While most archaeological studies focus on architecture and material remains, this volume focuses on the appearance, speech, and associated identity messages of the various prehistoric people of the Southwest from A.D. 900 to 1450. Each individual and group of people could be recognized by a district appearance made up of morphological and cultural attributes. The morphological attributes includes stature, robustness, facial features, skull shape, and skin color. Cultural attributes include clothes, ornaments, hairstyles, and facial decoration.
The authors primarily use data recovered by archaeological research—depictions of people on ceramics and wall murals, plus jewelry, textiles, and skeletal remains—to piece together a picture of the various groups and individuals. Because there was no written language, the chapter on speech is based on historical data. The groups studied include the Mogollon/Mimbres, Salado, Ancestral Pueblo, Hohokam, Sinagua, and Mountain Mogollon.
In the chapter on physical appearance, author Ann L.W. Stoddert finds much variation in the six groups using skeletal data from 180 archaeological sites. She analyzes variations in stature, weight, head shape, and facial features, characteristics that vary with genetic pools and environment. For example males from the Chaco Canyon great houses were on average almost two inches taller than other males in the Southwest, including males from the small houses in Chaco Canyon. Men were two to four-and-one-half inches taller than women.
Other chapters look at the various cultural attributes as well as language. Language in the Southwest is extremely diverse with six distinct language families encompassing more than twenty different languages, none of which is mutually understandable.
Lead author Jill Neitzel, an archaeologist at the University of Delaware, and her fellow authors have produced this groundbreaking study that develops distinct identities for the prehistoric people of the Southwest. Richly illustrated and written for the general public, it is an essential addition to the study of the people of the prehistoric Southwest.
