Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
All human life is fashioned on-the-move, just as it is shaped by the commitments to situated places that emerge along the way. However, the relative value placed on routes versus roots—on trajectories and ways of moving versus localism and modes of emplacement—has varied substantially across historical time and cultural space. This session draws together six papers that examine how such value systems have developed over time in the northern Rio Grande valley of New Mexico, from the early foraging traditions of the Archaic, through the rise of Pueblo villages, and on to the arrival of Spanish settlers, Comanche raiders, and White counterculturalists. Drawing on a wealth of new archaeological evidence, we offer, in part, a novel account of the region’s history. But at a broader level, we seek to clarify how the ongoing negotiation between routes and roots is itself a generative and defining process in the emergence and transformation of cultural traditions.
Other Keywords
Historic •
Iconography and epigraphy •
Iconography and Art: Rock Art •
Survey •
Trade and exchange •
Pueblo •
Lithic Analysis •
Agriculture •
Horse •
Mobility
Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
USA (Country) •
New Mexico (State / Territory) •
Oklahoma (State / Territory) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Texas (State / Territory) •
Sonora (State / Territory) •
Chihuahua (State / Territory) •
Colorado (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-7 of 7)
- Documents (7)
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Emergent Economies in the Northern Rio Grande: Agricultural Intensification and the Picuris Pueblo Trade Network (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The first documented reference to Picuris Pueblos’ role in the growing farmer-forager exchange network of the northern Rio Grande is attributed to Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, who reported in 1591 that “a long arquebus shot from this pueblo there were foreign people [nomads] who had come to this [place] for refuge” and trade (Schroeder and Matson...
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Images on the Move: Archaic Rock Art of Northern New Mexico (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaic foragers represent one extreme of the relationship between routes and roots. There is a wealth of evidence in the US Southwest of the itinerant, ambulatory lifeways of ancient populations—impermanent campsites, lithic scatters near likely animal trails and watering holes, and the enigmatic rock art that appears along watercourses or...
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A New Bethel? Catholic Landscapes of the Northern Rio Grande (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Following the incorporation of New Mexico into the Spanish Empire, Christianity became an ever more powerful force across the region. Traditionally, we think of Christianity as a "world religion," by definition a trans-local phenomenon. Moreover, whenever Christianity takes on any "local" characteristics, it is assumed that this represents a...
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The New Indigeneity of Thirteenth-Century New Mexico (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The thirteenth century was a period of heightened social transformation in the northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico. Local populations swelled with the arrival of Pueblo immigrants, older dispersed settlement systems were replaced by densely occupied villages, and commitments to agricultural production deepened. Concurrent with these...
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On the Road and in Place: A Material History of the New Buffalo Commune, New Mexico (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The New Buffalo Commune of northern New Mexico was a countercultural mecca during the late 1960s and 1970s, drawing in young folks from around the country who sought escape from the industrialism, capitalism, and militarism of mid-twentieth-century American society. It was a community of those who were looking to return to lost relationships...
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The Roots of Lithic Exchange Routes in the Taos Region (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation uses lithic-sourcing data from two large northern Rio Grande Pueblo communities, Pot Creek Pueblo (1250–1320 CE) and Picuris Pueblo (1000–Present CE), to delve into the social and economic dynamics that shaped the exchange of obsidian and chert over the past millennium in the Taos region. Drawing on data from over 2,000...
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Situating Northern Rio Grande Horse Petroglyphs in the Plains Biographic Tradition (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Survey in the Rio Grande Gorge of New Mexico over the past decade has revealed a robust corpus of rock art that depicts horses in the Plains Biographic tradition. Comparison of the Rio Grande Gorge horses to horses in Plains Biographic rock art of other regions and cultures may address questions of cultural affiliation, movement of people,...