Horse Warriors and Warrior Horses: Considering Horse Subjectivity in Plains Indigenous Societies

Summary

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

Survey in the Rio Grande Gorge of New Mexico over the past decade has revealed a robust corpus of Plains Biographic rock art depicting the coups and accomplishments of human warriors. While horses are equally present, most of them are secondary to the narratives depicted and appear as ridden mounts or captured wealth. However, an unusual panel found in the same area featuring a scene with a detailed horse questions this assumption. This paper will consider animal subjectivity in the interpretation of this panel to demonstrate how equine actors were equally lauded for their feats in Plains Indigenous societies.

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): 36808.0