Archaeology in the Great Basin and Southwest

Papers in Honor of Don D. Fowler

Edited by Nancy J. Parezo, Joel C Janetski

Archaeology in the Great Basin and Southwest is a compilation of papers by friends and colleagues that honor Don D. Fowler. The volume encompasses the breadth and depth of Fowler’s work in archaeology and sister disciplines with original scholarship on the human past of the arid west. Included are theoretical, methodological, and empirical papers that synthesize and present fresh perspectives on Great Basin and Southwest archaeology and cover a sweep of topics from Paleoindian research to collaboration with Native Americans. Fowler has continually reminded scholars that to understand the past we must know how the local and specific is regionally and transculturally contextualized, how what we know came to be recognized, studied, and interpreted—in short, how the past still affects the present—and how regional and topical archaeology is part of a disciplinary endeavor that is as concerned with rigorous and inclusive knowledge production as it is with site description and cultural syntheses.

Readers will learn about the nature of archaeological careers, how archaeology has been conceptualized and conducted, the strengths and limitations of past and present approaches, and the institution building and political processes in which archaeologists engage. Contributors posit new thoughts designed to stimulate new lines of research and reflect on the state of our current knowledge about a wealth of topics. Each paper asks four questions about what Great Basin and southwestern archaeologists currently know: Where have we been? Where are we now? What do we still need to learn? Where are we going? This comprehensive volume will be of interest to those practicing or teaching archaeology and to students seeking to understand the intricacies of Great Basin and Southwest archaeology.

Nancy J. Parezo is a professor of American Indian Studies and Anthropology at the University of Arizona and the co-director of the Summer Institute for Museum Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. She has published eleven books, and more than a hundred articles.

Joel C. Janetski, professor emeritus of anthropology, Brigham Young University, is an archaeologist and ethnohistorian who has worked in the Great Basin, American Southwest, Samoa, and the Near East. He is the author of more than a dozen books.

Table of Contents:

List of Figures
List of Tables

Part 1/Introducing Don D. Fowler
1. Honoring Don D. Fowler: An Introdction Nancy J. Parezo and Joel C. Janetski
2. Don D. Fowler, Archaeologist C. Melvin Aikens
3. Don Fowler and the Glen Canyon Project: Formative Experiences William D. Lipe

Part 2/Case Studies and Regional Syntheses
4. West of the Plains: PaleoIndian in the Southwest Bruce B. Huckell
5. The Earliest Stemmed Points of the Intermountain West: Making a Long Story Short Ted Goebel and Joshua L. Keene
6. Moving into the Mid-Holocene: The Paleoarchaic/Archaic Transition in the Intermountain West. Appendix. Sites with Cultural Radiocarbon Dates ranging between 10,000 and 6000 rcy BP. George T. Jones and Charlotte Beck
7. Points on a Continuum: Three Sites in a Middle Archaic Settlement System in the Western Great Basin D. Craig Young
8. Foragers, Farmers, and In Between: Variability in the Late Archaic of Southern Arizona Barbara J. Roth
9. The Later Prehistory of the Great Basin and the Southwest: Thinking about Fremont Stephen H. Lekson
10. Fremont Social Organization: A Southwestern Perspective Joel C. Janetski and Richard K. Talbot
11. Alta Toquima: Why Did People Spend Summers at 11,000 Feet? David Hurst Thomas
12. Resolving the Promontory Culture Enigma John W. Ives
13. Rock Art’s Half Century and More: Research in the Great Basin and the Northern Southwest. Polly Schaafsma
14. Some Thoughts on Evolution, Ecology, and Archaeology in the Great Basin Steven R. Simms, James F. O’Connell, and Kevin T. Jones

Part 3/Specialty Studies in Social and Historical Contexts
15. Eight Decades Eating Dust: A History of Archaeological Research at Danger Cave David B. Madsen
16. Long-Term Continuity and Change in Obsidian Conveyance at Danger Cave, Utah. Appendix. Trace Element Composition, Stratigraphic Occurrence, and Obsidian Source Attributions. Richard Hughes
17. Naming the Desert Bighorn David Rhode
18. When the Elders Speak, Just Listen Heidi Roberts
19. Archaeology, Legitimacy, and the Contemporary Native Nation María Nieves Zedeño
20. Microcosm and Macrocosm in Southwestern Archaeology David R. Wilcox
21. The Role of Nonprofit Organizations in Southwestern Archaeology William H. Doelle
22. The Evolution of Historical Archaeology in the American West Donald L. Hardesty and Eugene Hattori
23. Origins of an Archaeological Tree-ring Data Set: Flagstaff Area, Northeastern Arizona Richard V. N. Ahlstrom and Christopher Downum
24. An Embarrassment of Riches: Tree-Ring Dating, the History of Archaeology, and the Interpretation of Pre-Columbian History at Mesa Verde National Park Stephen E. Nash and Nina Rogers
25. In Praise of Collections Research: Basketmaker Roots of Chacoan Ritual Practices Laurie Webster, Linda Cordell, Kelley Hays-Gilpin, and Edward Jolie

List of Contributors
Index

Praise and Reviews:

“A significant contribution. This is the only volume that I know of that presents up-to-date analyses, discussion, and syntheses of the archaeology of the Great Basin and the Southwest in one place.”—Barbara J. Mills, University of Arizona

“Don Fowler’s career in archaeology spans more than 50 years, but that impressive figure does not express its remarkable breadth: the archaeology of the Great Basin and Southwest, rock art, collections-based and archival research, legislation to protect archaeological resources, the creation of non-profits and endowments to promote research and stewardship, the history of archaeology, the promotion of good relations between archaeologists and Native Americans, and more. The papers in this volume testify to the breadth of Don’s career, and duly honor someone who often worked behind the scenes to help shape western archaeology into the field it is today.”—Robert L. Kelly, University of Wyoming