Anasazi America: Seventeen Centuries on the Road from Center Place - Softcover

Stuart, David E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826321798 ISBN 13: 9780826321794

Verlag: University of New Mexico Press, 2000

Inhaltsangabe

Book by Stuart David E

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Críticas:

"In a very readable narrative . . . Stuart asserts a general theory of Chaco Canyon--a sophisticated culture that has perplexed archaeologists since its discovery . . . . Anasazi America draws a fascinating dichotomy between modern pueblos and modern America, which has failed to learn history's lessons." "Stuart's message is timely and important, and there is undoubtedly a large public appetite for a book of this scope and accesibility." "Stuart's book presents fresh insights and arguments that will spur debate, particularly within the already contentious field of Chaco scholarship. . . "Anasazi America" still succeeds in melding an often opaque past into our own often disquieting present." In a very readable narrative . . . Stuart asserts a general theory of Chaco Canyona sophisticated culture that has perplexed archaeologists since its discovery . . . . "Anasazi America" draws a fascinating dichotomy between modern pueblos and modern America, which has failed to learn historys lessons. In this readable narrative . . . Stuart very effectively deals with the question, then, of why the collapse? . . . this work has an urgent appeal to anyone of us interested in the future of contemporary industrial society . . . Stuart cogently distinguishes between powerful societies, which gain power by using resources inefficiently, and efficient societies, which run frugally but sacrifice wealth and power to do so. The latter societies, he argues, are more resilient when environmental changes or other challenges appear. David Stuart . . . has made the findings of archaeology directly relevant to weighty, modern social and political issues. . . . This tale is structured around an interesting model that contrasts power and efficiency as alternative strategies for cultural survival. . . . Stuarts clear and straightforward prose is written to a popular audience, largely free of the technical and philosophical jargon that often suffocates archaeological and anthropological literature.

Reseña del editor:

At the height of their power in the late eleventh century, the Chaco Anasazi dominated a territory in the American Southwest larger than any European principality of the time. A vast and powerful alliance of thousands of farming hamlets and nearly 100 spectacular towns integrated the region through economic and religious ties, and the whole system was interconnected with hundreds of miles of roads. It took these Anasazi farmers more than seven centuries to lay the agricultural, organisational, and technological groundwork for the creation of classic Chacoan civilisation, which lasted about 200 yearsonly to collapse spectacularly in a mere 40. Why did such a great society collapse? Who survived? Why? In this lively book anthropologist/archaeologist David Stuart presents answers to these questions that offer useful lessons to modern societies. His account of the rise and fall of the Chaco Anasazi brings to life the people known to us today as the architects of Chaco Canyon, the spectacular national park in New Mexico that thousands of tourists visit every year. Chacos failure, Stuart argues, was a failure to adapt to the consequences of rapid growth. Foremost among Chacoans problems were misuse of farmland, malnutrition, loss of community, and inability to deal with climatic catastrophe. The descendants of the Anasazi, the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest, adapted strategically to minimise the impact of these problems.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: University of New Mexico Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0826321798
• ISBN 13: 9780826321794
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 248