Regional Comparison of Ritual Closure in American Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeologists in the North American Southwest and other regions recognize that ritual closure of structures reveals information about relations with ancestors, fear of dangerous forces, and other interactions between spiritual and material realms. We want to understand how such ceremonies might differ through time or place. Perhaps they form regional traditions that offer insights into ritual variability. Alternatively, these rituals might transcend local culture boundaries and highlight processes in the rise and spread of new religions. To begin compiling and exploring these possibilities, we focus on culture branches of the Mogollon Region of the North American Southwest including the San Simon, Black River, Forestdale, Cibola, Mimbres, Jornada, Chihuahua, and Eastern Periphery branches. We are particularly interested in comparing domestic and ritual structure closure as well as the patterning of specific artifact types such as projectile points, shell, pigments, and crystals.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35825.0