Both Secular and Sacred: Kiva Function at Two Sites in the Mesa Verde Region of the American Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Investigations into the use of space at two sites in southwest Colorado have yielded strong evidence suggesting that archaeologists’ understanding of the pit house to kiva transition warrants further study. For many years, archaeologists have asserted that pit houses became formalized ceremonial structures called kivas by the end of the Pueblo I period (A.D. 750 to 900). Thus, by A.D. 900, the function of kivas had become strictly religious, whereas rectangular surface rooms had become the main location for all remaining habitation activities. Recent work at the Bowthorpe and Pigg sites contradicts this traditional assumption and suggests that the structures we call kivas remained primary loci for habitation activities well into the Pueblo III period (A.D. 1150 to 1300). Based on this research, it appears that a strict separation between sacred and secular activities is an ethnocentric interpretation of activity organization and, further, that the strong distinction between kivas and houses in contemporary Pueblo villages is likely the result of a complex series of dynamics including internal changes in Pueblo society, different regional trajectories of development, impacts on Pueblo religion imposed by Spanish occupation, and other factors.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25284