Northern Rio Grande History: Routes and Roots

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.