Stephen H. Lekson - The Chaco Meridian: One Thousand Years of Political and Religious Power in the Ancient Southwest

Praise for the first edition of The Chaco Meridian

Once every generation or so a new work appears that radically changes how we perceive some aspect of the world. [ The Chaco Meridian ] is one of those paradigm-shifting events in archaeology.... It is a fun yet thought-provoking book, a must-read for anyone interested in modern archaeology . David Anderson, National Park Service

Lekson is one of a few active archaeologists who have the experience, perspective, and creativity to think this big. A truly significant book. Keith W. Kintigh, Arizona State University

Lekson is one of the few archaeologists who writes with a distinctive voice, one of the few who prefers to work without a net.... His account of political history of the ancient Southwest... is a reconstruction that cannot be ignored by those interested in ancient Pueblo history and in the development of political complexity and social inequality. Mark D. Varien

Not only does Dr. Leksons scheme imply a degree of regional unity unsuspected heretofore but it casts a new light on several archaeological features... and also, perhaps, on the lore of the region at the time of contact with the Spanish. Antiquity

Provocative and challenging.... I recommend this book to anyone interested in the American Southwest; it is an exciting exercise in the possible. K. Kris Holt

Lekson presents a unique perspective on the Southwest.... [His own] work is well-published, and it is the lesser-known information about Aztec and Casas Grandes that makes the book worth reading and the meridian question worth pondering.... [T]his book is worth reading for its effort to look at old data in new ways and to incorporate new data in looking at old questions.... The Chaco Meridian is a highly personal exploration of Southwestern archaeological data that will motivate a new level of discussion.... Winifred Creamer, Northern Illinois University; Journal of Anthropological Research

His proposed political history of a significantly expanded Pueblo world... is intended to make us think globally and escape the confines of feeble provincialism. R. Grinn Vivian, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona; Cambridge Archaeological Journal

The Chaco Meridian effectively addresses some questions and spawns others, as seminal works are inclined to do. Lekson provides a compelling argument, meticulously laid out with some fun terminology and observations. Kevin S. Blake, University of Wyoming; The Geographical Journal

Leksons narrative style is clearly a refreshing departure from the typical archaeological discourse of careerist gravitas and pretentious sanctimony. Lekson, in his own way and language, is surely seeking converts to his Chaco Meridian, but he is also challenging others to test his model and come up with a better one. To do either or more, one must first read this book. J. Jefferson Reid, University of Arizona; Journal of Arizona History

The Chaco Meridian gives me hope for the survival of archaeology in this postmodern, new millennial world. It vindicates the approach of the lone scholar and harks back to the great strides made by the independent foundations and scholars of bygone years. Let there be more books like it.... If others will be inspired to follow Leksons lead and tackle the unknown and unpopular, the profession, the public, and all of us will be the better for it. Stephanie M. Whittlesey, Statistical Research, Inc.; Journal of Field Archaeology

The Chaco Meridian

Cardinal Mazarin smiled, holding out his hands, as if to convey the expectation that such things would happen only on the correct meridian.

Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before

The Chaco Meridian

One Thousand Years of Political and Religious Power in the Ancient Southwest

Second Edition

Stephen H. Lekson

Foreword by Ruth M. Van Dyke, Phillip Tuwaletstiwa, and Severin Fowles

Rowman & Littlefield

Lanham Boulder New York London

Published by Rowman & Littlefield

A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

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Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB, United Kingdom

Copyright 2015 by Rowman & Littlefield

First edition 1999.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lekson, Stephen H.

The Chaco meridian : one thousand years of political and religious power in the ancient Southwest / Stephen H. Lekson. Second edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-4644-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4422-4645-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4422-4646-1 (electronic) 1. Pueblo IndiansAntiquities. 2. Pueblo IndiansPolitics and government. 3. Pueblo roads. 4. Mimbres culture. 5. Chaco culture. 6. Chaco Culture National Historical Park (N.M.) 7. Aztec Ruins National Monument (N.M.) 8. Casas Grandes Site (Mexico) I. Title.

E99.P9L44 2015

978.9004'974dc23

2014047175

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

For Alden C. Hayes, who noticed the Meridian years ago: he had the good sense to let it lie.

For J. Charles Kelley, who warned me about Culiacn.

For John R. Stein, who had all the right ideas long before anyone else.

And for Peter Pino, who traveled the Meridian and wrote a song about it.

Contents

Foreword in Three Movements

I

It has been fifteen years since Steve Lekson first jolted the world of Southwest archaeology with the initial publication of The Chaco Meridian. As predicted by pundits at that time, the work has since played a significant role in setting research agendas, not to mention raising blood pressure, across the Southwest. Lekson is the best and brightest among usa scholar with the creativity, the vision, and the audacity to challenge traditional notions about the scale and scope of movements and interactions in the ancient Southwest.

Like it or loathe it, you cant just leave it; The Chaco Meridian is a witty, irreverent, inspired piece of scholarship that cannot be, and has not been, ignored. Leksons intellectually invigorating ideas have impacted Southwest archaeology in several major ways.

First, The Chaco Meridian forces readers to think beyond the provincial boundaries that govern the work and thought of many Southwest colleagues, mired in the myopia of their own particular river valleys or desert plateaus. Just as Chaco did not stop at the edge of the San Juan Basin, the ancient Southwest did not stop at the contemporary US-Mexico border. Lekson is one of the few who have long been cognizant of that fact. There is nothing unreasonable or unlikely about ancient Southwest interactions that spanned 500 km or more.

Second, The Chaco Meridian has inspired Southwest archaeologists (including myself) to work at the scale of landscape, not site. Past peoples were concerned with more than making a living in the desert: they imbued places with memories and meanings. Todays investigations into sacred geographies, viewsheds, soundscapes, social memory, roads, and movement owe a debt of inspiration to Lekson, who was perhaps the first widely recognized scholar to build a model around a meaningful cosmographic alignment with deep history and far-reaching implications. Lekson takes landscape and cosmography seriouslyas do the contemporary indigenous inhabitants of the Southwest.