Description
In his up to date book, Carroll Riley presents an ambitious overview of the continuities he sees within the geographically vast and culturally complex American Southwest and the adjacent northwest of Mexico. Aided by extensive illustrations, he argues that even if the Southwest remained “southwestern” in its basic economy, there were drastic changes beginning around A.D. 1200 that transformed socio-religious life all through the region. Riley calls this period Aztlan, a name adopted from the mythic Aztec land of origin. A Pueblo Indian in A.D. 800 would have gathered and farmed the similar foods as his descendants, but by 1400 those distant relatives had a very different concept of the physical and non secular universe.
In addition to bringing vast erudition and jargon-free prose to bear on a complex subject, Riley’s conclusions have potentially sweeping implications for the way forward for archaeological studies within the greater Southwest.