays written by various archaeologists who have worked on the ruins of Chaco Culture Historical Site as this place is now known. The book bring all kind of different perceptions and historical takes on this isolated area of New Mexico that once housed a great civilization. I brought this book at Chaco and it came recommended by the park ranger there.

Only problems I see with this book is that despite of the differences in perceptions and opinions, most of these archaeologists don't go beyond the conventional box that fenced them in. Until the last essay, I didn't read much about how warfare, tribal rivalry and violence played the role in ending this civilization. The writers in most parts, blindly accept that Navajo and Hopi Indians are ancestral heirs to the Chacoans. Isn't it possible that the Navajo and Hopi Indians could have been their conquerors instead? Absent of evidence of warfare doesn't mean, there wasn't any. I mentioned this several times during my southwest vacation and got a lot "deer in the headlight" looks from these park rangers. There is almost no mention of hunting ability of the Chaco civilization nor their governmental form. In-order to build these Great Houses, centralized control was needed to gathered the resources. Many of the essays also states that many rooms are too small to housed people and thus, they must be storage rooms. Is that a conjecture? I been to these rooms and I have seen smaller rooms where family of four slept and lived. Poor and serfs don't have much of a choice.

But overall, the book proves to be very informative and very educational. Its a great introductory book on Chaco and I thought it was too bad that I read the book after my visit to Chaco. I would have gain a better insight to Chaco ruins if I read the book prior to my visit. But yet, the book also showed that how no matter how well educated and how much researched been done, people who wrote this book appears to have a hard time thinking outside the box and in some ways, their view of Chacoan people appears to be bit patronizing. As I told one park ranger in my travels, "In all the lands, trade routes are also invasion routes, why not here??" Response: Bambi look!! Still, a good reading material for anyone interested in this subject matter.