Anth 146 exam notes
Southwest Culture Area: Lesson 8
Study of Southwest Cultures
The Pueblo peoples of the desert Southwest were quite unlike any of the cultures that we have discussed thus far in the course. Because of their entirely sedentary farming lifestyle and permanent housing, 19th century thinkers considered Pueblo Indians to be higher on a social evolution scale than other Native Americans. In other words, Puebloan groups were considered superior to other tribes around them because their behavior and living practices appeared to more closely resemble those of white society. For this reason, a considerable amount of energy was put into documenting life among Puebloan groups, and we have some fairly good ethnographic documents to work with.
Today, a third of all American Indians live in the southwestern U.S., which has experienced at least 800 years of continuous occupation at some of the Pueblo villages. These groups, therefore, retain a strong sense of continuity with the past. They are some of the most conservative Indian groups in North America; they retain many aspects of their traditional lifestyle and beliefs – especially when compared to many of the groups that have been forced to move. However, the Southwest is not only home to the Puebloan farmers. More mobile cultures, such as the Navajo and Apache, live there as well. In this lesson, we focus primarily on the Pueblo groups and save our discussion of non-Puebloan cultures for the next unit.
The region we call the Southwest is generally bordered at its western edge by the Colorado, Gila, and San Juan Rivers. Its eastern border is comprised of Rio Grande River and the western Plains. Traditionally, researchers have placed the southern boundary at the U.S.-Mexican border, but this distinction is largely artificial because Southwest groups have many cultural similarities with northern Mexican tribes. The Great Basin provides the northern border of the region.
The native peoples of the Southwest are thought to
Study of Southwest Cultures
The Pueblo peoples of the desert Southwest were quite unlike any of the cultures that we have discussed thus far in the course. Because of their entirely sedentary farming lifestyle and permanent housing, 19th century thinkers considered Pueblo Indians to be higher on a social evolution scale than other Native Americans. In other words, Puebloan groups were considered superior to other tribes around them because their behavior and living practices appeared to more closely resemble those of white society. For this reason, a considerable amount of energy was put into documenting life among Puebloan groups, and we have some fairly good ethnographic documents to work with.
Today, a third of all American Indians live in the southwestern U.S., which has experienced at least 800 years of continuous occupation at some of the Pueblo villages. These groups, therefore, retain a strong sense of continuity with the past. They are some of the most conservative Indian groups in North America; they retain many aspects of their traditional lifestyle and beliefs – especially when compared to many of the groups that have been forced to move. However, the Southwest is not only home to the Puebloan farmers. More mobile cultures, such as the Navajo and Apache, live there as well. In this lesson, we focus primarily on the Pueblo groups and save our discussion of non-Puebloan cultures for the next unit.
The region we call the Southwest is generally bordered at its western edge by the Colorado, Gila, and San Juan Rivers. Its eastern border is comprised of Rio Grande River and the western Plains. Traditionally, researchers have placed the southern boundary at the U.S.-Mexican border, but this distinction is largely artificial because Southwest groups have many cultural similarities with northern Mexican tribes. The Great Basin provides the northern border of the region.
The native peoples of the Southwest are thought to