The White Shaman Mural: The Story Behind the Book

Summary

The prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands created some of the most spectacular rock art of the ancient world. Perhaps the greatest of these masterpieces is the White Shaman mural. This presentation provides an introduction to our recently-published book The White Shaman Mural: An Enduring Creation Narrative, which is one of the most comprehensive analyses of a rock art mural ever attempted. Drawing on twenty-five years of archaeological research and analysis, as well as insights from ethnohistory and art history, we identified patterns in the imagery that equate in stunning detail to the mythologies of Uto-Aztecan-speaking peoples, including the ancient Nahua and present day Huichol. The identification of core Mesoamerican beliefs in Pecos River style rock art reveals that a shared ideological universe was already firmly established among foragers living in the Lower Pecos as long as 4,000 years ago.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Investigating a Ten-Millennia Record of Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways in the Northeastern Chihuahuan Desert

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17613