An Archaeology of Becoming

Summary

From the emergence into this world to the settling of the modern villages, the Pueblos view their own history as a dynamic, living process. While key elements of Pueblo identity and worldview have always been with the people, migration experiences and the amalgamation of people with diverse backgrounds and beliefs were essential in shaping the culture and cosmology of each Pueblo group. This process – called ‘becoming’ by Pueblo scholars – is never complete and represents the malleability of the Pueblo people and their ideas, as well as cultural continuity and resilience of their beliefs, in the past, present, and future. In this paper we propose developing an archaeology of becoming that captures the fluid and ever-moving character of Pueblo history as a nexus of identity, memory, and values, and use examples from the Keres and Tewa worlds to frame our discussion.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Pueblo Movement and the Archaeology of Becoming

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15356