Inscribing and Reinscribing Place: The Persistence of Hot Spring Sites in the Northern New Mexico Landscape

Summary

This paper examines the ways in which humans create meaningful and enduring relationships

with significantly unique environmental locations through a discussion of hot springs in the Rio

Grande Gorge and Taos plateau. These springs demonstrate continual persistence as

meaningful sites of visitation, of marking, and of cultural importance for those dwelling in the

Taos area from the archaic to the contemporary. Through an exploration of the markings and

constructions around the springs, I hope to elucidate how the layering of culturally significant

markers and the residues of past visitations shape the subsequent connections to these sites.

The paper will then focus on the capitalistic interventions onto and the post-capitalistic

interactions with the sites to elucidate ideas of ownership, restriction, and reclamation of these

environmentally and culturally significant locations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20984