Jon Hanna is an undergraduate here at Montclair State University.  He
submitted this review last week and I have edited and revised it slightly
during the review process.   Anita Cohen-Williams will be reviewing the
entire series from which this text hails at some time in the future, and
from a very different perspective.

Archaeology by Design



      By Stephen Black
      and Kevin Jolly
      Walnut Creek, CA:
      AltaMira Press
      2003, 157 pp., $22.95.



      Reviewed for Archreview
      by Jon Hanna,
      an Montclair State University
      Undergraduate Student,
      Department of Anthropology
      and
      Center for Archaeological
      Studies.

"If archaeologists are to continue to suckle the CRM teat in the twenty-first
                                   century, we sure better be learning
things worth knowing." (68) Designing such
                                   worthwhile research projects in the real
world of politics, money, and "archaeology
                                   by default," (15) however, is a lot more
complicated than the novice archaeologist
                                   may expect. Thus, Archaeology By Design
by Stephen Black and Kevin Jolly
                                   (both associated with the University of
Texas at Austin) intends to educate the
                                   newest generation of archaeologists on
how to "think first, [and] dig later" (83)
                                   when framing archaeological research.
Black and Jolly's discussion forms the
                                   cornerstone (Volume 1) of the new
Archaeologist's Toolkit series edited by Larry
                                   Zimmerman (Minnesota Historical Society)
and William Green (Logan Museum of
                                   Anthropology at Beloit College).

                                   Stephen Black (Ph.D., Harvard) is editor
of "Texas Beyond History, a public
                                   education project of the Texas
Archeological Research Laboratory-TARL- at UT
                                   Austin where he is also a research
associate.  Dr. Black has been involved in
                                   various aspects of CRM archaeology since
the 1970s. Kevin Jolly is also a
                                   research associate of TARL as well as the
Vice President of Technology for RW3
                                   Technologies, Inc., a business management
and technology provider. Together they
                                   outline everything from CRM jargon to
assessing how much toilet paper is likely to
                                   be used during fieldwork. Individual
chapters systematically address how to create
                                   realistic research questions, develop a
functional strategy for answering them, and
                                   then write the results up in a useful
final report.

                                   As dry as the subject may seem at some
points, Black and Jolly do their best to
                                   lighten the mood while keeping their
discussion from diverting into other topics.
                                   This habit allows for brief side notes on
archaeological specializations (such as
                                   geoarchaeology), handling work-relations,
being honest, keeping everyone
                                   informed, accepting (and asking for)
criticism, and an adequate basic survey of
                                   CRM history and laws in North America
(although if your looking for the specifics
                                   on CRM logistics, you'd be better off
investing in a volume intended for that
                                   purpose- some of which are listed in this
title's annotated bibliography). An
                                   emphasis is also placed on the importance
of keeping updated on current research,
                                   and an appendix offers various starting
points in "Journals You Should Read"
                                   (131). The authors also offer sound
advice on many aspects of developing a
                                   realistic project design- including how
to involve the public's interest (a topic
                                   actually covered in Presenting the Past-
the final volume of the Toolkit series).
                                   Perhaps the most emphasis, however, is
placed on the importance of being a
                                   legitimate CRM archaeologist and a
pragmatic decision-maker rather than indulging
                                   the temptation of riding a mechanical
routine through every contract (an approach
                                   they label as "archaeology by default" (15)).

                                   The strengths of this work are abundant,
but perhaps the only apparent weakness
                                   is its brevity.  Though said to be the
soul of wit, brevity seems to hamper  thorough
                                   treatment of the authors' points and some
are left unsupported by examples. Of
                                   course, the advice is quite beneficial
and the repetition of some points could be
                                   accepted as emphasis.  This brevity,
however, also necessitates a cursory
                                   discussion of academic research design.
Though the authors certainly do give an
                                   outline of an academic research project,
complete with an example of UT's lengthy
                                   research at the Classical Mayan site of
Colha, Belize, the up close and personal
                                   intricacies of the CRM world are more
thoroughly addressed than those of the
                                   academic perspective. The distinction
between the two worlds (i.e. their history
                                   together) is also emphasized and
sufficiently discussed. Black and Jolly probably
                                   favored an emphasis on the contracting
world because of the more problematic
                                   nature of research design that world
faces, and the fact that most of the
                                   archaeology conducted in the developed
world is non-academic.

                                   Naturally the goals of theoretically
guided and question-based research are
                                   ubiquitously expressed throughout
archaeological research publications, but the
                                   issues of realistically implementing such
ideals in contract archaeology is rarely
                                   discussed outside of professional
conferences. As an Anthropology undergraduate
                                   with less than a year's experience in the
field, I found the book to be quite helpful in
                                   clarifying the mysterious jargon and
procedures often encountered in the CRM
                                   domain. This self-help style paperback
provides quick info and theoretical models
                                   while also offering useful, realistic
advice for the totally unexposed beginner to
                                   serious Cultural Resource Management.
Insights on this topic are not always
                                   available in college textbooks and
classes, making this book an excellent
                                   elucidation of an oral archaeological
tradition that's finally been written down for
                                   those who need it most- the earnest
students of archaeology.


                                   Jonathan Hanna
                                   Anthropology/Archaeology Undergraduate at
Montclair State University
                                   hannaj1@...

Jim Selley is an avocational archaeology enthusiast writing from Ontario
Canada.  His review of Before California was submitted last week and flew
through review without alterations.


      Before California:
      An Archaeologist Looks at
      Our Earliest Inhabitants
      by Brian Fagan.
      2003.
      Walnut Creek, CA:
      Altamira Press.  288pp.
      $21.95




      Reviewed for Archreview
      by Jim Selley,



Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest Inhabitants is a
popular
                                    account of the aboriginal inhabitants of
the state prior to the arrival of the Spanish
                                    in 1542. It is intended as an
introduction to the prehistory of California. The
                                    author, Brian Fagan, hopes to provide an
adequate summary of human adaptation
                                    in California in spite of the general
inaccessibility of what he terms as the "'gray
                                    literature', publications of limited
circulation resulting from cultural resource
                                    management projects." (p. xi)

                                    Part 1 is entitled "The Archaeologist's
Tale". In its sole chapter, "A Stream of
                                    Time", Fagan gives a quite lengthy
overview of the subject.  Included are very
                                    useful descriptions of several
fundamental archaeological principles, as well as
                                    data on tribal, linguistic and
demographic distributions at the time of European
                                    contact.  Fagan also outlines three
common themes that will drive his telling of the
                                    story.  These are cultural continuity,
interconnectedness of peoples, and complex
                                    spiritual beliefs.  Cultural continuity
relies on the people constantly moving,
                                    searching for food.  Interconnectedness
refers to the networks of exchange, both
                                    social and economic, that underpinned
native existence in prehistoric California.
                                    Spiritual beliefs permeated every aspect
of that existence as well.

                                    Fagan attempts to tackle the thorny
issue of the first peopling of the Americas to
                                    2500 B.C. in "Beginnings", Part 2 of the
book.  In particular, he notes that there
                                    seems to be very little evidence in
favour of the coastal migration theory into the
                                    Americas, and what there is, is very
sketchy.  Fagan also takes on the "big-game
                                    hunter" theory, characterized by the
Clovis point, referring to the theory of intrepid
                                    hunters spreading across the New World
as "intellectually bankrupt" (p. 49),
                                    especially with regard to early
California. Instead, prehistoric Californians engaged
                                    in a variety of subsistence activities
such as seal, sea lion, and dolphin hunting,
                                    mollusk gathering, and processing grass
and other plant seeds using baskets and
                                    milling stones.

                                    In Part 3, Fagan shows how "The Web of
Interconnectedness" became
                                    predominant in California between 2500
and 1500 B.C.  The chapters here first
                                    point out how acorn processing became of
primary importance, leading to social
                                    stratification as economic surpluses
started to be produced.  Another factor
                                    leading to ranked society was the
development of the obsidian trade.  Obsidian
                                    was used for the manufacture of
blades.  Fagan then shows the importance of the
                                    shaman in ancient California, relating
the shamanic role to a broad tradition of
                                    ritual and belief.  The writer adeptly
gives a portrait of the often conflicting and
                                    controversial theories that snake their
way through very limited and often
                                    conjectural archaeological evidence. The
same applies to Fagan's treatment of
                                    California rock art.

                                    "A Crowded World", Part 4, describes
native California from 1500 B.C. to A.D.
                                    1542.  This part is divided up
geographically, showing the different cultures that
                                    arose, starting with the salmon culture
of the northwest coast.  Subsequent
                                    chapters provide depth on San Francisco
Bay, the central valley, the south and
                                    southeast, and the Santa Barbara
Channel.  Each region's adaptations are treated
                                    clearly, yet comprehensively.  The whole
reveals a picture of a cultural complexity
                                    not even hinted at in the name "Digger",
the epithet given contemptuously to native
                                    Californians by the first Anglo
Americans to settle the state.

                                    The book is concluded by the chapter
entitled "Entrada", a brief overview of the
                                    European "discovery" of California and
its inhabitants.  The chapter sets the stage
                                    for the horrible devastation that was to
be wrought upon native California.

                                    Before California is Fagan at his
best.  It is a well written summary reflecting the
                                    current state of knowledge of
prehistoric California.  Done in his typically engaging
                                    style, the book is an antidote to the
commonly held view that aboriginal California
                                    was rather a backwater in comparison to
the loftier cultural achievements in other
                                    parts of the New World.

                                    Jim Selley

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prehistoric/reviews/04_03_lernia.htm

Sand, Stones, and Bones: The Archaeology of Death in the Wadi Tanezzuft Valley (5000-2000 BP), ed. SAVINO DI LERNIA & GIORGIO MANZI
Arid Zone Archaeology Monographs, Vol. 3. Università degli studi di Roma “La Sapienza”. 2002. 356 pages. ISBN 88-7814-281-6. (€60)

This book forms the first of a series of three planned volumes devoted to “The Archaeology of [the] Libyan Sahara”. The project is directed by Mario Liverani and focuses upon Wadi Tanezzuft during the early Holocene in order to better understand marginal environments. The period studied covers the transition between the Late Pastoral (c. 5000-3500 BP) and the Garamantian (c. 500 BC – AD 500) phases of North African prehistory. The book consists of fourteen chapters following a relatively traditional scheme of introductory chapters (Chapters 1-3), field and laboratory research type papers (Chapter 4-13) and ending with a concluding report summarising the entire project (Chapter 14). The editors describe the project as being an attempt to merge varying subfields, such as relatively traditional archaeology, geology, anthropology, palaeobiology, zooarchaeology and molecular genetics.

The first chapter, written by the volume editors, evaluates a variety of topics within the archaeology of death in the Saharan region. Special focus is placed upon the rituals and beliefs of the later Prehistoric populations of south-western Fezzan in Libya, with evidence also being collected for neighbouring regions such as Niger, Algeria and Egypt. The choice of research region is said to be the result of the nature of the archaeological record, as the area is characterised by strong erosion associated with increasingly arid conditions, associated with disturbed and otherwise altered settlement features. The authors also note that the position of Acacus massif corresponds to a crossing point between modern genetic boundaries related to human gene flow across the Sahara. This chapter provides a valuable introduction to the aim of volume, which is to take a combined approach interlinking physical anthropology and archaeology, in order to reconstruct cultural and micro-evolutionary trajectories of the past populations / societies. Prior to this research project, the knowledge of the history of the Sahara consisted only of survey data, with some archaeological excavation of settlements and rock art studies and information upon the palaeobiology, and the funerary practices and rituals associated with death was very limited.

In the second chapter, Mauro Cremaschi and Savino di Lernia provide a summary of regional approaches to mortuary archaeology and attempt to insert the current study into a theoretical framework. Attention is drawn to the important relationship in the study area between climate, environment and “cultures”, as analysis is undertaken of the fragmentation of the Late Pastoral communities and the different adaptations employed to cope with increasingly arid environments. In this chapter, in contrast to the first, the authors state that the choice of research area (the Wadi Tanezzuft west of the Acacus scarp) was due to this area escaping the aridification of the neighbouring areas for several millennia. The authors note problems of representative sampling within the study as sampling was undertaken by covering the area by 4WD vehicle in 2km wide strips, and employing fieldwalking when areas of interest were noted from the vehicle. This approach seems a sensible method to use in such a harsh and vast environment. The authors recommend using a regional approach, integrated with high resolution studies in certain sample areas associated with selective excavation. As a result, the surveyed area covers 2500 km2, in which 119 funerary sites and 560 stone structures were located.

Chapter 3, by Sandra Sivilli, is a synopsis of the history of studies relating to North African megalithic architecture and mortuary archaeology. This is a distinct chapter from rest of volume, and is described as an exploration of the links between the political contexts of archaeology, colonialism and the nature of early archaeological studies in the region. The chapter certainly describes the history of research into both North Saharan and North African tumuli, bringing in mention of past diffusionist thinking and concluding with some discussion of more recent research employing 14C dates as evidence for population movement.

Chapters 4 and 5, written by many members of the project, describe the systematic fieldwork in the Tanezzuft Valley. The authors hope that the exhaustive publication of field data through appendices and a complete graphic and photographic documentation may aid future research. These chapters also include a discussion of the relationship between the representativeness of the sampling and the type of archaeological evidence.

The first of these chapters includes a discussion of the term “megalithic architecture” as it has different interpretations in other studies and may encompass tumuli that are little more than heaps of stones. Within the study area, large boulders are very rare, and neither quarries nor transported rocks were found. There follows a useful and thorough description of a method in which to categorise megalithic stone structures into eleven types, ranging from simple stone alignments and tumuli to crescents and bazinas. This chapter may therefore become a valuable resource to others working upon similar features.

A minor error is found here as the western edge of the study area is the Algerian border (and not the eastern edge as written). This issue highlights a major problem with the volume. Mapping is relatively poor throughout. A simple map is required that clearly locates the area subdivisions used in the text, as regions are referred to but cannot be clearly located without some indication of their relationship to each other. The reader is often left unsure as to whether sample areas are immediately proximate or at vast distance.

The authors compare the quantity of funerary monuments with the ethnohistoric record of the local population size and hypothesise that 500-1000 people lived in the Wadi Tanezzuft in late prehistory. From the number of funerary monuments in the region and this estimate of population size, they predict that about 14 individuals should be buried in each structure. In reality only about 1 to 4 people are found buried per structure, and hence the project’s research question changes to ask where the rest are buried.

The fifth chapter consists of descriptions of the excavations undertaken. Some clear accounts are given of the tumulus excavations, such as the sequence of burials in tumuli 1 & 2 at site 96/129 near Tahalla. The burials consist of a vast range of biologically aged individuals, from neonates, through children and juveniles, to mature adults. These skeletons are found in association with grave goods, including beads (stone, ostrich egg-shell and faience), carinated scrapers and bifacial arrowheads etc. Detail is provided as to the phasing of the construction of the tumuli through analysis of the changing tumuli complex shapes. The authors suggest, with little evidence provided, that this is associated with a change from kinship linkage to the assertion of social ranking in groups. There is much interpretation of the archaeological evidence, and potentially some over-interpretation of the data, such as hypothesising over potential sacrifice of the female in Tumulus 3bis (H1) and its presumed association with the male in Tumulus 3 (H2) at site 96/129, or of the potential mother and child in Tumulus 10 (H2 and H4 respectively) again at site 96/129. When site 96/129 was selected for excavation it was believed to represent a single middle to large cemetery of Late Pastoral phase. Excavation indicated that it dated to the start of the 4th millennium BP and ended around 2500 BP (and thus overlapped with the start of the Garamantian phase). In the following chapter however, describing the textiles and leather, the same site is simply described as a Late Pastoral cemetery, radiocarbon dated to 3800-2700 BP.

Chapter six was outline by Alfio Maspero, who died shortly before completion of the volume, and hence it was finished by other members of the project. It consists of a survey of the organic matter, including leather and other textiles. These studies employed morphological, histological, chemical an immunological methods. The material found was mostly animal leather, with some wool textile being found in the so-called “Royal Tumulus” (of Garamantian period), but no true textiles being found in Late Pastoral phase graves. Dyed textiles and blue dyes were also only found in the “Royal Tumulus”.

The study of the plant macrofossils in Chapter 7, by Michela Cottini and Mauro Rottoli, suggests that the vegetation during the Late Pastoral and Garamantian periods was very similar to today, in comprising of arid adapted species. Wooden sandals made from Faidherbia albida (previously known as Acacia albida of the Mimosa family) were found in a burial at site 00/195. Wild Sorghum was found in a Late Pastoral context. Palm dates are also noted as having been used as funerary offerings in tombs dating to the Garamantian period (approx. 3000BP), which the authors imply suggests some date palm cultivation.

Chapter 8, by Francesca Alhaique, comprises a zooarchaeological study and includes a discussion of the meaning of faunal remains in funerary contexts. The faunal sample from the tumuli is small for the Late Pastoral period, but large for the Garamantian period despite having excavated many more Late Pastoral tumuli. The faunal material was all weathered and poorly preserved, and therefore species attributions were not always possible. A tentative identification was made of Orycteropus afer (aardvark) from Tumulus 10 at site 96/129. This is important as currently aardvarks are only found south of the Sahara. An equid bone was found in 00/195bis. Alhaique notes that this probably originates from Equus africanus (wild ass), but suggests that, as the bone was found in association with a human burial, it may represent E. caballus (domestic horse). The later funerary structures from the Garamantian are described as indicating complex burial rituals, through their interment of Gazella dorcas and ovicaprines. Bones from these species, comprising mainly humeri and metapodials, are found with cutmarks and burning, which Alhaique interprets as indicating use as part of the burial ritual as either a meal or offering. The inclusion of dorcas gazelle, a wild species, amongst small livestock raises questions about the importance of hunting during the Garamantian.

The ninth chapter, by Emanuela Cristiani and Cristina Lemorini, consists of a functional study of the funerary material, considering the deposition with the deceased of unused tools and evidence for particular relationships between the buried individual and the objects, such as of beads and pendants. The deposition with the dead of intact unused projectile points is argued to imply ritual behaviour.

Chapter 10, by Francesca Ricci and others, consists of an inventory of the entire human skeletal sample discovered in the Tannezuft Valley from 1999 onwards. The chapter represents a traditional descriptive approach to skeletal biology. Generally the authors are to be praised for making their sample means data fully available to other researchers, although some researchers may raise eyebrows at the claimed accuracies. There is some unrealistic age determination, with certain adults being placed into 5 year age bands, and some rather meaningless accuracy being claimed, such as measuring long bones to 0.1mm. The latter is complicated by lack of detail as to how certain measurements were taken and thus what they actually consist of, e.g. the medial maximum humerus diameter. Stature estimates are given to 1mm despite the chapter containing a detailed section describing the potential use of a variety of prediction methodologies. The authors also compare two individuals to Howells’ global data set of cranial measurements, but, earlier in the chapter, provide craniometric sample means using slightly different measurements. They do not provide the equivalent Howells measurement data for the sample, hence it is possible that the earlier measurements have been taken as proxies for Howells measurements despite not being collected in the same manner.

Chapter 11, by Emiliano Bruner, Francesca Ricci and Giorgo Manzi, consists of geometric morphometric study of the shape of a sub-sample of the material described in the previous chapter. The sub-sample consists of two individual skulls (H1 from Tumulus 10 at 96/129 and H1 from 00/195). These individuals are compared with material including Somalian, Ethiopian, Canary Islander and Eastern Libyan Oases crania. Morphological continuity is implied in association with interaction with sub-Saharan populations. It would have been useful if this same comparative sample had been employed in the analysis in the preceding chapter.

A study of the skeletal stress markers at site 96/129, in chapter 12, was undertaken by Belinda Arrighetti, Bruna Reale, Francesca Ricci and Silvana Borgognini Tarli. These musculo-skeletal stress-markers are linked to repetitive movements and hence may be linked to occupation and labour. The research is based upon the premise that the duration and amount of mechanical stress placed upon the bone, through repeated action, is linked to the degree of bone resorption or formation in that region. The results indicate that the degree of stress increased by age band of the sample, and the location of the greatest stress, within the vertebral column, changed by age from the thoracic region, through the lumbar region, to the cervical region, and potentially some sexual division of labour.

Preliminary results obtained from ancient DNA studies are presented in Chapter 13, by Carla Babalini and co-workers. Mitochondrial DNA extraction was attempted upon a sub-sample of human teeth from ten individuals. The mtDNA locus was selected due to its maternal inheritance pattern, high copy number, simple structure and relatively fast rate of mutational change. Analysis was undertaken upon the two hypervariable regions and region V. The authors report that the mtDNA from the individuals from site 96/129 was reasonably distinct from that obtained from the other sampled material. Only one individual was fully characterised, and was found to be a member of an African haplotype (L3).

The final chapter, written by the editors and Francesca Merighi, acts as a synthetic assessment of the preceding studies. The authors believe that “in a certain sense, Late Pastoral people became Garamantes,” (p. 281) through population continuity, as little evidence was found in the current study of population replacement. This research project has clearly demonstrated heterogeneity of mortuary practice. In the initial phase of the Late Pastoral stone tumuli are rare, are set in restricted areas and can best be described as isolated tombs, potentially being reserved for special individuals within the group. By contrast, the second phase, at the start of the 4th millennium bp, is characterised by generalised use of cemeteries with an increase in the heterogeneity of tumuli type. Most of the excavated structures described in chapter 5 date from the third phase, at the end of the Late Pastoral. This last phase has even greater heterogeneity in terms of megalithic architecture and deposition, with the development of large burial grounds.

The chapter also includes an outward view towards the rest of the Sahara. This section highlights the importance of megalithic architecture and the development of African cattle cults, in view of no cattle burials being found during the 1999-2001 fieldwork. These reviewing sections are excellent in placing this region into a greater geographic context and link in to previous studies of population diversity and movement. The authors conclude that there is a degree of local population continuity from the Middle Pastoral up to the Garamantes. A hypothesis is also developed of major population shifts through oasis contraction, on the basis of funerary site and settlement distribution, which is then linked to the emergence of social hierarchy. This final chapter can therefore be recommended to all working in North Africa as a valuable resource for the development of future research design.

The book forms a good preliminary report upon the study of this Libyan material. Throughout the volume, specific attention has been drawn to ritual behaviours and practices. The inclusion of the detailed abstracts at the start of each chapter is very useful. The volume would have been improved by giving clearer captions for the keys to shading in the various figures. The volume has occasional strange choices of phraseology, which is linked to the publication not being in the authors’ native tongue. For example, in Chapter 5, all the skeletons are described as “lied” rather than lay, such as at the base of a tumulus. The volume is recommended for all those working within North African contexts and provides a good grounding in the theoretical debate surrounding mortuary analysis. The authors are commended for their fine work on the project and one hopes that the future volumes in the series will be as thorough.


Sonia Zakrzewski
Dept of Archaeology
University of Southampton

Review Submitted: March 2004

The views expressed in this review are not necessarily those of the Society or the Reviews Editor.

---

The Prehistoric Society Home Page

Matt,

I'm one of the reviewers and I, at least, have not yet received the book I am to
review.

Bernard

-----Original message-----
From: Matt Tomaso tomasom@...
Date: Wed,  2 Jun 2004 11:51:09 -0400
To: archreview@yahoogroups.com
Subject: SpamAssassin=5.20 [archreview] reviews overdue or books overdue?

Matt,

I'm very sorry.  Will have review to you on Sunday.

Jim Selley

On Jun 2, 2004, at 11:51 AM, Matt Tomaso wrote:

> Dear arch-reviewers,
> Several of you have gone past your submission deadlines for books which
> were supposed to have been sent to you by Altamira Press.  I have been
> made
> aware by one of you that the text was never received, and I am
> wondering
> what's up with the others.  Please be advised that failure to submit
> reviews for books which have been sent to you by a publisher guarantees
> that you will never be sent another review copy by that publisher and
> makes
> the publisher wonder whether they should do business with us at all.  I
> don't want to have to ask you all to return the books you requested,
> but I
> will if it comes to that.  Please submit your reviews, or at least an
> estimate on when they will be done to me immediately.
> Thanks,
> ~Matt Tomaso
>
> Matt Tomaso
> Director, Feltville Archaeology Project
> Principal Investigator and Associate Director, MSU Center for
> Archaeological Studies
> (973)655-7990
>
> http://picard.montclair.edu/archaeology/
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Matt,

I wasn't one of the official reviewers, but am
planning to send you the review of the Archeologist's
Toolkit when I finish reading them (6 books in all).

=====
Anita Cohen-Williams
Search Engine Optimizer/Guru
"Get Your Web Site Noticed!"
http://www.mysearchguru.com

Intertune - One place for web hosting, development, and e-mail marketing
http://www.intertune.com

Dear arch-reviewers,
Several of you have gone past your submission deadlines for books which
were supposed to have been sent to you by Altamira Press.  I have been made
aware by one of you that the text was never received, and I am wondering
what's up with the others.  Please be advised that failure to submit
reviews for books which have been sent to you by a publisher guarantees
that you will never be sent another review copy by that publisher and makes
the publisher wonder whether they should do business with us at all.  I
don't want to have to ask you all to return the books you requested, but I
will if it comes to that.  Please submit your reviews, or at least an
estimate on when they will be done to me immediately.
Thanks,
~Matt Tomaso

Matt Tomaso
Director, Feltville Archaeology Project
Principal Investigator and Associate Director, MSU Center for
Archaeological Studies
(973)655-7990

http://picard.montclair.edu/archaeology/

Matt,

Thanks for passing this on.  I think all too often the books that advocate
a "fantastic" stance in archaeology should be reviewed (and challenged) in
the more popular press.  I think all too often most archaeologists just
hastily dismiss them, or say, "Why bother?!"

Best, MEH


On 5/26/2004, "Matt Tomaso" <tomasom@...> wrote:

>This entertaining and useful review came in from Archaeological Society
of
>New Jersey member Ray Whritenour.  I am re-posting it with Ray's
permission.
>

[snip]


Mark Hall
markhall@...

THE CIRCLE OF LENAPEHOKING, by Paul Tobacco Cashman (Xlibris Corp.,
Philadelphia, 2003), is guaranteed to leave your head spinning in a
circle! Wild conjecture, masquerading as informed speculation, is the
chief characteristic of this work. The author contends that certain
stone walls, rock piles and landscaped oval and circular plots of
ground--found in association with natural features and lithic formations
in the woods of eastern Pennsylvania--were fashioned by Lenape Indians,
and express particular aspects of Lenape spirituality. Chief among
these spiritual expressions is the sacred circle, on the perimeter of
which is marked the solstices, equinoxes, and other celestial events.
Never mind that no proof is cited to confirm that these "circles" and
other man-made features are, in fact, aboriginal creations. And, never
mind that there is no evidence, whatsoever, that the Lenape EVER
observed the solstices and equinoxes. (In truth, not even one of the
three comprehensively documented dialects of Lenape has words for
"solstice" or "equinox.") We need only accept Cashman's opinion that
these are Lenape sites; and, we need only follow his convoluted
reasoning in order to "see" what the Lenape "must" have once believed.

What we really have here is a meditation on sacred circles, based on the
author's understanding of concepts drawn from Hinduism, Buddhism,
Taoism, alchemy, Jungian psychology and numerology. In other words,
this is a hodge-podge New Age cosmology projected onto features of the
Pennsylvania landscape, and falsely attributed to the indigenous
inhabitants thereof.

There are so many errors of fact in this book, I simply haven't got the
energy to cover all of them. Here are a few:

Page 9 - "These people called their home Lenapehoking..." [Highly
unlikely, since the term, "Lenapehoking," was coined by Nora Thompson
Dean, just twenty years ago.]

Page 26 - "Grandfather Sun" [Here we go again! The Lenape called the
Sun their 'Elder Brother.']

Page 70-71 - "Amangamek ...means Frightful Snake-like Water Spirits."
[Good grief! This word means nothing more than 'big fish.']

Page 71 - "Nanaboush" [Here we go again! Nanaboush is NOT a Lenape
culture hero. He's Ojibway.]

Page 72 - "Keshelemukum" (sic!) = 'Thinking Grandfather.' [The Lenape
called Kishelemukong their 'Father.']

Pages 72-80 - "The Woman Who Fell from the Sky" - This is the most
extravagant attempt to reconcile several Lenape (and non-Lenape)
creation stories, by weaving them all together in a dizzying
phantasmagoria, that I've ever seen! This would absolutely stun a
traditional Lenape. Half of the characters (or more) are unknown from
Lenape tradition.

Page 79 - "...all Lenape consider Nanaboush to be their common ancestor
and revered grandfather." [I don't know any Lenapes who believe this!]

The Lenape language used throughout this work is, of course, abominable.
Almost every word is spelled wrong--no matter what pronunciation you
assign to the letters.

The author's vision of a circle, marked at the four quarters, thus
producing an invisible cross inside the circle, which turns into a
pyramid by extending each point of the cross to the zenith; then, an
upside-down pyramid created by extending the same points to the nadir;
thus producing a diamond-shaped three-dimensional figure is then
attributed to the Lenape! From this vision the Lenape then get the idea
for all their artistic motifs--the circle, the cross, the triangle, the
diamond, etc. And, it also generates all the religious concepts
outlined in this book (though unknown from actual Lenape culture!).

Let me leave you with a quotation to ponder:

"We suspect we have stumbled upon something reaching beyond North
America. People have used shapes and symbols all over the world. Does
the three dimensional diamond shape relate to the pyramids in Egypt, the
cross in Europe, the Star of David in Israel, the triangular mandalas of
India like Shri Yantra? Ultimately there is only one spirit path on
planet Earth." (pages 144-145)

I've got nothing against comparative religion. It's been a passion of
mine for more than 35 years. But, if anyone thinks that these
speculative vaporings have ANYTHING to do with Lenape spirituality, I've
got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you!

Ray Whritenour

---

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The Skull of Australopithecus Afarensis (Series in Human Evolution) by
William H. Kimbel, Yoel Rak, Donald C. Johanson, Ralph L. Holloway,
Michael S. Yuan
ISBN: 0195157060
(Published by Oxford University Press, USA, April 2004)

272 pages

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195157060 (£82)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195157060


Table of Contents
Background
Recovery and Reconstruction of A.L. 444-2
Recovery
Stratigraphic Provenance and Geological Age
Taphonomic Aspects and Reconstruction of the Skull
Ontogenetic Age and Sex of A.L. 444-2
A.L. 444-2: The Skull as a Whole
The Cranium with the Occluded Mandible
The Cranium: Lateral and Median Views
The Cranium: Vertical View
The Cranium: Frontal View
The Cranium: Occipital View
The Cranium: Basal View
``Composite Reconstruction'' of 1984/1988 in Light of A.L. 444-2
Pattern of Cranial Cresting
Pattern of the Venous Sinuses
Endocranial Morphology of A.L. 444-2
Distortion of the Endocast
Assessment of Endocranial Volume
Morphological Description
Discussion
Elements of the Disarticulated Skull
The Frontal Bone
The Parietal Bones
The Temporal Bones
The Occipital Bone
The Maxilla and the Palatine Bone
The Nasal Bones
The Zygomatic Bone
The Mandible
Dentition
Implications of A.L. 444-2 for the Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Status of A.
afarensis
Morphology of the A.L. 444-2 Skull: Summary of the Major Features
Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Status of A. afarensis
Phylogenetic Position of A. afarensis
Australopithecus afarensis in Human Evolution
Notes
References
Index

Hi,

I am pleased to announce that a review of the book "The Triumph of the
Baroque: Architecture in Europe 1600-1750", edited by Henry Millon, has
been completed and is available for reading at
http://www.antiquityofman.com/baroque_architecture_review.html .

===========
Mikey Brass
MA in Archaeology student
"The Antiquity of Man" http://www.antiquityofman.com
Book: "The Antiquity of Man: Artifactual, fossil and gene records explored"

- "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?"
(Albert Einstein)

I have been reading Wu's "On the origin of modern humans in China"
(Quaternary International 117, 2004) where he argues for a "Continuity with
hybridization" model. This model treats Homo erectus as a sub-species of
Homo sapiens, i.e. Homo sapiens erectus, and modern humans as Homo sapiens
sapiens. There is no room for Homo heidelbergensis who appears to be
subsumed within the two respective sub-species.

The forementioned effect of creating two sub-species is that fossils such
as Dali, Jinniushan and Maba, dated at 109kya, 280kya and 135kya
respectively, are allocated to Homo sapiens sapiens.

He starts off my mentioning the 12 morphological features proposed by
Weidenreich to be representative of a straight line of evolution from
Peking Man to modern Chinese, and points out that some of these
characteristics are rather "primitive characteristics shared by members of
the genus Homo".

He moves on to cite common features from the existing known remains such as
the shovel-shaped teeth, the large nasomalar angle, et al. While
recognising that at least some of the features are found elsewhere in the
world, nowhere else do they form a morphological complex. Therefore, he
concludes, this mosaic of features "indicates a gradual transition between
these sub-species".

There are morphological commonalities between Maba's skull-cap in terms of
constriction in the post-orbital region when compared to the H. sapiens
erectus remains. Also, "the angular torus has been described as one of the
unique features of H. s. erectus; however, it is shown also in H. s.
sapiens skulls from Dali and Ziyang." Ziyang is missing from the site
chronology table, Table 1. Thus, considering the lack of a clear
demarcation in features, Wu considers it to be prudent to regard "erectus"
and "sapiens" to be sub-species of the same chronological species.

The polytypic species viewpoint of Wolpoff et al. (1984) is endorsed and a
strict Out-of-Africa replacement model is rejected on morphological,
archaeological and genetic grounds. Rather, "the most reasonable
explanation for the fortuitous occurrence of these features in Pleistocene
China is that they are attributable to small amounts of intermittent gene
flow from the West" with "gene flow [becoming] a more potent force in later
periods such as the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, thus diminishing the
differences between the human populations of China and those westward".

The artifacts from China belong, until after 40kya, to the lithic Mode I.
While the occasional biface (Gongwangling) and handaxes (Dingcum, Baise
Basin) have been found, there remains no evidence of a massive change from
Mode I to Mode III as would be expected if immigrants from Africa entered
China around or prior to 60kya. Instead the scattered data is claimed to be
supportive of limited hybridization.

The genetic data is examined, from the Neanderthal mtDNA to studies such as
B-globin. The latter, published by Harding et al. (1998), yielded a date of
around 800kya for the most recent common ancestor of modern humans.
Problems with genetic analyses are pointed out: gene loss, irregularity of
the clock, and the irregular evolution within and inter-loci. He concludes
by stating that "the different dates of the MRCA [most recent common
ancestor] represent only "locus-specific conclusion(s)" instead of a
"genome-wide conclusion" and may imply different times of migration from
Africa".

This is an excellent idea!

Speaking of reviews, I am in the process of proof reading a book due
out soon (April in fact). I'll be reviewing this book for the
newspaper I'm currently working for and, if the publishers permit it,
Mike's www.antiquityofman.com website and, if both you and the
publishers allow it, I can post a review here as well.

The book is called Malta Before History.... just to whet your
appetite:)

Regards
Isabelle

Listmembers,

In order to stimulate increased interest and participation in this mailing
list, John McCarthy, Mitch Allen and I have worked out an interesting
opportunity.  I want to acknowledge and thank John publicly for getting
this rolling.

I am sure that most of you are aware of Altamira Press' excellent tradition
of publishing in archaeology, ethnology, ethnohistory and related fields.

Those interested in reviewing any of Altamira's publications should

1       View their web site
http://www.altamirapress.com/
and browse subjects within which they might be interested in reviewing
recent (less than 5 years old) texts.

2.      Select 1-2 books they are willing to review

3       Submit an e-mail request to me at tomasom@...
specifying first and second choices of books.

4.      E-mail me to let me know when the text arrives.

5.      Submit a draft review to the mailing list within four months of
receipt of the text.

6.      Once approved by me or any appointed editor(s) for publication,
e-mail the review to the list for moderator approval.


Comments on the steps above:

In keeping with the original intent of this mailing list, I want to make it
clear that nobody wants to turn this mailing list into yet another
peer-reviewed review publication process.  Of course we are interested in
quality, but it has been the intent of this list to generate text-based
discussion, not consultation with self-proclaimed or even well-recognized
(!) experts.  That intent remains the same.  So, I would encourage ANYBODY
- even those who are not experts in whatever aspect of archaeology (or a
related field) they would like to read about to submit a review.  So, when
you go to do #s1 and 2 above, limit yourself to stuff you're really
interested in, not necessarily to stuff which you can claim vast experience
with.

When you send me an e-mail concerning your choices (3), I will see whether
anybody else has already been selected to review your first choice and, if
so, I will send a request to Altamira to have a copy of your second choice
mailed directly to you, if not, you will be sent your first choice.

If you fail to submit a review I will yell at you, and you will incur bad
vibes and possibly bad kharma from everybody on the list, the professional
community in general, and all good people in this universe!  That's all we
can really do in retribution.  As somebody who has in fact failed to submit
a review once (for inexplicable reasons), I know that there are
circumstances which make such things difficult, so I can only ask that any
unreviewable texts be returned to Altamira.

In keeping with the casual intent of the list, extensions maybe granted on
submission deadlines, as long as extension requests are accompanied by
proposed extension deadlines and decent explanations of need.

Finally, when you do submit (5), I will give the review a quick once-over
for any glaring problems, possibly forwarding it to anybody I deem
necessary and can trust to give it serious attention, and it will be
published within a few days.  If I see anything which I think needs to be
changed, I will send the review back to you with suggested revisions.  You
will get to approve any modifications, or, of course, make them yourself
prior to publication.

I hope you will all consider getting more involved in your (HAHAHA) spare time!

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,

Matt Tomaso,
MSU Center for Archaeological Studies

http://picard.montclair.edu/archaeology/
Tomasom@...

This is a great review of an important book on a controversial
subject.  Forwarded to archreview with the permission of the author -

John
________________________________________________________

Christy G. Turner II and Jacqueline A. Turner. Man Corn: Cannibalism
and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest. Salt Lake City:
University of Utah Press, 1999. v + 547 pp. Figures, appendices,
bibliography, index. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-87480-566-X.
Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, National Endowment for the Humanities.
Published by H-NEXA (October, 1999)

[Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author
and not of his employer or any other federal agency.]
The American Southwest Revisited: Violence and Cannibalism, and the
Anasazi and Toltecs of Mesoamerica

The topic of cannibalism is an emotionally charged issue that may
engage humanistic or anthropological terms (endocannibalism and
exocannibalism, for example), suggestions of human sacrifice, or near
starvation resulting in emergency or survival cannibalism. These and
psychoanalytical phrases such as social pathology and "Hannibalistic"
(Silence of the Lambs) behaviors, may bring vivid, perhaps Stephen
King-like or Dracula-like imagery to the minds of laypersons and
scientists alike. Add to this the potential for institutionalized
violence or warfare, witchcraft or sorcery, and ritual executions,
and then suggest that these activities and behaviors occurred in the
American Southwest, a region usually depicted for peace, harmony,
tranquility, and spirituality. Are these the potential plot
parameters for a new "blockbuster" Tony Hillerman novel? No, to the
contrary, these are some of the current scientific postulates by
anthropologists and other learned scholars who are debating the
hottest issue in the prehistoric American Southwest explications of
warfare, witchcraft, ritual executions, and cannibalism.

Even in the most dire, life-threatening circumstances, the
consumption of the flesh of the affiliates of one's own species or
sociocultural group, whether the members of the stranded Donner Party
(Hardesty 1997) or sports team airplane crash survivors in the Andes
(Read 1974) is regarded by a majority of outside observers as
behaviorally inappropriate and, even as a criminal or anti-religious
act. Neurological disease vectors aside (kuru, for example), the
consumption of the body parts or flesh of an enemy or of an ancestor
is in some cultures considered appropriate, if not mandatory,
behavior. Within the past half dozen years esteemed newspapers,
sleazy tabloids, and even that venerable magazine The New Yorker
(Preston 1998) have carried accounts of gender violence, butchery,
and the consumption of human body parts by other members of our genus
and species. Even the journal Science (Kolata 1986) has been seduced
by the so-called "myth" of cannibalism. Alfred Packer of Donner Party
fame in 1846 and, more recently, Jeffrey Dahmer of Milwaukee and Alex
Sukleten of Kazan, Russia, come to mind when cannibalistic behavior
is mentioned (Askenazy 1994:10-17, Hogg 1958:188-191, Sartore 1994:91-
100).

Recently the subject of a major story written by journalist David
Montgomery and published in The Washington Post (1999), "The Body
Farm" created by William Bass at the University of Kentucky documents
the need need to study environmental and cultural effects on human
remains. The story demonstrates the importance of such analyses in
the assessment of traumas, pathologies, accidents, interpersonal
violence, and probable suicides.

In the mold of Scientific American, a new periodical called
Discovering Archaeology (May-June 1999), included a "Special Report:
Wars, Witches & Cannibals A Dark New View of the American Southwest."
This issue includes presentations by Steve A. LeBlanc, Stephen
Lekson, Christy G. Turner II, and William H. Walker (1999) on the
theme of warfare, cannibalism, and the suppression of witchcraft; the
narratives by Lekson, Turner, and Walker also appear on Discovering
Archaeology Online at
http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/0399/toc/ . Likewise, a
television "documentary" entitled The Most Ancient Taboo: Cannibalism
was featured on the History Channel's In Search of History, broadcast
in August 1999. Evidence of cannibalism has been discerned recently
in a Neanderthal population in western Europe, specifically the site
of Moula-Guercy, Ardeche, France, about 100,000 years ago (Defleur et
al. 1999, Culotta 1999). Evidence of cannibalism in Fiji less than
2,000 years ago will be reported by David DeGusta in a forthcoming
article in American Journal of Physical Anthropology (Holden 1999).

Therefore, from newspaper stories, television programs, and film
documentaries, the public has become increasingly aware of the
importance of skeletal analysis, forensic science, and
paleopathology, and cannibalistic behaviors. Nonetheless, while there
is mounting scientific evidence for violence and cannibalism,
scholars also are turning to sociocultural explanations as to why the
act occurs and who conducted these activities.

An Analysis of "Man Corn"

Christy Turner, Regents' Professor in the Department of Anthropology
at Arizona State University, and his late wife, Jacqueline A. Turner
(21 September 1934-13 February 1996), are the co-authors of Man Corn.
The book's unusual title derives from the Nahuatl word tlacatlaolli,
a "sacred meal of sacrificed human meat, cooked with corn" (following
Fernandez 1992). The Nahuatl and Mesoamerican connections are more
than coincidental. The idea for this volume was conceived in 1958,
and Christy dedicates the volume to the memory of his wife. Christy
Turner's initial assessments of cannibalism were published in Flynn,
Turner, and Brew (1976), but a formal, systematic analysis began in
1980 with enhanced macro- and microscopic examinations, some
experimentation, and a concerted effort to explain the causation. The
Turners comment (p. 8) that "research on cannibalism has not been
free of controversy or political and professional censuring," and
they cite instances where their work has been disbelieved, dismissed,
or admonished.

The narrative is divided into five chapters (pp. 1-484), supplemented
by one six-page appendix (a discussion about and reproduction of four
data-collecting forms), a four-page acknowledgment, 348 black-and-
white figures (halftones and illustrations), 111 tables, and 499
references cited. There is also a detailed index to sites (n = 141)
and an elaborate nine-page general index of conflated proper nouns
and topics (one page has double columns and eight pages have triple
columns). The diversity of references in English and Spanish cited in
the Turners detailed analysis include unpublished diaries, newspaper
accounts (such as the Los Angel Angeles Times), Mexican codices (the
Codex Borgia), masters' theses and doctoral dissertations, and even
literary texts (Willa Cather). I shall summarize briefly the major
thrust of each chapter and offer some comments before turning to an
overall critique of the volume.

Chapter One: "Introduction: Studying Southwestern Cannibalism" (pp. 1-
9) has one table illustrating chronologies in the "Southwest"
and "Valley of Mexico" (e.g., Basin of Mexico). The Turners begin by
differentiating endo- and exocannibalism, consider prior general
surveys (particularly by Hogg 1966), Ahren's (1979) opposing views,
and rebuttals (notably by Forsythe 1985). The authors state (p. 2)
that "this book is the first to examine prehistoric Southwestern
cannibalism on a regional scale rather than site by site. It has two
goals. First, we define and illustrate the characteristics of damaged
human bones that we believe reflect acts of cannibalism in the
American Southwest. Second, we attempt to explain why cannibalism
occurred there, offering a few working hypotheses about local,
proximate causes. In order to be persuasive in arguing that
cannibalism existed, we present all the evidence we have been able to
amass, which makes up the largest part of this book chapter 3."

This regional approach, they assert (p. 2), produced five principal
findings: 1) Cannibalism can be differentiated from all other forms
of bone damage and mortuary practice. 2) Cannibalism was practiced
for almost four centuries, beginning about C.E. 900, and was
concentrated in the Four Corners area especially among people living
in Chaco Canyon and in or near outlying Chacoan great houses. 3)
Chacoan cannibalism appears to have originated in Mexico, where the
practice was "common" [their term] and dates back at least 2,500
years. 4) Social control, social pathology, and some manner of ritual
sacrifice (probably in that order) are provisionally the best
combination of explanatory factors. And 5) reports of prehistoric
Southwestern cannibalism have been published since 1902, but have
been largely ignored. There is no evidence of cannibalism among the
Hohokam, perhaps because it has not been looked for there, even
though the Hohokam were more influenced by Mesoamerican culture than
any other prehistoric Southwestern peoples (p. 4). Cannibalism, the
Turners suggest, has a restricted distribution, with almost all of
the verified cases in or near the Anasazi culture area.

Chapter Two: "Interpreting Human Bone Damage: Taphonomic,
Ethnographic, and Archaeological Evidence" (pp. 10-54, fourteen
figures, eleven tables) provides an excellent review of methods of
interpretation, beginning with the concept of taphonomy (Efremov
1940), concentrating on perimortem events. Taphonomy (p. 6) is the
explanation of how the bone assemblage was deposited and damaged
after death. Among the topics assessed are environmental processes;
the mechanical and physical breakdown of bone; the effects of ground
water, microbial activity, and acidic soils; and human activities
(breaking, cutting, burning, etc.); color changes in burned bone; and
pot polishing from culinary activities. A through assessment of
ethnographic accounts of animal processing (among the Navajo, Zuni,
Yavapai, Hopi, etc.), as well as archaeological data (from Olsen-
Chubbuck, Snaketown, Arroyo Hondo, and other sites), provide
comparative evidence for the definition of the "signature of
cannibalism" as opposed to mortuary practices reported for the
Anasazi area of the prehistoric Southwest.

A continuum of seven taphonomic categories are discerned (pp. 39-42):
1) normal, considerate burial with only minimal disturbance; 2)
normal considerate burial with moderate environmental disturbance; 3)
abnormal deposit with major environmental disturbance; 4) abnormal
deposit without environmental disturbance; 5) normal considerate
burial with perimortem human-inflicted damage; 6) abnormal burial or
abandoned bodies with perimortem human-inflicted damage; and 7)
nonburial floor or pit deposit with perimortem human-inflicted
damage. McGregor's (1965) temporal and regional summary of
prehistoric Southwestern mortuary practices is also reviewed. Human
bone damage caused by interpersonal violence is also assessed,
including a review of data and interpretations from the Battle of the
Little Bighorn (Snow and Fitzpatrick 1989). However, modern
bioarchaeological analyses and forensic science have begun to aid in
our understanding of mass deaths, such as the reanalysis of the
Custer massacre by Scott, Willey, and O'Connor (1998), not cited by
the Turners. The killing and mutilation of witches among Southwestern
Pueblo peoples (pp. 52-53) is mentioned and evaluated, but
discounted. I shall revisit this issue later in this review. In sum,
the Turners conclude that ethnographic analogy provides evidence for
the roasting and boiling of humans in the same manner as individual
game animals.

In Chapter Three: "Taphonomic Evidence for Cannibalism and Violence
in the American Southwest: Seventy-six Cases" (pp. 55-415, 292
figures, 82 tables), the Turners document, illustrate, and discuss 76
sites where cannibalism or other violence both occurred. In 316
detailed pages, the authors consider 31 sites located in New Mexico,
eighteen from Arizona, sixteen situated in Colorado, ten in Utah, and
Casas Grandes (Paquime) from northern Mexico. Data is summarized in a
17-part format: Claim Date, Claimant, Claim Type, Other [Site]
Designations, Site Location [USGS Quadrangle and elevation], Site
Type, Cultural Affiliation, Chronology, Excavators and Date,
Institutional Storage, Site Reports, Osteological Reports, Skeletal
Evidence of Stress, Burial Context, Associated Artifacts, Figures (in
the Turner's book), and Taphonomy. The latter unit, Taphonomy, is
further divided into 11 categories: MNI (Minimum Number of
Individuals), Age and Sex, Preservation, Bone and Fragment Numbers,
Breakage, Cut Marks, Burning, Anvil Abrasions, Polishing, Vertebrae
Numbers, and [Evidence of] Scalping. Often there are extensive
quotations from the original site reports and osteological analyses.
The authors completed their data collecting in August 1995, but
remark on human osteology from 11 other sites excavated and reported
since then (p. 404). They also emphasize that the data they assess
and tabulate errs on the side of conservatism (p. 413).

Of the 76 cases (Table 3.1, pp. 56-57), the Turners confirm 54
instances of cannibalism. Discount eight, and are unable on the basis
of the evidence to sanction 14 others.

The Turners noted that there is "no way to make scientific
generalizations except by pooling the available information" (p.
404). Nonetheless, there is always a potential problem of sample
size. In Table 3.77 (p. 405), 38 sites with 286 MNI are listed; of
the 258, 52.1 percent are adults, but identifiable adults by sex
includes only 29 males and 28 females (a total of 19.8 percent).
Therefore, in those sites exhibiting cannibalism there are nearly
equal frequencies among adult males and females. In 38 sites with
demonstrated violence (documented in Table 3.78, pp. 406-407), there
are 445 MNI, of which only 37.7 percent are adults, or 94 males and
35 female adults. The Turners conclude that because there are more
than twice as many adult males as adult females represented,
suggesting either that more women were spared or captured, or that
males were more frequently involved in the fatal conflicts. Combining
these data, violence or cannibalism account for 731 individuals, 43.4
percent of these were adults and 23.6 percent could not be aged or
gendered. Subsequently the Turners relate their amassed information
to gross chronological periods that I summarize below:

Pre-A.D. 900, six sites, 88 MNI, 13 cannibalism, 75 violence 900-
1300, 62 sites, 454 MNI, 243 cannibalism, 211 violence 1300-1900 4
sites, 189 MNI, 30 cannibalism, 159 violence

Of the 159 cases listed as violence from 1300-1900, 127 were at one
site, Casas Grandes (Paquime) located in northern Mexico.

There is a minor error in the Turner's tabulations: Table 3.80 refers
to 62 sites for the period 900-1300, while comparable data in Table
3.81 uses a figure of 69 sites.

In a summary, Figure 3.292 (p. 411), the Turners illustrate the
locations of those Southwestern sites where cannibalism is believed
to have occurred and the "spheres of influence" for these sites. The
Turners perceive the Chacoan connection as a common variable in these
sites, and they make three points: 1) Southwestern sites with
evidence of cannibalism are linked temporally to the so-called Chaco
phenomenon; 2) Mesoamerican influence is seen in the rise and fall of
Chaco, but the extent of this is uncertain; and 3) Mesoamerican
cannibalism is linked to ritualized body processing. Five minimal
summary conclusions are then stated (p. 413): 1) Perimortem
taphonomic signatures of violence and cannibalism are distinct; 2)
perimortem cannibalism is the same as that found in the processing of
large and small game animals in both the prehistoric and contemporary
periods; 3) Anasazi sites and the Chaco phenomenon are "strongly
linked" to cannibalism for the period C.E. 900-1300; 4) Southwestern
cannibalism seems to have begun with Chacoan development and areal
expansion; and 5) 38 episodes of cannibalism involved 286 persons of
all ages and sexes.

Unfortunately, the Turners do not further evaluate the assembled data
(pp. 59-404). I have attempted to do this, and present the following
general summary on the incidences of the 76 sites discussed:

Sites Types (n = 24 types); frequencies of occurrence in 76 sites:
Pueblos (20), pithouses (10), house (5), kiva (5), Great House (5),
village (4), caves or dry alcoves (3), residences (3), cliff house
(2) rooms (2), and isolated graves (2); 13 others are single
occurrences. Culture: (n = 23 types); frequencies of occurrence in 76
sites: Anasazi and its variants (65), Basketmaker II (3), Salado Gila
Phase (2), Sinagua (2), and Hopi (2); eight others are single
occurrences. Within the eleven Anasazi-related cultures the
frequencies include: Anasazi Mesa Verde (13), Anasazi Chaco (11),
Anasazi (11), Anasazi Largo-Gallina (9), Anasazi Kayenta (8), Anasazi
San Juan (4), Anasazi Cibola (3), and Anasazi-Mogollon (3). Loci of
Human Remains (n = 24 location types); frequencies of occurrence
(some sites have multiple loci, total n = 86): On floors (28), fill
(13), pits (8), buried (4), rooms (3), charnal pits (3), firepits
(3), trash (3), bone beds (2), and "many" (2); 14 others are single
occurrences. MNI (Minimum Number of Individuals): frequencies based
on 76 sites regardless of chronology, loci, etc.):

Total individuals reported in the literature (n = 2,458), total
available for analysis (1,045). Based on the Turner's assessments:
Adults (n = 449), subadults (160), children (81), and infants (10);
specifically identified as males (179) and females (105), regardless
age.

Mesoamericanists and well as Southwestern scholars will appreciate
the information summarized in Chapter Four: "Comparative Evidence:
Cannibalism and Human Body Processing in Mexico" (pp. 415-458, 34
figures, sixteen tables). Some of the osteological specimens were
examined personally by the Turners, and the ethnohistoric and
ethnographic literature was also evaluated, leading to the conclusion
that cannibalism has been practiced in Central Mexico for a minimum
of 2,500 years and possibly 6,000 years. The question of the
magnitude of this practice is unresolved for the earlier periods.
There is no clear evidence from the Preclassic Olmec or Postclassic
Toltecs of Tula, although the Nahuatl-Aztec Late Postclassic Borgia,
Hall, and Nuttall codices do illustrate acts of cannibalism. However,
not cited by the Turners, Hassig (1992:15) reports that among the
Olmec, burned bones suggested the cannibalism of war captives. Carmen
Maria Pijoan's pioneering taphonomic studies of Aztec remains
illuminates the Late Postclassic period and is cited by the Turners.

The Turners mention evidence from the Basin of Mexico, including the
osteology from the Classic Teotihuacan period (C.E. 100-650, revised
chronology) residential sites of Maquixco and Tlajinga 33, and the
Feathered Serpent Pyramid in the Ciudadela. Sempowski and Spence
(Millon 1994) conducted a comprehensive analysis of 373 burials
recovered at Teotihuacan from the nineteenth century through the
1970s. The Turners do not cite this data (revised from the authors'
dissertations), nor is Rattray's (1992) inventory of 267 burials and
grave goods mentioned. However, there is no documentation of
cannibalism for Classic period Teotihuacan. According to Spence, who
conducted the forensic analysis, "some bone might have ended up in
dumps because of cannibalism. No traces of cutting, scalping, or
marrow extraction were observed on any of the human bone" (1994:339).
The cremation of Teotihuacanos by members of their own society
apparently prevailed, although subfloor pit interments (with grave
goods) in residences are also found. Storey's (1992:129-130)
evaluation of 206 individuals identified in the Tlajinga 33 Classic
period site show some signs of cut marks on a few human specimens
(possibly one individual) but no evidence of burning or boiling. This
suggests sacrifice rather than cannibalism as the Turners have
defined it.

Citing a textbook entry (Adams 1991:224), the Turners (pp. 421-422)
also state that the suburban Maquixco site produced "large quantities
of split and splintered human bone fragments in general garbage and
trash heaps, indicating that humans were being used for food." As a
participant in the excavation of this site in the early 1960s, I take
exception to this assessment. In the field and in the subsequent
laboratory analyses, had the opportunity to study the human remains
(but less so the non-human animal osteology) from all of the Maquixco
excavations. The human remains had no observable no evidence of
cutting, dismemberment, burning, roasting, or cooking. This was
confirmed in 1965-1966 by Frank Saul (then a human biologist at Penn
State) and in 1969-1970 by the late Smithsonian Institution physical
anthropologist and paleopathologist, Larry Angel, in 1965-1966. Some
specimens of deer recovered from the middens did show evidence of
burning (probably roasting). One midden specimen from Maquixco (TC-
8:3), a fronto-nasal fragment of an adult with a probable artificial
frontal-occipital cranial flattening, had cut marks and might have
been a fragment of a trophy skull.

In addition, there is no evidence of cannibalism, although there were
ample indications of violence and sacrifice, as evidenced by the more
than 200 human sacrificial captives recovered from the Feathered
Serpent Pyramid excavations by Ruben Cabrera, George Cowgill, Saburo
Sugiyama, and Michael Spence (personal communications). The studies
conducted by Spence (personal communication) which confirms the
hypothesis of captive sacrifices and determines, on the basis of
oxygen isotope analysis, that the chemical signature of these
individuals' osteology indicated that they were foreigners to the
Basin of Mexico. I have no new report on the evidence of the human
osteology from Saburo Sugiyama's current (1999) Pyramid of the Moon
excavations. However, an apparently high status burial with bound
hands accompanied by raptorial birds (mostly eagles, one hawk, and
one owl) and the caged skeletons of a jaguar, a mountain lion, and a
wolf were recovered in situ. Evidence suggests that these were all
buried alive as sacrificial offerings.

Chronologically the key to the Turner's argument about interpersonal
violence and cannibalism in the American Southwest is the Early
Postclassic Toltec period and particularly the site of Tula, Hidalgo,
excavated by Mexican and American archaeologists over many years. The
Turners report that Tula has "not yet produced clear-cut osteological
evidence of sacrifice" (p. 425-426). Benfer (1974), who had also
studied the osteology from Casas Grandes, reported no evidence of
cannibalism or violence among six human burials that he studied at
the site of Tula. The Turners do not cite his analysis of the Tula
specimens nor other documentation from this same site provided by
Healan (1989:111, 126, 128, 194-195), who reported a skull fragment
from House VI, Room 2; caches of human limb bones; a burial within an
altar; and a subfloor urn burial. Diehl (1983:98) conjectured
that "the burnt human bones found in our excavations [at Tula]
indicate that human flesh was considered edible. The bones probably
came from sacrificial victims who were slaves. The frequency of
cannibalism is not known." He also stated that fragmentary human
skeletons and miscellaneous human bones mixed with other debris on
and above room floors was "puzzling" at the Corral Locality
excavations, but provided a hint of cannibalism (1983:94, 95).
However, no one has provided incontrovertible documentation for
sacrifice or cannibalism at Tula, capital of the Toltecs. The Turners
were unable to examine these specimens. Hassig's (1992:112)
assessment of Toltec warfare cites Diehl and Healan's studies.

The Turners themselves also personally evaluated skeletal materials
from Formative period Coxcatlan Cave in the Tehuacan Valley (Burial
2, a five-year-old with potential evidence of "cranial roasting"),
ca. 6000 BP. Human remains from Preclassic Tlatelcomila, Tetelpan
(Mexico, DF); the Classic period site of Electra, Villa de Reyes (San
Luis Potosi); 95 MNI from the Classic period Alta Vista (Zacatecas)
site; and 170 skulls from Tlatelolco (Mexico, DF) Aztec tzompantli
(skull rack) were examined and compared by the Turners. Evidence for
sacrifice and potential cannibalism is evident for the Late
Postclassic Aztec period (C.E. 1200-1520). However, there was no
evidence for warfare, sacrifice, or cannibalism seen in human
specimens recovered from sites in the Mexican states of Sonora,
Durango, Nayarit, or Coahuila (p. 426). Trophy heads were found at
the site of Guasave, Sinaloa, and there was minimum direct evidence
of cannibalism at Casas Grandes, but clear evidence of sacrifice and
cannibalism at La Quemada, Zacatecas (C.E.100-900) (p. 428). Based
upon this "evidence," the Turners conclude that human sacrifice and
cannibalism are much older in Mesoamerica than in the American
Southwest (p. 457-458). However, for La Quemada (Nelson, Darling, and
Kice 1992:305-308) not cited by the Turners -- mortuary practices
included the use of a charnal house, a skull-trophy rack, articulated
(but decapitated) skeletons, articulated complete skeletons, and bone
piles. Cannibalism was not suggested.

Hassig (1988:121) reminds us that warfare during the Late Postclassic
Aztec period emphasized the taking of captives, usually nobles and
warriors, for purposes of sacrifice, and he writes that "after they
were killed, the bodies were laid by the skull rack, and each warrior
identified the one he had captured. Then the body was taken to the
captor's home, where it was eaten; the bones were hung in the house
as a sign of prestige [citing Duran and Sahagun]. The heads of those
who were sacrificed were skinned, the flesh was dried, and the skulls
were placed on the skull rack" [following Motolinea's Memoriales].
There is no evidence that women, children, or infants were slain or
their flesh consumed (see also Cook 1946). The Turners use the older
Bandelier translation of Sahagun's Florentine Codex, rather than the
definitive Dibble and Anderson translation (Sahagun 1953-1982). Four
books from the newer rendition consider the Aztec human sacrifice of
captives, with Book 2: Ceremonies, providing the most information
(Books 1:19; 2: 3, 24, 47-48, 52-53, 170, 179; 4:35; 9:64, 67).

In Chapter Five: "Conclusion: Explaining Southwestern Cannibalism"
(pp. 459-484, eight figures, one table), the authors offer several
hypotheses in order to explicate the occurrences of Southwestern
cannibalism. Among those assessed are starvation or "emergency"
cannibalism, social pathology, and institutionalized violence with
cannibalism. The Turners reject starvation as a general explanation
after considering Hopi, Zuni, and other Pueblo Indian oral
traditions. They turn to a combination of social control, human
ritual sacrifice and social pathology as a proximate explanation, and
mention Mesoamerican sources beginning with Classic period
Teotihuacan (pp. 462-463). They also cite Maya specialist Richard
Adams's (1991:256-257, 285) textbook and conjectures by Bertha Dutton
(1964) whose postulated Toltec migrations to the American Southwest
C.E. 800-1000, although her discussion emphasizes "might have"
migrated. Next, the authors turn to an evaluation of Mesoamerican
influence on the Southwest (citing Dutton, the Listers, and Riley,
among others), prior to a discussion of direct contact with
Mesoamericans or the diffusion of cultural traits (emphasizing the
postulates of the Listers, Ferdon, and Spicer). "Dental Evidence for
Mexicans in the Southwest" (pp. 472-477) is offered as confirmation.
Dental transfigurement (a term perferred to "dental mutilation")
among some adults at Guasave, Sinaloa in West Mexico and at several
sites in Arizona and New Mexico, including Pueblo Bonito, suggest to
the Turners that "Mexicans were physically present in the Southwest"
(p. 476). The argument is very "thin" and the frequencies of
occurrences of human remains are carefully minimized in this
narrative.

The social control hypothesis is seen as a potential explanation, but
social pathology (killer-cannibals of the Jeffrey Dahmer type) is
assessed as are psychiatric disorders, but these are rejected. The
concept of institutionalized violence, such as a cannibal warrior
cult, is touched upon, and the Turners conclude that (pp. 482-
483): "The interregional contrast in Southwestern cannibalism seems
to fit the idea of an actual Mexican Indian presence stimulating or
even directing the Chaco phenomenon. We propose that these
southerners were practitioners of the Xipe-Totec (or Maasaw) and the
Tezcatlipoca-Quetzalcoatl (plumed serpent) cults. They entered the
San Juan basin around A.D. 900 and found a suspicious but pliant
population whom they terrorized into reproducing the theocratic
lifestyle they had previously known in Mesoamerica". The Mexicans
achieved their objectives through the use of warfare, violent
example, and terrifying cult ceremonies that included human sacrifice
and cannibalism. After the abandonment of Chaco, human sacrifices and
cannibalism all but disappeared, suggesting some kind of prehistoric
discontinuity."

Assessment of the Book

I shall begin with general statements about the current literature
and interpretations and then move to particulars. Our comprehension
of the prehistory of the Southwest has been enhanced in 1999 by the
publication of no less than three seminal works, each of which is
firmly grounded in meticulous archaeological data. Each study has led
their authors to infer behavioral scenarios that challenge paradigms
and interpretations that have been held for many years. These include
Stephen L. Lekson's The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political in the
Ancient Southwest (1999), Steven A. LeBlanc's Prehistoric Warfare in
the American Southwest (1999), and Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence
in the Prehistoric American Southwest (1999) by the Turners.

Lekson's (1999) recent provocatively creative synthesis of the
sociopolitical systems of the Greater Southwest for the period of
Pueblo prehistory ca. C.E. 900 to 1450, suggests that Chaco was one
of three sequential ceremonial cities or "capitals" of a low-level
but vast politically and economically integrated network. The
territory these capitals controlled incorporated most of the Pueblo
world, and controlled the distribution of exotic materials (parrots,
copper bells, marine shells, etc.) indicating that commercial
contacts existed as far south as the tropical jungles of Central
America. With the abandonment of Chaco (Chaco Canyon) in the twelfth
century, the regional capital was shifted to the Aztec site (Aztec
Ruins), and later to Paquime (Casas Grandes). His detailed assessment
reveals that the Pueblo people had a sophisticated astronomical
tradition, and that these three centers are located on precisely the
same longitudinal meridian. He also relates this to phenomena such as
the Great North Road and other ceremonial roads, Pueblo mythology,
the rise of katsina ceremonialism, and political economics,
particularly exchange and distribution. Warfare is perceived as a
factor, but cannibalism is not.

LeBlanc (1999), focusing on the American Southwest, concludes that
prehistoric conflict between peoples in that region, including
massacres, raiding parties, ambush, pillage, scalping, and captive
taking that is warfare is amply evidenced in the archaeological as
well as the ethnographic record. In this regard he moves beyond
Haas's (1990:171-189) assessment of the nature of warfare in the
American Southwest. Influenced by Lawrence Keeley's War Before
Civilization (1996), LeBlanc proposes the thesis that warfare was far
from being a minor component of early Southwestern society, but was
decidedly purposeful, and not simply based upon anger or revenge.
LeBlanc proceeds to evaluate the evidence for warfare, the evolution
of warfare technology, the endemic nature of early warfare, and the
sociopolitical consequences of warfare during the later Pueblo
periods. His stated purpose is to characterize warfare as practiced
in this culture area, and he documents the inhabitants' concerns
about safety and security, the creation of alliances, and that
conflicts cut across cultural divisions and ecological zones. This
well-reasoned and stimulating volume lends support to the postulates
and interpretations offered by the Turners. Violent death, the
mistreatment of human corpses, cannibalism, and processed human bone
are notable in the Chacoan Interaction Sphere (LeBlanc 1999:166, 168,
173, 176-186). Clearly, the model of Hobbesian aggressive behavior
versus Rousseauean peaceful behavior has, in LeBlanc's view, swung
back toward the former. Andrew Darling (1999), in reviewing
Prehistoric Warfare, sees LeBlanc's argument as a paradigm shift
responding to archaeological approaches of the 1970s and 1980s.
Darling also characterizes this as an example of an
anthropological "preoccupation" with warfare, noting that "neither
Hobbes nor Rousseau offered any explanation for the occurrence of
warfare in the American Southwest."

During the Turner's thirty years of data collecting and analysis, a
few other physical anthropologists have undertaken meticulous studies
of human remains from specific sites and suggested violence and
cannibalism. Notably, Tim White's (1992) detailed assessment of the
Mancos site in Colorado employs anatomical, taphonomic, and
zooarchaeological analyses, and forensic science to deduce the human
behaviors associated with the butchering, cooking, and eating of
thirty people ca. C.E. 1100. However, he is unable to document
unequivocally his inference of cannibalism, but he assesses a variety
of alternatives ritual, starvation, warfare, and cultural diffusion,
among others. He discusses intentionally defleshed and disarticulated
crania, and longbones broken by percussion, the roasting of body
segments, and that bone fragments "occupied ceramic vessels prior to
disposal" (1992:364). In this pioneering, clearly presented analysis,
White, lacking historical or modern specimens for comparison,
compared the Mancos human remains with those of game animals used for
food. For this approach some colleagues have criticized him.

Clearly, the Turners in Man Corn have enhanced their analytical
techniques and expanded and reinforced their paradigms since the
early assessment of the remains of eleven humans at the A.D. 950
Anasazi settlement of Burnt Mesa (Flinn, Turner, and Brew 1976). In
that evaluation, starvation or necessity rather than ritual or
religious configuration was suggested as the explanation for
cannibalism. The Turners current synthesis suggests that small
mammals (prairie dogs, for example), pronghorn antelope, and humans
were treated in much the same way, therefore, circumstances rather
than animal type or cultural tradition determined the cooking method
that was employed (p. 31). But how does this statement correlate to
the postulate that immigrating terrorist cultists from the south
reproduced "the theocratic lifestyle they had previously known in
Mesoamerica, achieving their objectives through the use of warfare,
violent example, and terrifying cult ceremonies that included human
sacrifice and cannibalism" (p. 483)?

Let us examine some of the ethnohistoric and ethnographic literature
on cannibalism and terrorism. Hogg (1958:vii-viii) stated that after
consulting the British Museum Library (eight million volumes) and the
library of the venerable Royal Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland, there was "no single work in the English
language that covers the immense field of cannibalism and human
sacrifice." Accounts from missionary society libraries and archives
provided the majority of the references to cannibalism (see also
Tannahill 1975). Arens (1979:181), an anthropologist and a skeptic
about cannibalistic events, stated that from his research "it was not
possible to isolate a single reliable complete first-hand account [of
cannibalism] by anthropologists." Clinical psychologist Hans Askenasy
(1994), who maintains a scrupulously noncommittal tone regarding the
ultimate morality of cannibalism, but has taken uncritically
secondary and tertiary reports of this activity. Brown and Tuzin
(1983) undertook another psychological assessment. Among the members
of the anthropological community, cultural materialists (Harris 1979,
Price 1979) and their detractors (Harner 1977, Sanday 1986) have
examined the phenomenon of Aztec cannibalism. The warfare hypothesis
can be supported by the evidence the Turners have amassed and tends
to "fit" the cross-cultural data assembled by Ember and Ember (1992),
and the conclusions reached by Haas (1990) and Haas and Creamer
(1993).

Cremation does ensure that the body (and spirit) of the deceased will
not be consumed by real or perceived enemies. What role did this play
in Central Mexico, especially in Classic period Teotihuacan (C.E. 100-
650) where many cremations are known archaeologically, at Early
Postclassic Tula of the Toltecs (C.E. 700-1300), and in the evolution
of the Late Postclassic Aztecs (C.E. 1100-1520)? Evidence pro and con
for the cremation of human corpses in the American Southwest is not
discussed adequately by the Turners.

Let me now review the Turner's major findings. The scientific
community whether historians of Native Americans, archaeologists,
anthropologists, sociologists, human biologists, or pathologists will
appreciate the massive, systematic documentation that the Turners
provide in Chapter 3. The amassed evidence is compelling and
documented by superb photographs. The regional approach produced five
principal findings: 1) Cannibalism can be differentiated from all
other forms of bone damage and mortuary practice. The evidence that
they present in Man Corn is compelling and I believe that they have
documented this activity. They contend that 2) cannibalism was
practiced for almost four centuries (ca. C.E. 900-1300), and was
concentrated in the Four Corners area especially among people living
in Chaco Canyon and in or near outlying Chacoan great houses. The
chronometric data (derived in the main from dendrochronology) and
relative chronologies (from ceramic seriation) confirm the time
frame. The geographical distribution is, likewise, substantiated. The
lack of cannibalism among the Hohokam appears to be documented, but
has the osteological evidence been as meticulously examined as the
Turners might like? If the Hohokam, because of proximity, were
influenced to a greater degree by Mesoamerican cultures than other
prehistoric Southwestern peoples, your reviewer wonders why some
evidence of cannibalism is not represented substantially in Hohokam
territory. No one is suggesting that the Hohokam were the instigators
of the violence and cannibalism but there appears to be a lack of any
archaeological, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and/or oral literature
supporting cannibalism in the Hohokam area or by Hohokam peoples.

The Turners also state that 3) Chacoan cannibalism "appears to have
originated in Mexico," (p. 4) where the practice dates back at least
2,500 years. Here is argument they advance is, I believe, weak and
unproven. Evidence for violence and cannibalism in the Classic period
Teotihuacan polity (ca. C.E. 100-750) located northeast of Mexico,
the extant evidence cannot support the hypothesis. At its apogee,
C.E. 600, there were at least 125,000 and possibly 200,000 urban
residents and another 25,000 to 30,000 inhabitants of nearby rural
villages in the Teotihuacan Valley. Yet only about 800 human burials
have been identified. What happened to the people of Teotihuacan and
why this metropolis was abandoned are still major questions in
Mesoamerican studies. The succeeding major political state was that
of the Toltecs, centered at Tula, Hidalgo. The human osteological
evidence from Toltec sites anywhere in the Meseta Central is too
meager and inconclusive to suggest cannibalism. It is true that
Teotihuacan has mural art featuring human hearts and that the Toltecs
have decorative and monumental arts including lithic sculptures of
human skulls and longbones, and warriors. However, the evidence that
the Turners have mustered does not support the supposition that a
cult of terrorist Mesoamericans -- Toltec cult terrorists -- was
responsible for the creation of the Chaco complex.

Likewise, the Turners contend that 4) social control, social
pathology, and some manner of ritual sacrifice (probably in that
order) are provisionally the best combination of explanatory factors.
Darling (1998), originally in a 1995 Society for American Archaeology
annual meeting paper now expanded into a fulsome article, challenges
the validity of the argument that cannibalism best explains the
evidence of defleshing, cutting, and bone breakage. His review of the
ethnographic and ethnohistoric literature on Pueblo and Navajo
witchcraft, and witch torture and execution that included
dismemberment. Twenty-two accused witches were interrogated
during "trials" which often included the hanging or clubbing of those
accused; six individuals were executed by clubbing or stoning.
Likewise, he summarizes the contexts of defleshing and disposal
activities, artifacts, burning, osteological remains, age and gender,
and the timing of these activities.

Darling's "selected" 21 archaeological sites that exhibit mass
inhumations with modified human remains may be compared with the 76
listed by Turner and Turner. Of these 21 sites, the Turners also
included sixteen in their analyses, and in each case the Turners own
examinations confirmed that cannibalism had taken place. My own
review of Darling's data reveals that most of these sites are
culturally Anasazi (12), with Anasazi-Mogollon (2), Basketmaker
III/Pueblo III (1), Hopi (1), and affiliation not stated (5). Ten of
sixteen sites dated to C.E. 1100+ (two others were C.E. 400-900, two
were 1000+, two were 1200+, and one was 1500+). The human remains
were from pits (6), charnal houses (3), found on the floor (3),
recovered in architectural fill (3), or found in a subfloor context
(1), and in a bonebed (1). Darling's sixteen sites have an MNI of 194
(110 adults, fourteen subadults, 24 children; nineteen male and
twenty female). In the sixteen cases, broken bones (13), burning
(10), cutting (5), scalping (4), pot polishing (2), and chopping (1)
were discerned. These chronological and contextual data are
consistent with the Turner's thesis of violence and cannibalism.
Pits, it would appear, might be the preferred repository locus for
the bodies of witches and these corpses might be ritually "killed" by
clubbing or smashing the remains. Sticks and stones to break their
bones.

Lastly, the authors rightly state that 5) reports of prehistoric
Southwestern cannibalism have been published for almost a century,
but have been largely ignored by the scientific community. The
evidence the Turners provide would appear to be conclusive on this
issue.

Cannibalism both the name and associated sociocultural behaviors
reminded me more than a few times of stories about the Ilongot of
Luzon in the Philippines (Rosaldo 1980) who consumed "Long Pig."
Pigs, of course, are omnivorous, as are human beings, hence, "Long
Pig" was a roasted or steamed human carcass. A good friend of mine,
who worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during the
latter years of the Second World War, was parachuted into Japanese-
held territory in the Philippines in order to organize resistance
against Japanese troops. He recounted instances of trophy head
hunting and the consumption of "Long Pig" of Japanese origin. In 1945
these instances of the consumption of human flesh was then a delicacy
rather than a culinary necessity, but the implications of killing and
consuming one's "enemy" is an unavoidable byproduct. Weingartner
(1992) has also commented on this "trophy phenomena."

In summary, was Chaco such a center of violence and cannibalism that
contemporary Native Americans of the region avoid it as a place
of "bad medicine"? Probably. However, the fatal flaw of this book is
the conclusion that peoples from Mesoamerica were responsible for
this phenomenon at Chaco. The violence that resulted in mutilated
human remains has other potential explanations, such as that
postulated by Darling. But, can we account for these numbers of
dismembered and smashed bodies as exclusively witch executions that
appear in the oral traditions of the American Southwest? Could at
least some if not fully one-third of the cases cited by the Turners
be attributed to witch executions? Probably. But the Turners dismiss
entirely the witch execution possibilities (pp.52-54), and Darling
does not press sufficiently the issue in terms of parallel cases of
witch executions. The witchcraft hypothesis emphasized by Darling
(1998) requires a further evaluation, perhaps using the works of
Parrinder (1963), Russell (1972), and Trevor-Roper (1969) on the
European Middle Ages. The information collected by William Walker
(1995, 1999) for the American Southwest is also supportive of the
hypothesis of the ritual killing of witches. One question to ponder
would a perceived witch's family also be slain and would their
household goods also be destroyed ritually? Arens (1979:93, 95, 154-
157), Askenasy (1994:149-185), and Sartore (1994:31-42) also briefly
consider witchcraft and its associated mythology.

Mock (1998), in discussing offerings and caches dating to the
Terminal to Late Classic period termination event at Colha, Belize,
comments on the "mutilation and defleshing" of thirty human skulls
(twenty adults and ten children) and their collective burial in a
pit. Among the Maya, skulls were considered a primary source of
regenerative power so that the mutilation of facial features was
inferred to be a form of divine retribution for sociopolitical
incompetence. These remains were also burned and smashed, so that
this debasement signaled the termination of a ruling lineage or
dynasty political termination as assassination but ensuring that the
souls or spirits of the deceased could not be regenerated (Mock
1998:119).

Another avenue of investigation is through paleo epidemiology and
disease vectors including viruses, bacteria, and spirochetes. Carlson
(1999), for example, has suggested provocatively that encephalitis
lethargica (commonly known as "sleeping sickness"), with symptoms of
high fevers, seizures, hallucinations, and sometimes comas, is a
viable explanation of the episodes of witchcraft in and near Salem,
Massachusetts where documented accounts of convulsions and bizarre
behaviors were reported. Encephalitis is more common among women and
the young, rather than in males and the elderly. In the American
Southwest, vectors such as hantaviruses and fleas may be a viable
course for investigation.

In conclusion, from this reviewer's perspective as an anthropological
archaeologist weaned on ecological theory and cultural materialism,
who has also had training in paleopathology, there tend to be several
major positions at the present time in this ongoing debate: A)
supporters of the warfare and cannibalism postulate; B) supporters of
the witchcraft and ritual execution or interment proposition; C)
detractors of B who support A; and D) detractors of A who support B.
Likewise there are those who are E) detractors of both A and B; and
F) those who are "neutral" because they have not yet been swayed by
the evidence mustered by either A or B. You reviewer remains in the
neutral camp.

The book's title from the Nahuatl word tlacatlaolli, a "sacred meal
of sacrificed human meat, cooked with corn," is, to my thinking, an
unfortunate choice. Although the term conveys Late Postclassic Aztec-
Mexica-Nahuatl connections, the vast majority of the instances of
cannibalism cited date to the Early Postclassic Toltec era where the
evidence for cannibalism is controversial and is not documented in
the archaeological literature. Likewise, the implication that human
flesh was mixed with corn and consumed cannot be supported for the
Classic period (C.E. 100-750) or the Early Postclassic Toltec era
(ca. C.E. 700-1300). The Aztec evidence is more certain (see also
Sahagun 1953-1982). There is no incontrovertible evidence about the
languages spoken by the Teotihuacanos or Toltecs, -- most
Mesoamerican scholars believe that Nahuatl was spoken, others believe
a polyglot mixture of Nahuatl, Otomi, Popoloca, Mixtec, Mazatec, and
Yucatecan Maya (Diehl 1983:50) but that the Aztecs definitely spoke
Nahuatl. There is no guarantee that the Toltecs were Nahuatl speakers
although they probably were according to Richard Diehl and William
Sanders (personal communications); therefore, using a Nahuatl word to
convey a Toltec culinary practice might be erroneous.

Nonetheless, I am certain that we are just beginning a new round of
debates on the violence and mutilation syndrome. It would be
fascinating and informative to have the principals representing the
spectrum of opinions debate one another at an annual meeting of the
Society for American Archaeology or a similar venue. The invitees
should include Christy Turner, Steven LeBlanc, Andrew Darling,
Stephen Lekson, William Walker, Lynne Christian, Linda Cordell,
Jonathan Haas, and one or two Mesoamericanists Mike Spence and
Rebecca Storey come to mind. I would volunteer as a moderator, or
referee, as needed.

References Cited

Adams, Richard E.W. (1991) Prehistoric Mesoamerica, revised edition.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Arens, William F. (1979) The Man-eating Myth: Anthropology and
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Askenasy, Hans (1994) Cannibalism: From Sacrifice to Survival.
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Library of Congress call number: E78.S7T877 1999
Subjects:
Indians of North America -- Anthropometry -- Southwest, New.
Indians of North America -- Southwest, New -- Antiquities.
Indians of Mexico -- Anthropometry.
Indians of Mexico -- Antiquities.
Human remains (Archaeology) -- Southwest, New.
Human remains (Archaeology) -- Mexico.
Cannibalism -- Southwest, New.
Cannibalism -- Mexico.
Southwest, New -- Antiquities.
Mexico -- Antiquities.
Citation: Charles C. Kolb . "Review of Christy G. Turner II and
Jacqueline A. Turner, Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the
Prehistoric American Southwest," H-NEXA, H-Net Reviews, October,
1999. URL: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?
path=12807942422197.

[A debate about the prehistorical and historical status of Bushmen
hunter-gathering modes of production effectively began in 1980, a
debate which split Anthropology and questioned its fundamental
practical and theoretical principles. The debate came to a head in
the 1990s with the fight-back against the "revisionists". This fight-
back was spear-headed by Richard Lee and it was fought, from 1990 -
1997, primarily in the pages of Current Anthropology. The below is a
summary I wrote of Lee & Solway's 1990 article for my own records.
Whether many here will be able to follow the notes is another matter,
but I post it out of interest.]


Solway, J. S. and R. B. Lee (1990). "Foragers, Genuine or Spurious?:
Situating the Kalahari San in History." Current Anthropology 31(2):
109-146.

Abstract: Recent stydies of societies hitherto portrayed as
autonomous and self-regulating have sought to re-situate them in the
context of wider regional and international economies, polities, and
histories. In this revisionism there is danger of imputing links
where none existed and assuming that evidence for trade implies the
surrender of autonomy. Examination of the different historical
experiences of two San groups, one largely dependent on its Bantu-
speaking neighbours and the other (until recently) substantially
autonomous, suggests that contact may take many forms, not all of
which lead to dependency, abandonment of foraging, or inorporation
into "more powerful" social formations.


Accuses Denbow, Wilmsen, Gordon & Schrire of erecting strawmen
arguments by
"imputing links where none existed and assuming that where evidence
exists
for trade it implies the surrender of autonomy" (109).
Case studies: 2 groups.
Basis of article: contact does not automatically undermine the
hunting-foraging mode of relatedness, that San can be autonomous
without
being isolated and that stable, variant forms of interaction
developed with
their neighbours.
Nata, Botleti, Okavango Rivers: "Black" San fishing, cattle,
agriculture
Ghanzi, western Botswana: San farm labourers
Central Kahalari & Khutse game reserves: /Gwi + other San hunter-
gatherers,
some small stock
Central Sandveld: San as herders for Tswana cattle, live around the
posts
Iron Age in Kalahari 500 AD
Late Stone Age sites with Iron Age artifacts, indicating linkages of
variant natures
Revisionists also draw upon 19th century explorer accounts - trade,
warfare, diplomacy, San serfdom
Revisionists argue for oscillating between pastoralism and
hunting-gathering modes of production within regional economic and
political systems
Wilmsen (1983: 17): "It is more than merely possible that the San are
classless today precisely because they are the underclass in an
intrusive
class structure." This challenges the standing notion that equal
distribution of food has to do with a hunting-gathering way of life.
Utilising the eary Iron Age remains, the revisionists propose a
scenario
whereby the San were integrated into the wider regional social and
economic
networks, and thereby ceased to function as separate, diverse,
related
groups of people. Those who continued a variation of the hunter-
gatherer
lifestyle did so as a consequence of poverty and/or as a means of
resisting
domination.
To examine these claims, one has to look closely at what constitutes
regional variation in the Kalahari, what assumptions can be made
regarding
the nature and consequence of contact between San and their
neighbours, the
question of what constituted "servitude" and also "the transformative
power
of the commodity" (111).


THE WESTERN KWENENG SAN

Blacks in an area co-existing with San for min. 200 years.
Dutlwe: southern Kahalari, 250km west of Gaborone.
Three San groups: Tshassi, Kwa, Khute.
Two black groups: Kgalagadi, Kwena.
Kwena are Tswana and reside at the eastern edge of the desert which
has
more abundant water resources.
Therefore: Kwena-Kgalagadi dominant. San on the periphery socially,
economically and demographically.
Divided into three periods: Pre- and protohistoric, fur-trade and
agro-pastroalism periods.

The pre- and protohistoric period
Oral traditions: symbiotic relationship between San and early
Kgalagadi
settlers.
Difaqane, resulted in new Kgalagadi settlers after 1820. Brought
goats,
sheep and dogs. Credit San with teaching them desert survival skills.
Their
animals obtained moisture from the melons.

The fur-trade period
Post 1840.
Kwena (Tswana) attempted to reassert their hold over Kalahari
periphery.
Threatened by Boer, therefore eager for guns. Need for desert trade
items,
i.e. ivory, ostrich feathers, et al.
San traded with Kgalagadi who, in turn, dealt with Kwena.
Tobacco one item traded for skins & labour brought by San.
Contact between Kgalagadi and San primarily in winter months.
Kwena control broke down end of 19th century.
Kgalagadi began accumulating cattle as a result, resulting in
inequalities
between San and them. Failure in attempting to impose a hierarchical
model
on the San.
1885 saw the start of British imperial rule over Botswana. Tribute
system
abolished.
1887, colonial officer moving through western Kweneng - San have no
fixed
residence, live off the bush.
1899 report - "lives a nomadic life in a wild state and hunts for the
masters", which Solway & Lee interprets as "portraying them as
simultaneously enserfed and nomadic foragers" (113). Thus some, but
not
all, San were subservient, the institutionalisation of which came
later.

Agro-pastoralism
Turn of 20th century, Kgalagadi elite relied on their poor to herd
the cattle.
Agro-pastorial production eroding environmental base, with
desertification
setting in.
Central Kalahari served as refuge, free of livestock and villages by
law.
But area away from the best water sources. Fluidity between villages
and
the bush. Bush providing the refuge from total subordination.

The organic link
1940s, agro-pastoralism firmly entrenched.
New well-digging techniques lowered water table further.
Plow agriculture.
Kgalagadi young men work in SA mines. San labour fills the gap.
Therefore, altered production base and labour demands which more
closely
tied in the San's social reproduction domain.
Today, San homesteads around Kgalagadi villages: spatial marginality
=
social marginality.


THE DOBE SAN

700km north of Dutlwe.
Not affected by Difaqane.
Not reached by Black settlement until 1925.
Surrounded by waterless belt 70-200km in depth.

The pre- and protohistoric period
No Iron Age settlement remains in Dobe until 20th century.
What Iron Age pottery and iron found attributed to trade with
northern Iron
Age settlements.
San elders talk of long-term trade relations with "Gobe", with
independence, and that the first large number of visitors were whites.
LSA deposits 100cm + in depth, continuity.
Trade relations with Gobe established 500-1500 AD.
Ivory, honey, fur traded for ceramics, iron, tobacco.
Precolonial reports from Europeans portray Dobe San (!Kung) as
fiercely
independent.

The fur-trade period
Two systems: indirect with Goba and, later, Tswana; direct with
Europeans.
European trade brief but intense. For example, Hendrik van Zyl's
party who
killed 400 elephants, regarded by the San as pests. !Kung remember
this as
a period of intense social activity and economic prosperity. Also,
the
Dorsland Trekkers, who reached Angola from the Transvaal in 1880; the
trek
route was disused by 1900.
1920s and 1930s see first Black settlement movement into Dobe. The
catalyst
of this movement was probably the European penetration, as Tswana
hunter-traders had been used by Europeans and now used wagons to make
their
own trips.
Period between the Europeans and Blacks is called, by the San, koloi
which
means wagon.
Two economic systems in use: barter and mafisa.
Mafisa involved changing relations of production, loan cattle-labour
exchange, which a minority of Dobe San became involved in.
"But the mafisa families were not peasants; they were islands of
pastoralism in a sea of hunting and gathering." (117)
Those !Kung who took part did it originally voluntarily, with the
majority
never relinquishing their rights to n!ores. Cattle herding super-
imposed
upon the n!ores.
"In neither instance, however, did the fur trade have much impact on
the
internal organization of San societies." (119)

Agro-pastoralism
Herero pastoralists, mid-1920s.
Deepened and dug new waterholes.
Immigration of more Herero after 1954, increasing demand for San
labour.
Herero into subsistence pastoralism.
1960s: 70% of Dobe San in camps. Foraging, mafisa herding,
horticulture.
Patterns of collective ownership within the camps.
Remainder in client groups with Herero. Part of their domestic
economy.
By 1970, pastoralism had taken its toll on the nevironment. Boreholes.

"Both the Kgalagadi and the Herero were "devolved" pastoralists with
the
socioeconomic infrastructure to facilitate the rapid reabsorption of
livestock into the cultural system. If, as is suggested by Schrire
(1980),
the San were also "devolved" pastoralists, why did they not follow in
their
neighbours' path and become predominantly pastoralists in the 20th
century?" (footnote 21, page 119)

"One of the rhetorical devices of the revisionist view of hunter-
gatherers
is to equate autonomy with isolation - a definition so tringent that
no
society can possibly satisfy it. But autonomy is not isolation and no
social formation is hermetically sealed; we take it as given that all
societies are involved in economic exhcnages and political relations
with
their neighbours." (120)

Sekgalagadi term munyi means master for Black-San relations but in
kin
relationships also means "elder brother".
Tswana bolata signifies hereditary servitude, but no servitude has
been
witnessed in practice and in reality should be taken as
representative of
ideology rather than the interdependence which characterises San and
non-San peoples.

The situations across the Kahalari are fluid and complex, varying
from
region to region.


COMMENTS

Alan Barnard
Revisionists hold to a regional-historical perspective
Lee & Silberbauer have a more ethnographically-driven perspective
Guenther & Hitchcock have a third perspective, that of economic
pluralism
and dependency

M.G. Bicchieri
Agrees with Lee & Solway: "...it is only the rate and mode of change
that
are open to observation and interpretation...In an evolving system,
adaptation is the goal, and well-being is adaptation with minimal
stress.
In the human context well-being depends on both material and social
technology. Thus the forced demise of hunter-gatherers may be no more
of an
adaptive failure than the demise of social technology among developed
societies." (123)

Alec Campbell
Agrees with Lee & Solway.
Tsodilo rock paintings include depictions of cattle, either herded or
stolen, plus mythological figures and other animals but excluding
sheep.

James Denbow
Calls Solway & Lee's contention that there was no Iron Age occupation
in
the Dobe area until the 20th century misleading.
Points out the last archaeological reconnaissances were 20 years
prior and
contends they were looking in the wrong areas for Iron Age
settlements.
Queries what it takes to recognise a change in hunter-gattherer
lifestyles
and territory range, and queries whether an extended range could have
extended to the sandveld where the Tsodilo Hills are.
13 faunal remains from Mahopa, 0 from /Xai /Xai I and 2
from /Xai /Xai 2.
Levels 2-6 (600 years ago) at Mahopa have the remains of 5 remains,
60% of
which are buffalo; the lower levels (2-3000 years ago) have no
buffalo
remains with zebra instead making up 63% of the faunal assemblage;
Denbow
suggests this may be representative of a shift and queries whether
this was
the result of the impact or influence wagons or guns or iron spears.
From the Tsodilo Hills, Denbow focuses on two sites: Divuyu (550-730
AD)
and Nqoma (850-1090 AD).
Divuyu: lithics virtually absent, large numbers of iron implements.
Fish
and other delta animals means inter-regional exchange was occuring.
No
copper deposits within 200km of the Hills, and iron ore to the north
and in
the delta area, means that the metals were being imported along
system routes.
Nqoma: 1km south of Divuyu. Amongst its remains are 13 marine shells
from
the Indian ocean, ivory fragments and glass beads. A number of stone
tools
were also present.
The two sites represent changes in subsistence economy and material
culture, which drew the Dobe San into regional networks of exchange.
Accuses Lee & Solway of perpetuating " kind of historical apartheid"
(126)
"Perhaps the exhortation to continue to believe in the historical
uniqueness of the shrinking Dobe waterhole has more to do with the
ideology
of intellectual self-definition among some anthropologists than with
any
need for outside "authentication" of their lives by Kahalari
peoples." (126)

Robert Gordon
Schinz (1891) and Passarge (1907) show maps with wagon roads through
Nyae/Nyae.
"Solway and Lee chide me for presenting an account for which less
than 20%
(?) of the material refers to the !Kung of the Dobe-Nyae/Nyae area."
(126)
However, Solway & Lee use the word "conflate".
Accuses Lee of portraying the San as living in "primitive affluence"
with
superior veldcraft skills, in line with Afrikaner anthropologists. He
then
states that, by contrast, San are good soldiers because of "their
pariah
status within the wider society" (126).

Mathias Guenther
"I find Solway and Lee's basic point eminently reasonable - that in
some
regions of the Kalahari and at some times in the history of its
various
hunting-and-gathering inhabitants people were relatively isolated and
autonomous, while in other regions and at other times they were
relatively
incorporated and dependent." (127)

Henry Harpending and Patricia Draper
San not timeless relics.
Food sharing not a consensus to avoid outside domination - !Kung know
if it
isn't eaten it would rot. !Kung more fussy about sharing nuts.
Evidence lacking for Solway & Lee's assertion that without the San
the
Herero would not have enjoyed the level of prosperity which they did
during
the 1960s and 1970s.
Not hint of oscillation, in the !Kung elders' memories, between
hunting-gathering and pastoralism.
Ghanzi !Kung had !Kung visitors from Dobe, therefore would have been
in
contact with Iron Age peoples.
Caution urged in interpreting the meaning behind 19th century
terminology.
mtDNA distinct and ancient.

Robert Hitchcock
Agrees with Solway & Lee.
Mentions ecological and economic constraints with regards to herding.
San on the periphery of villages may tend to be less involved in
pastoralism than San further away.
Oral evidence that 19th century San kept cattle in the central
Kalahari.
Mentions masifa relationships are normally with own kin. When San
refer to
themselves being in mafisa, Hitchock suggests this may be
presentative of a
more institutionalised situation.

Tim Ingold
"Society" is a neglected term.
Discerning quality and kind of relatedness between peoples.
Hunter-gatherers: relations of incorporation and trust.
Agrarian: denial of autonomy of others.

L. Jacobson
600 - 1100 AD was sporadic Iron Age occupation of the Kalahari.
Small numbers of potsherds = hxaro
"Obviously, one is not dealing with "pristine" foragers who could
serve as
direct models for, say, the Pleistocene. They may have been involved
in
sub-continental trade or exhcnage networks, but it is certainly wrong
to
consider them all as having been subordinated to a dominant mode of
production. The social reality of contact between modes was as
variable as
the land, the motive force behind prehistoric economies." (131)

Susan Kent
Revisionists have robbed the San not only of their history but also
of
their diversity.
Contrast in economic diversity seen by comparing the Dutlwe and Kutse
San.
Also makes the important point that "one must demonstrate that
cultural
assimilation accompanied trade as is assumed by some "revisionists" "
(132).

Pnina Motzafi-Haller
With regards to the Afrikaaner period, "Yet in their effort to cast
this
generation-long era of "intense irruption" only in terms of whether
it
entailed a "basic restructuring of relations of production," the
authors do
not explore the multiple social, political, and even ecological
implications fo such interaction and dismiss it as short-lived." (132)
Mechanisms - social, cultural, political, economic - necessary to
transform
a society.

Thomas Patterson
Basically provides an overview.

Carmel Schrire
Brings up Nancy Howell, a revisionist, being a former member of the
Harvard
Kalahari Research Group who now decries the Group's methodology.
Barrier surrounding Dobe can be crossed, using ostrich eggshell water
containers, in a couple of days.
Pattern of archaeological evidence for San-Black interaction
throughout the
Kalahari.

Bruce Trigger
Revisionists rely on post-modernist dependency and world-system
theories.
Agrees with Solway & Lee: "My own recent analysis of 17th-century
Huron
society strongly supports Clastres's (1977) argument that small-scale
egalitarian societies have powerful built-in mechanisms that actively
oppose the development of social and political inequality." (135)

Polly Weissner
Hxaro networks of the Dobe !Kung.
Permitted !Kung to visit partners and utilise their resources,
including
partners who worked for pastoralists.
Suggests that there might have been a second system uniting the San
of the
region in the past, an initiation system.
These two systems created the environment for !Kung self-sufficiency
and
explains the paultry Iron Age fragmentary remains inside Dobe.

Edwin Wilmsen
Harvard Kalahari Research Group was guided by a flawed paradigm.
States Solway and Lee are "unable to appreciate that a social
formation is
forged in the ideological arena of social and property relations
whereas
"culture" is an intellectual organizing principle of anthropology"
(136).
Accuses Solway & Lee of misrepresenting the revisionists.
Asks what sort of pastoralist would entrust his cattle to hunter-
gatherers,
and what sort of hunter-gatherer would look after cattle.
Colourises Solway & Lee's stance on the subject as an "apologist
stance on
subservience" (136).

John Yellen
"In some areas Khoisan peoples acquired goats and developed an
independent
pastoral life-style. The "Black Bushmen" groups of northeastern
Botswana
document an instance in which indigenous culture proved
dominant...With the
advent of Iron Age peoples along the Okavango margin, small amounts
of
pottery and metal appear in the western Late Stone Age sites and this
clearl indicates either direct or indirect contact. The effect of
these
Iron Age peoples, however, is minimal. In contrast with the situation
in
margin sites, both metal and pottery are extremely rare. The diverse
stone
tool assemblages remain unchanged over time, suggesting continuity
int he
kinds of activities people conducted... In 1975 and 1976 I excavated
a
series of Dobe San camps, the earliest of which dated to 1944 [Yellen
1987]. Although Herero pastoralists were in the region at that time
and
!Kung undoubtedly had access to goats and cattle, faunal analysis
indicates
a minimal presence of these species in the Dobe !Kung diet prior to
1962...
Thus archaeological data from both older and more recent sites
support
Solway and Lee's Dobe analysis." (138)

Aram Yengoyan
Knowledge of internal historical processes of peripheral societies
required.
Emerging social formations.
Contributions by Marxism to anthropology.
Political hegemonies and evolving social formation - a dynamic
dialectic.

Solway & Lee's reply
"We see Yengoyan's observation that among the Australian Aborigines
foraging relations of production can be regenerated in the "bush" as
another indication of the existence in these societies of an internal
dynamic apart from the dynamic of their articulation with capitalism
and
the state." (139)
Different ecological zones in the Kalahari relate to different
archaeological patterns.
Reiterates long period of absence of Iron Age settlements within Dobe.
Agrees with Wiessner's hxaro trade.
Meaning and value of items differ in varying social contexts.
Agrees with Motzafi-Haller and Hitchcock, pointing out they raise
important
questions for future research avenues.
Should not accept 19th century documents and reports at face value.
Should take into account the weaknesses of economic theory when
utlising
it, and bear in mind that "has been notoriously unsuccessful in
dealing
with societies that lack either or both" state and markets (141).
Mechanisms for San social and cultural reproduction in place, and the
ferocity and passion of !Kung identity and internal coherence.

Just a tip: I know the author and work with her, but I'm not posting
this announcement simply for this reason. Dr Sagona has done sterling
work on Punic pottery in Malta. This volume can be read on its own or
better still, as a companion to her previous book "The Archaeology of
Punic Malta," also available from Peeters. This book gives a very
detailed overview of the period and its pottery, so the second book
mentioned below builds further on work already done. My only gripe
about the first book is that it is huge and in one volume...its very
many illustrations would have looked better if published as Vol 2,
although this would have pushed up the costs too much. I haven't seen
this new book yet, I will be getting that soon hopefully.

regards,
Isabelle


Claudia Sagona, PUNIC ANTIQUITIES OF MALTA AND OTHER ANCIENT
ARTEFACTS HELD IN ECCLESIASTIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS (Ancient Near
Eastern Studies Supplement Series 10). Peeters Press: Louvain. ISBN
90-429-1353-3. 105 EURO.

The islands of Malta are geographically small, but there is nothing
diminutive about their past relics and monuments. Maltese
antiquarians saw in these monuments testimonies of the ebb and flow
of social groups and individuals, and often claimed special
connections, real or otherwise, with landmark events in human
history. Seeking a tangible link to their heritage, collectors,
especially those of the 18th and 19th centuries, gathered pottery and
other artefacts for their shelves. Many of these private collections
of antiquities held in Malta are, for the most part, unknown beyond
its shores. Although the majority of artefacts are of the Punic
period, they do reflect the island's contacts with the ancient
markets of the Mediterranean. Because this volume presents well over
a thousand antiquities it is an extensive resource for those
interested in Malta's rich cultural heritage. It forms a companion
volume to Sagona's The Archaeology of Punic Malta,[2002, Peeters
Press] consolidating further the evidence presented in that detailed
study.


Orders can be placed directly with Peeters Press, Bondgenotenlaan
153, B-3000 Leuven. Belgium. E-mail: peeters@... fax:
+32-16-22 85 00. For full catalogue http://www.peeters-leuven.be
In the USA: 6 Ash Lane, Dudley, MA 01571, USA. E-mail:
peeters@... fax +1-508-949-0557

Hello - and congratulations on establishing a potentially useful and
interesting discussiongroup!

Vogels paper sounds very useful. I have but two questions (and
thereby admitting that my theoretical knowledge of soil description
is rather small:)

1) Does the paper contain references, bibliographies or tips for
further reading?
2) Is the terminology used an international "standard language", or
is it rather adapted to an american environment?

Thanks,
Torkel Johansen
Norway

--- In archreview@yahoogroups.com, Matt Tomaso <tomasom@m...> wrote:
> Vogel, Gregory
> 2002            A Handbook of Soil Description for Archeologists.
Arkansas
> Archeological Survey Technical Paper 11.  32pp, illus.
> http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/archinfo/publications.html for
> ordering information
>
> Vogel and the Arkansas Archeological Survey have provided, in this
brief
> and inexpensive technical report, a concise, accurate, and valuable
> reference for field description and sampling of soils.  This
contribution
> targets archaeologists and students with little or no background in
soil
> science, geomorphology and sedimentology, and sets out to provide
basic
> standards for soil description and interpretation.  Condensing
volumes of
> literature and several decades worth of research into 32 well
illustrated
> pages, Vogel produces what might be considered the Archaeologist's
Cliff
> Notes of field pedology.  This clear and easily understood
reference is not
> intended as a substitute for more in-depth geoarchaeological
knowledge, but
> simply as a set of easy to follow and standardized guidelines
which, if
> implemented, could bring archaeological soil description and
interpretation
> closer to the comparability and utility of those of soil
scientists.  While
> providing a level of standardization which could be easily
implemented in
> archaeology, Vogel explicitly avoids entanglements with thorny
issues such
> as the relationship between stratigraphy and soils, and the
problematic
> nature of assigning stratigraphic meaning to post-depositional
phenomena
> (such as soil horizons).  Though this issue is important, and left
out of
> Vogel's paper, the savvy and sensitive reader will easily find
education on
> such points  by extrapolating from the lessons Vogel does teach.
What this
> brief text lacks in depth of coverage, however, is more than
compensated by
> Vogel's remarkable organization and clarity of language.
>
> The paper is organized encyclopedically, like a multi-layered
glossary,
> covering most of the more commonly used terms, such as redox, E
horizon,
> and boundary conditions, and briefly discussing their relevance to
> archaeology.  The diagrams, several of which are nicely adapted
from
> standard soil science  and geomorph references, are worthy of
several
> moments of additional study.
>
> The Field Manual I have written for my field school, and revised
year to
> year, has a section on geoarchaeology which is organized in much
the same
> way, and contains some of the same information.  I have been so
impressed
> with this paper, however, that I am making it required reading for
my field
> school this year, and may scrap several pages of my own Field
Manual in
> favor of it.  I would strongly recommend this paper for its
intended
> audience (as above), but would also recommend it for advanced
> undergraduates, avocationals, and graduate students.  It's a much
needed
> and well done contribution from our friends at the Survey.
>
> Matt Tomaso
> Acting Director,
> Center for Archaeological Studies
> Montclair State University
>
> http://www.chss.montclair.edu/archaeology/

Vogel, Gregory
2002            A Handbook of Soil Description for Archeologists.  Arkansas
Archeological Survey Technical Paper 11.  32pp, illus.
http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/archinfo/publications.html for
ordering information

Vogel and the Arkansas Archeological Survey have provided, in this brief
and inexpensive technical report, a concise, accurate, and valuable
reference for field description and sampling of soils.  This contribution
targets archaeologists and students with little or no background in soil
science, geomorphology and sedimentology, and sets out to provide basic
standards for soil description and interpretation.  Condensing volumes of
literature and several decades worth of research into 32 well illustrated
pages, Vogel produces what might be considered the Archaeologist's Cliff
Notes of field pedology.  This clear and easily understood reference is not
intended as a substitute for more in-depth geoarchaeological knowledge, but
simply as a set of easy to follow and standardized guidelines which, if
implemented, could bring archaeological soil description and interpretation
closer to the comparability and utility of those of soil scientists.  While
providing a level of standardization which could be easily implemented in
archaeology, Vogel explicitly avoids entanglements with thorny issues such
as the relationship between stratigraphy and soils, and the problematic
nature of assigning stratigraphic meaning to post-depositional phenomena
(such as soil horizons).  Though this issue is important, and left out of
Vogel's paper, the savvy and sensitive reader will easily find education on
such points  by extrapolating from the lessons Vogel does teach.  What this
brief text lacks in depth of coverage, however, is more than compensated by
Vogel's remarkable organization and clarity of language.

The paper is organized encyclopedically, like a multi-layered glossary,
covering most of the more commonly used terms, such as redox, E horizon,
and boundary conditions, and briefly discussing their relevance to
archaeology.  The diagrams, several of which are nicely adapted from
standard soil science  and geomorph references, are worthy of several
moments of additional study.

The Field Manual I have written for my field school, and revised year to
year, has a section on geoarchaeology which is organized in much the same
way, and contains some of the same information.  I have been so impressed
with this paper, however, that I am making it required reading for my field
school this year, and may scrap several pages of my own Field Manual in
favor of it.  I would strongly recommend this paper for its intended
audience (as above), but would also recommend it for advanced
undergraduates, avocationals, and graduate students.  It's a much needed
and well done contribution from our friends at the Survey.

Matt Tomaso
Acting Director,
Center for Archaeological Studies
Montclair State University

http://www.chss.montclair.edu/archaeology/

Congratulations & Kudos to Professor Richard Veit (Monmouth University)
on the publication on his new book on archaeology in New Jersey -
Digging New Jersey's Past: Historical Archaeology in the Garden State.
 
This book has just been released by Rutgers University Press and features many important and
interesting local archaeological sites and projects. It is very well organized, covers the entire spectrum
of archaeological sites in New Jersey dating to the Historic period, and is written in a most readable
and understandable style. It is clear that Professor Veit thoroughly researched each of the sites he
included as examples of method, theory, and "period" or "stylistic" archaeology.
 
The book will serve well as a college text. It very nicely shows how archaeological data can be
integrated with the established historical record. This book should also be required reading for any
beginning Cultural Resource Management field or lab technician or avocationalist who is interested
in historical archaeology.
 
I can say without any hesitation or reservations that this is a "must have" book for your library.
The cost is reasonable, a hallmark of the Rutgers University Press series on New Jersey history,
and within reach of members of the archaeological proletariat (note: when ordering be sure to
ask about the special 20% discount that Rich has specially arranged for members of the
Archaeological Society of New Jersey).
 
Once again, Congratulations and Kudos to Rich Veit on a job well done!
Bring your copy to any ASNJ meeting and I'm sure that Professor Veit will sign it.
 
Charles A. Bello
ASNJ

Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 22:04:16 -0500
From: Richard Veit <rveit@...>


It's winter.  The holidays are past. The ground is frozen. You are stuck
inside.  The next ASNJ meeting is months away.  What to do???

The answer is simple.

Get a copy of "Looking Beneath the Surface: The Story of Archaeology in
New Jersey" by R. Alan Mounier. 

If you haven't yet seen Alan's book, it is an excellent introduction to
archaeology in New Jersey.  The book is well written and beautifully
illustrated. In just over 200 pages Alan does it all. There are chapters
on artifacts, culture history, how archaeologists dig, and the famous
and infamous archaeologists who have worked in New Jersey. Whether
archaeology pays your bills or is what you do for fun--or both, this
book is for you.

Congratulations to Alan on a job well done!

Matt:

Thanks for bringing this group to my attention. I will have some
upcoming paleoethnobotanical questions for the list. Cheers,
Dawn

Hi,
Mikey told me about this list and it sounds like an excellent idea.
Thanks to the listowner for setting it up.

Regards,
Isabelle

Southwestern Archaeology, Inc. (SWA)
" Got CALICHE ? " Newsletter
Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of the Greater Southwest!

Sunday June 01, 2003

*****************************************

MEXICO / GREATER SOUTHWEST

http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i36/36a01401.htm
Captives and Cousins made an unprecedented sweep of the history
profession's top prizes. Captives and Cousins reconstructs more than
four centuries of the slave economy taking shape in the deserts and
flatlands of what is now the Southwestern United States. When the
Spanish arrived, they were by no means shocked at the indigenous
captivity system. On the contrary, it was the one thing about the
New World that looked familiar. The government in Mexico City -- and
later, Washington -- tried to suppress the slave trade in the
Southwest. But captivity was deeply rooted in indigenous folkways,
and the growth of ranching fueled the demand for slaves to take care
of livestock. The region's relative isolation gave it a degree of
cultural and economic autonomy. Only in the late 19th century, as it
became more fully integrated into the rest of the country, did the
slave system finally disappear.

TEXAS

http://www.statesman.com/legislature/content/coxnet/texas/legislature
/0503/0531cuts.html
The folks at the Center for Studies in Texas History publish the New
Handbook of Texas, an encyclopedia whose online edition gets more
than 1 million hits a month. In addition to publishing the
encyclopedia and other historical books, the Center for Studies in
Texas History sponsors the annual Texas History Day for
schoolchildren. The center has been affiliated with the university
since the late 1890s, but if the funding gets shut off, that
relationship could come to a quick end.

http://web.baytownsun.com/story.lasso?WCD=11678
A magnetometer survey in 2001 by the Texas Historical Commission
(THC) showed fort remains just under the park's soil, and that test
led to last summer's initial excavation by Hicks and Co. of
carefully chosen points along the fort walls. After sifting through
data from that dig, the firm has returned for three weeks this
summer to extend their findings, funded by a $30,000 grant from the
Texas Preservation Trust Fund and a county match.

http://www.sa-news.net/religion/religion_catedral.htm
Hace más de 272 años los pobladores de las Islas Canarias
establecieron una colonia en Tejas y fundaron una iglesia para que
fuera el centro de lo que hoy es el moderno centro de San Antonio.
La Catedral de San Fernando es la catedral activa más antigua en los
Estados Unidos.

http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/053103/new_archaelologist.shtml
The University of Oklahoma Department of Archaeology will send a
team of archaeologists to "The Buried City" in Ochiltree County to
conduct another excavation in a class for advance fieldwork in
August.

http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw053003c.htm
Three University of Arizona scientists pulled several core samples
of sediment from beneath the floor of the crater, a National Natural
Landmark located about seven miles west of Odessa. The group is
taking core samples so Holliday can determine the exact age of the
crater, which has never been done before, Holliday said.

http://www.pecos.net/news/daily/page1.htm
West of the Pecos Museum marked its 40th birthday.

NEW MEXICO

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/05.29/17-pottery.html
The people of New Mexico's Mimbres River Valley lived a thousand
years ago in small villages up and down the river. They successfully
farmed corn, beans, and squash until they disappeared abruptly
around 1150 A.D., along with many other people living in the
Southwest at the time. "Something happened. They ceased to make
villages, they ceased to make pottery. We lose them in history,"
said Peabody Museum Director of Collections Steven LeBlanc. While
ordinary in many ways, the Mimbres left behind an extraordinary
gift: hundreds of elaborately decorated bowls, with striking
geometric designs and images of warriors, animals, and tools, and
with combinations of both. LeBlanc, who has done previous work on
the Mimbres pottery, has written a book based on the exhibit,
scheduled to be published in 2004. LeBlanc said he's convinced some
of the bowls' creators were making visual jokes, perhaps associating
words or sounds in their language to create images that elicit a
chuckle when seen. "The pottery isn't giving us answers, it's posing
questions," LeBlanc said.

http://www.ruidosonews.com/Stories/0,1413,165%257E9426%
257E1423553,00.html
"Patrick Floyd Garret: From Buffalo Hunter to Man Hunter," is
scheduled for Saturday, June 21. It is sponsored by the Lincoln
County Historical Society under the auspices of the New Mexico
Endowment for the Humanities.

http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news03/053103_news_taleside.shtml
Young Charley McComas has been missing for 120 years, two months and
three days. It's more difficult to say just how long the New Mexico
Historical Marker commemorating the 1883 Apache attack in which
Charley was abducted and his parents killed has been missing.

http://www.ratonrange.com/RATONRANGE/myarticles.asp?
P=590043&S=318&PubID=9432
Final public comments were being collected this week and some of the
last alterations were being put in place as part of the
new "comprehensive plan" that intends to guide Raton into a "strong
and prosperous" future. The half-inch-thick document, which is
available for public review at the Raton Zoning Office at city hall,
includes a suggestion that the city establish a "historic overlay
zone."

COLORADO

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_20
01995,00.html
Top Colorado officials want the state to set rules that could open
thousands of miles of historic trails, cattle routes in national
parks, monuments and wilderness areas to roads. As copies of
Walcher's May 15 letter circulated among conservation groups and
national park protection groups, the move was labeled as another
administration assault on wildlands.

http://www.zwire.com/news/newsstory.cfm?
newsid=8165490&title=Epscopal%20church%20wins%20historic%
20designation&BRD=1190&PAG=461&CATNAME=Top%20Stories&CATEGORYID=410
St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Alamosa is now listed in the National
Register of Historic Places. The National Register is the official
federal list of the nation's cultural resources worthy of
preservation.

http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?
article_type=news&article_path=/news/news030531_6.htm
Bureau of Reclamation officials are concerned about the safety of
construction workers and the public because of additional activity
in the area. The start of the water project has brought in bureau
employees, the general contractor, two firms that are relocating gas
pipelines and five teams of archaeologists investigating sites
occupied by early inhabitants of the basin.

UTAH

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/May/05312003/utah/61867.asp
Centuries from now, anthropologists will be stumped. Instead of
grains, fish bones and animal carcasses to help them understand the
eating habits of Utahns, there will be petrified pans of "Funeral
Potatoes." Also called "Yummy Potatoes," "Heavenly Potatoes"
and "Disappearing Potatoes," this baked casserole is the mainstay at
post-funeral dinners for many members of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. Every group, whether it is ethnic, religious
or geographic, has food traditions with meaning beyond satisfying
physical hunger, Thursby said. "Foods are so symbolic, they carry
psychological, emotional and sensory meaning," she said.

ARIZONA

http://www.bisbeeobserver.com/www/news/story.php?fpid=3&date=2003-05-
29
Sensitivity to Native American tribes hasn't always been a priority
at Fort Huachuca and elsewhere in the U.S. In the past, human
remains, funerary pottery and cultural materials were collected and
treated as little more than interesting possessions, Slaymaker said.
In fact, Fort Huachuca still has an ongoing criminal investigation
about the disappearance of funeral pots and tribal items found in
1964 and now "missing." The items may well have been stolen, and
military investigators are cooperating with the Bureau of Indian
Affairs and Tohono O'odham tribal police to attempt locating their
current locations. If found, the items will be returned to the
appropriate tribe for reburial.

http://www.az.blm.gov/newsrels/2003news/strip_plan_mtgs.pdf
http://www.thespectrum.com/news/stories/20030531/localnews/399267.htm
l
Arizona Strip planners are developing management plans for for the
Arizona Strip -- including the Grand Canyon-Parashant and Vermilion
Cliffs national monuments. Public comments on the preliminary
alternatives will be accepted until July 7, 2003, via e-mail at
<Arizona_Strip@...>, or by mail at Arizona Strip Planning Team,
345 E. Riverside Dr., St. George, Utah 84790.

http://www.sunews.net/thisweek~ns4.html
A historic joint agreement between the Kaibab Paiute Tribe and Pipe
Spring National Monument, along with several other contributing
entities, has resulted in an important new museum in northern
Arizona. The museum, located at the front of the Pipe Spring
National Monument.

NEVADA

http://www.lasvegasmercury.com/2003/MERC-May-29-Thu-
2003/21403539.html
As of yet the Neon Museum remains a series of disparate locations
around downtown, primarily the restored signs that grace Fremont
Street and Third Street and the museum's Neon Boneyard of
decommissioned signs on two empty lots across from the Reed Whipple
Cultural Center. If you add the organization's "Living Museum"
project, wherein the museum works with owners of signs still in
commercial use in order to preserve them, then the Neon Museum is
scattered all over the city. Those who want to learn more about the
Neon Museum, or contribute to its fundraising efforts, can visit
www.neonmuseum.org.

CALIFORNIA

http://www.pe.com/localnews/desertpass/stories/PE_NEWS_ndhist31.589db
.html
Lowell Bean was training for a position with an Australian
anthropologist in 1958 when he came to the reservation to gain some
practical experience before going. Almost 45 years later, he is
still working in the area. "I really enjoyed working with Cahuilla
and other Indian people," the 72 year-old ethnologist said in a
telephone interview. "Many of the Cahuillas became like family to
me." Over the years, Bean has written and co-written several
books. "Mukat's People," his dissertation, was published in 1972 by
the University of California Press. In the book, Bean reconstructed
the traditional culture of the ancient Cahuillas.

From: Rene Brace <Ibrace@...>
Pacific Coast Archaeological Society's June 12, 2003 Meeting will
feature Mr. Richard Carrico speaking on "Archaeological Discoveries
at the Ipai Village of Pa'mu: Santa Maria Valley, San Diego County."
Mr. Carrico will discuss the results of a testing and extensive site
evaluation program in the Santa Maria Valley just east of the town
of Ramona. The results of the testings were somewhat surprising and
contributed substantially to our understanding of the prehistory of
the Ramona/Julian area. The sites were dated to almost 2000 years
ago and were occupied well into the Spanish period. Taken as a
whole, the sites represented a large (more than 500 acre) village
complex.

From: Steve Turnbull <steve@...>
http://www.light-
headed.com/asite/laguna/laguna_history/laguna_woman_10.php
http://www.light-
headed.com/asite/laguna/laguna_history/laguna_woman_report.php
Who is the oldest American? Hello, I have a question: I have been
working on some web pages describing the discovery of the oldest
human remains in the western hemisphere, "Laguna Woman", found in
1933 by my father-in-law. At the urging of Dr. Louis Leakey, it was
positively dated at 17,500 years old by Dr. Willard Libby (the Nobel
Prize winning inventor of Carbon-14 dating) and Dr. Rainer Berger of
the UCLA Geophysics lab, in 1968. I have all of the original
documentation, Lab reports, Encyclopedia pages, and the actual skull
itself. Yet when I search the web, all I find is info on Kenniwick
Man (9,500 years old), and a skull from Texas (11,500 years old )
claiming to be the oldest human remains found in the Americas. Why
is this? Steve Turnbull, Laguna Beach, California.

Editor's Reply:
There is no such thing as pure, unadulterated, pathos-free, rational
science. As much as some would like to believe in rational science --
  free of any influence -- scientists always face preconceived
beliefs of the community of science scholars, and of the public. As
a result, scientists always have issues of politics, fashion and
celebrity to deal with. There are some who would look on early
radiocarbon dating methods as suspect. Newer techniques are more
precise. With NAGPRA, and the politics of repatriation, some might
see the earlier work (and your current possession of the skull) as a
symbol of injustice. It represents a lack of consultation between
the dominant European-American scientists and American Indians -- or
is that Native Americans? Rational science comes in flavors, has a
limited shelf-life, and faces discounting pressure when new science
products are presented to consumers. In addition, there are many
regulators -- official and unofficial -- who want some control over
science and its reportage. As a result, few scientific discoveries
stand the test of time iconically. The question you might ask and
answer is this: What attributes allow achareological metric research
to stand the test of time? I suspect that your data may need re-
presentation -- an update placed within a larger, current context.

From: Steve Turnbull <steve@...>
Thanks for the reply. I guess "Science" today is what one cares to
believe, not based on any facts at all, nor truth. Nothing more then
a religious belief. I find that pathetic, sad, and disgusting. To
have known that all the efforts of all the great minds of scientific
history have come to naught in today's world would probably have
caused Giordano Bruno reconsider his position, and Osama bin Laden
to celebrate his. Steve

Editor's Reply:
Scientific methods are still taught in the schools. However, outside
of the academy, the political system makes decisions based on a
number of inputs, not just science facts alone. So, for example,
archaeologists wish to study human remains when they are
encountered, but NAGPRA laws passed by Congress dictate how human
remains can be studied. In your case, you should not be dismayed.
Your web site does a fine job explaining the facts of your case.
However, in this era, you may need to place the data within a larger
context. New research and review research findings need to be
published in a leading journal, re-identifying why the discovery and
the results pass the scientific and cultural tests of time. To put
it another way, Watson and Crick got credit for DNA, and they are
recognized today for the achievement. However, new research into DNA
has been done by others. The science facts are the same, but the
context and possible uses of the knowledge have changed and evolved.
Current research articles about DNA must acknowledge and explore
these changes. So forget Osama. You bemoan the discounting of your
father's find and the work on the early carbon dates. Science is not
static. What the world of science needs is for this research to be
re-contextualized in a leading scientific journal -- and not in a
non-peer reviewed website -- to show how this find and the
scientific data derived from it can be used today. You must show how
(1) your data, (2) newer data from other sites, and (3) current
scientific thinking might be combined to create a wider context and
fresh view for science audiences and science consumers. In other
words, add new cultural and scientific value to your father's
scientific discovery, or it may face deepening obscurity.

*****************************************

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Southwestern Archaeology, Inc. (SWA)
" Got CALICHE ? " Newsletter
Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of the Greater Southwest!

Monday June 02, 2003

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MEXICO

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/152/nation/Mexican_Indians_find_a_c
ampus_lacking_in_ivy+.shtml
The Autonomous Indigenous University of Mexico is the first large-
scale attempt to provide college education to the country's 62
indigenous groups. Tuition and board are free. And the university is
open to Indians from throughout Latin America. Students pursue their
own research aided only by graduate student advisers; the school's
founders have managed to slash operating costs while ensuring almost
unlimited admission. They have also developed a curriculum that
melds traditional Western education with an emphasis on knowledge
that is particularly relevant in indigenous communities. "There is
no university like it in the world," said Jesus Angel Ochoa, the
Mexican anthropologist who is both founder and rector of the school,
in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.

TEXAS

http://www.statesman.com/asection/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday
/news_e39d6ab0111e103b10d2.html
The Alabama-Coushatta has won a stunning federal court victory in a
30-year quest for redress for the loss of ancestral lands. Unless
Congress ignores long tradition, the tribe stands to receive one of
the largest settlements of an Indian land claim in the nation's
history. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which reviewed the matter
under a special referral from lawmakers, has recommended that
Congress award the tribe $270.6 million for oil and natural gas
production, timber harvesting and trespassing by non-Indian settlers
during the 109 years from 1845, when Texas became a state, to 1954,
when Congress suspended the federal government's role as guardian of
the tribe's land and other interests.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1931782
Amberson has finished a book, I'd Rather Sleep in Texas, that uses
McAllen's adventures to help chronicle the American experience along
the lower Rio Grande. The 655-page book includes a 20-page appendix
of Spanish ranch terms and 97 pages of footnotes. Photos were
obtained from archives, museums, and private collections throughout
Texas and beyond.

NEW MEXICO

http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news03/053103_news_tales.shtml
On March 28, 1883, swift-riding Apache raiders killed Judge H.C.
McComas of Silver City and his wife, Juniata, and carried off their
6-year-old son, Charley. It was a tragedy for the Chiricahua Apache
people. Just two dozen members of this tribe, led by Chato, attacked
Judge McComas, his wife and son. But all the Chiricahuas paid the
price. "This inflamed passions nationally because Judge McComas was
socially prominent," said Marc Simmons, New Mexico historian and
author of "Massacre on the Lordsburg Road: A Tragedy of the Apache
Wars." The Chiricahuas received no mercy. To this day, the
Chiricahua have not been allowed to go home.

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jun/06012003/arts/arts.asp
A mica bean pot is not just a 500-year Jicarilla Apache tradition:
It is also the secret to great-tasting food. Archaeologists believe
micaceous clay was used in traditional Jicarilla Apache pottery as
early as the 14th century. Because of the unique alkaline mica clay
used to create the pot, acidic elements in food cooked in the pot
are neutralized, causing a delicious sweet flavor not found in food
cooked in generic pots.

COLORADO

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~1426198,00.html
Camp Hale veterans fight plan for river (Historic preservation vs.
ecological restoration). The 10th Mountain Division Foundation, a
politically connected group of veterans, want the valley left as it
is. In 1992, the site was named to the National Register of Historic
Places. Although a Forest Service official at the time declared the
designation would not preclude wetlands restoration, a 1998 report
discourages it. The report says that for visitors to understand this
temporary Army post, they must see the river as the soldiers saw it -
  straight. "To allow the river to return to its former channel or to
take active steps to re-establish the meanders in the river through
Camp Hale would be an adverse effect to this National Register
site," states the report, signed by Bill Kight, Forest Service staff
archaeologist.

http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?
article_type=news&article_path=/news/news030601_1.htm
The early ancestral Puebloans who inhabited Ridges Basin left
tantalizing clues for archaeologists, who are trying learn as much
as possible about them before a portion of the basin is covered with
water. "We suspect that Ridges Basin was among the earliest year-
round settlements in the Southwest," said Jim Potter, the
archaeologist in charge of the four-year study that's part of the
preparations for the Animas-La Plata water storage project.

UTAH

From: Layne Miller <layne@...>
Here is a letter URARA sent to the Price, Utah BLM field office on a
proposal to drill two gas wells in Nine Mile Canyon, a place touted
as having the highest concentration of rock art in North America.
Let me know if you need additional details. I would appreciate it if
you would alert your readers. Layne Miller 2003 URARA President.

Utah Rock Art Research Association P.O. Box 511324 SLC, UT 84151-1324
June 1, 2003 Mr. Patrick Gubbons Price Field Office Manager Bureau
of Land Management 125 South 600 West Price, Utah 84501 Dear Mr.
Gubbons: I am writing to comment on the Bill Barrett Corporation
environmental assessment covering a seven well exploration program
in and around Nine Mile Canyon. My initial reactions are several.
First, the EA appears to be released with little fanfare or public
attention and with a very short comment period. URARA is a Utah-
based group with well over 200 members living within Utah, but also
well over half of our members coming from states outside Utah. Most
of our members are not aware of this proposal and most, if not all,
would be concerned with any proposal that would negatively impact
the world-class rock art of Nine Mile Canyon, but because of the
short comment period, most will not be able to comment. I
respectfully ask for the comment period to be extended so that
possibility can be made available to them. Secondly, I am concerned
and surprised that a FONSI is being considered for any proposal to
drill a gas well in or close to Nine Mile Canyon. The canyon
contains what could be the highest concentration of rock art in
North America and as such, is one of the most important rock art
locations in North American. It is no place for continued oil and
gas exploration. The impacts will be considerable. The rock art in
Nine Mile Canyon was created by several different cultures. Those
include the Desert Archaic, Fremont, Ute and historic inscriptions
left by those early pioneers heading to the Uintah Basin and other
locations. It is one of the few places where rock art was created in
a close proximity for thousands of year, and as such, it is a rock
art researcher's heaven. It makes it possible to research rock art
styles and other mysteries easily and scientifically. Few, if any
other places offer the important research possibilities found in
Nine Mile Canyon. We therefore oppose any additional gas-well
drilling in the canyon. We are also offended by the document's
attempt to characterize Nine Mile Canyon as an existing gas well
field. Yes, there are wells around the area and a couple in the
canyon, but its characterization in the EA is offensive. Our
specific concerns include: 1- The increased heavy truck traffic in
the area will have a serious impact on an already fragile and
dangerous road and could lead to serious injury accidents with
tourism traffic using the canyon. Any large trucks and drilling rigs
should be accompanied by vehicles announcing their approach. 2-
Increased levels of dust will aggravate an already serious problem
created by dust being deposited and impacting the rock art. Most if
not all the panels found near the road, like those in Dry Canyon
(near one specific drill location) are already impacted by a thick
layer of dust. During certain times during a typical summer, it is
possible to nearly lose a touring car in the deep "dust bowls" that
form in the road. The dust issue has to be solved, even if the wells
are not improved, but it shouldn't be aggravated by any federal
government approved activity. Please solve the dust issue. 3-
Drilling and other similar activities and the vibrations they cause
could have a negative impact on adjacent rock art panels. They are
fragile and located on soft sandstone that can easily crumble and
fall from the cliff. Any drilling activities should be limited to at
least a quarter mile from any petroglyph or pictograph panel. 4- The
proposed action will have a negative impact on the current effort
being undertaken by the BLM and the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition to
create a National Historic District in Nine Mile. That effort
dramatically illustrates the canyon's importance to Utah and the
nation. To consider drilling gas wells in an area being considered
for inclusion on National Register of Historic Places is foolish.
The area is being considered for designation to offer additional
protection to a world-class resource. This proposal is counter to
the direction most of us support. 5- Nine Mile's visual resources
are already being denigrated by unsightly gas wells, pumping
stations and other facilities needed to access the gas resource. We
must do whatever is necessary to protect the remaining cultural
resources. To add to the problem is inexcusable. 6- Please include
URARA in any further proposal in the Nine Mile are that could impact
the resources there. We are simply not making any other Nine Mile
canyons and this one should be protected. Sincerely, N. Layne
Miller, URARA 2003 President.

ARIZONA

http://info-center.ccit.arizona.edu/~scarp/fieldschool/#schedule
The University of Arizona Archaeological Field School field season
began June 1st. The project is located in the Mogollon Rim region of
east-central Arizona. Most of the sites in the area post-date AD
1000 and are considered ancestral to Western Pueblo groups now
living in Arizona and New Mexico. The Field School focuses on the
economic, social, political, and ritual reorganization of Ancestral
Pueblo communities during the late 13th and 14th centuries.

http://yumasun.com/artman/publish/articles/story_5642.shtml
That desertion was a serious problem at early Fort Yuma should
surprise no one. Many enlisted men were recent immigrants needing
work and trying to survive with limited English language skills.
Stationed at an Army post 180 miles from San Diego where
temperatures sometimes soared to 120 degrees, Major Heinzelman's men
lived in tents and crude huts constructed upon their arrival at the
river. It wasn't until a fire destroyed most of the shelters in 1853
that permanent officers' quarters and enlisted men's barracks were
built. So it is no wonder that many men tried to find ways out of
service at Fort Yuma.

CALIFORNIA

http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~21481~1427591,00.html
Local leaders, city officials and historians now salute the Pink
Motel and the gritty Western interstate route that once ferried
goods, migrants and vacationers 1,675 miles from Mexico to Canada.
This year, historic Route 99 is being studied for potential
redevelopment. It's one of the last remaining authentic roads in the
San Fernando Valley.

http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/ent
ertainment/105438322457350.xml
Ishi spent almost 40 years living in the Mount Lassen foothills, one
of the last dozen Yahi who hid themselves to avoid the white men who
nearly wiped out their tribe. Two anthropologists at the University
of California, Alfred Kroeber and T.T. Waterman, arranged to have
Ishi taken to San Francisco, where he lived in a museum. Friendly
and curious, Ishi taught Kroeber and Waterman much about his
language, culture and customs and learned to live in a world
unimaginably different from the one he had known. He died of
tuberculosis in 1916.

FAILED ANTHROPOLOGISTS

http://www.timesstar.com/Stories/0,1413,125~1511~1428758,00.html
Many students are not getting the help they need, especially those
who major in the liberal arts. What about those of us in literature,
sociology, history, anthropology and so forth? Where am I supposed
to get the experience I need?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63392-2003May31.html
Hipster ironicus is proudly geeky, inflexibly liberal -- a
fascinating animal eager for love but, tragically, too sarcastic to
say so. The animal has found its habitat on Spring Street Networks,
billed as the online personals for people too cool to need
personals. Jen Dolloff, an amateur anthropologist of sorts,
instituted a scoring system to reward originality and punish
staleness.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62790-2003May31.html
The Bishop museum and Hawaiian native groups are in a controversy
that spotlights a debate over how to treat archaeological items that
have spiritual significance, as well as cultural, historical and
educational importance. Tatar said she felt pressured, even
intimidated, into releasing artifacts. Tatar is still smarting from
an incident a few years earlier when a reburial advocate impulsively
used Tatar's head to demonstrate how scientists handled ancient
skulls.

CYBERIA

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~172~1423237,00.html
Fire empowered our ancestors not just to cook food, harden pots and
refine metals, but to create new landscapes. The  equilibrium was
disrupted when open, rural fire was "industrialized" by being
compressed in the innards of the steam turbine and internal-
combustion engine. The transition between a society in which fires
burn on the landscape and hearth and one where fire is confined to
engines and electric light bulbs is dramatic, and we in the West are
in such a transition. In the West, the struggle between rural fire
and industrial fire is taking place along our forest edges, where
fire can quickly destroy valuable homes. Fire can also restore to
health the surrounding forests and grasslands that depend on it.
Torn by the twin needs of fire protection and land health, we lurch
from policy to policy.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/louv/20030601-
9999_mz1e1louv.html
According to a Northern Arizona University study of the nation's
parks: shortage of family time and a widely held perception that
parks are for viewing scenery, means a drop in attendance. The
phenomenon could be occurring at the exact moment when development
and energy interests are rapidly ratcheting up their pressure on the
natural environment – during an era when the political wind has
shifted in their favor. If the proportion of people with hands-on
emotional attachment to such places also shrinks, how much forest
and parkland will remain in, say, 2108?

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Southwestern Archaeology, Inc. (SWA) - A 501(c)(3) customer-centric
corporation dedicated to the ethnographic study of the scientific
practices of the American Southwest and the Mexican Northwest. Our
goal is to create and promote diverse micro-environments and open
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the risks from which innovation and productivity arise.

BTW listowner: please can I put in a request for an adminsitrative change.
Can the default reply address be set to the list's address and not to the
individual's address ? I almost replied to Jacques's personal e-mail addy.

-----
Best, Mikey Brass

>I guess, this will be the first message. Good luck and looking forward
>to animated discussions.

Oh rats, you beat me to it. Nice to see you here Jacques.

BTW listowner: please can I put in a request for an adminsitrative change.
Can the default reply address be set to the list's address and not to the
individual's address ? I almost replied to Jacques's personal e-mail addy.

-----
Best, Mikey Brass
Archaeology BSocSci(Hons), University of Cape Town
"The Antiquity of Man" http://www.antiquityofman.com
Book: "The Antiquity of Man: Artifactual, fossil and gene records explored"
In The Hall of Ma'at: http://www.thehallofmaat.com

I guess, this will be the first message. Good luck and looking forward
to animated discussions.

Jacques Cinq-Mars

  Editor-in-chief
PALANTH – International Journal of Palaeoanthropology (PIJP)

Postal address (Office):
Jacques Cinq-Mars Mediacinq
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Saint-Lambert,
Québec
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Longueuil, Qc
Canada J4H 2N3

Phone: 450-670-2127

Email addresses:
Jacques.cinqmars@... (personal)
info@... (Journal)

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