How and why did styles, materials, conflicts, and religious ideas spread across prehistoric landscapes? The Archaeology of Regional Interaction investigates these issues, using the rich resource of the American Southwest and covering periods from the Folsom to the nineteenth century. Editor Michelle Hegmon has compiled superbly researched essays--originally presented at the 1996 Southwest Symposium in Arizona--into a comprehensive examination of regional interaction. The Archaeology of Regional Interaction surpasses most regional studies, which only focus on settlement patterns or exchange, and considers other forms of interaction such as intermarriage and the spread of religious practices. The authors focus especially on understanding the social processes that underlie archaeological evidence of interaction. The essays in this volume examine what regional systems involve, in terms of political and economic relations, and how they can be identified. One essay by Steven Leblanc provides a sweeping analysis of conflict, a form of regional interaction that has received relatively little attention in the Southwest. A series of chapters devoted to expanding the coverage beyond the borders of the traditional Southwest examines the surrounding areas, including Nevada and Utah, northern Mexico, and the Plains. The volume also provides a unique treatment of religion--including manifestations such as Flower World Iconography, Medicine Societies, and ceremonial textiles--as a form of regional interaction.
The Archaeology of Regional Interaction is the first in a series of publications that University Press of Colorado is developing based on the Southwest Symposium. This volume is of value both to scholars investigating regional systems and to archaeologists of the American Southwest.
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