4 ms·

This article is "just so" storytelling if the worst kind. Little or no evidence is produced for any of its conclusions -- just assertions that the historical P

by zenkat 8y ago

This article is "just so" storytelling if the worst kind. Little or no evidence is produced for any of its conclusions -- just assertions that the historical Pueblan people "obviously" must have had a technological elite that desired separation from the riff-raff. It's completely ahistorical -- nothing but fact-free cultural projection.

jackbravo 8y ago
Talk about cultural projection... > The massive ruins of Chaco Canyon reminded the modern Americans who first encountered them of the Aztecs. Given their love of clean straight lines, symmetry, and order, and their penchant for monumentality, a more apt parallel to the Anasazi, I think, would be the old Romans. Like the Roman colony, Pueblo Bonito was built to a plan. Either he doesn't know the aztecs, or any other culture from the region. He had to go to Rome, discounting other great cities like Tenochtitlan (Aztec, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan), Teotihuacan (Toltec? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan), Palenque, Chichen-Itza, Tikal from the Mayans, or Monte Alban from the Zapotec people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Alb%C3%A1n https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Alb%C3%A1n)....
- RogerL 8y ago
  Besides the extensive trade and travel done with what we now call Mexico, there was also a lot of trade, or at least travel, to CA at the time; beads formed from seashells gathered from the CA coast were a common feature of clothing and daily use items. The writer of the article is ignorant, and the comparison to Rome is offensive.
RogerL 8y ago
It's a pretty bad article based on current thinking about Chaco. I have no doubt his guide was pretty good, but I suspect his retention and understanding of what he was told got things scrambled, and then he went off on his own tangents. There's a lot of work being done tying Chaco to the broader region. The most forward thinking would be Steve Lekson's (UC Boulder) work, he proposes a migration along a meridian between Chaco, Aztec, and Paquime. I don't really subscribe to that particular view, but I am not a researcher and my opinion is worthless as far as that goes. I found much of what is written in that article to be debatable at best, fanciful at worst. I'm not sure it is worth going into it line by line. If this is a topic that interests people, books by David Roberts and Craig Childs give an excellent overview of what was going on at this time period, albeit in a very personal manner (e.g. do you care how David gets along with a hiking companion?). Then there are a significant number of books that are accessible to the lay reader without requiring you to read "methods and materials" types of research reports. But Roberts and Childs will give you the gist. I particularly like Childs' "House of Rain".

by zenkat 8y ago

jackbravo 8y ago

Talk about cultural projection... > The massive ruins of Chaco Canyon reminded the modern Americans who first encountered them of the Aztecs. Given their love of clean straight lines, symmetry, and order, and their penchant for monumentality, a more apt parallel to the Anasazi, I think, would be the old Romans. Like the Roman colony, Pueblo Bonito was built to a plan. Either he doesn't know the aztecs, or any other culture from the region. He had to go to Rome, discounting other great cities like Tenochtitlan (Aztec, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan), Teotihuacan (Toltec? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan), Palenque, Chichen-Itza, Tikal from the Mayans, or Monte Alban from the Zapotec people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Alb%C3%A1n https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Alb%C3%A1n)....

RogerL 8y ago
Besides the extensive trade and travel done with what we now call Mexico, there was also a lot of trade, or at least travel, to CA at the time; beads formed from seashells gathered from the CA coast were a common feature of clothing and daily use items. The writer of the article is ignorant, and the comparison to Rome is offensive.

RogerL 8y ago

It's a pretty bad article based on current thinking about Chaco. I have no doubt his guide was pretty good, but I suspect his retention and understanding of what he was told got things scrambled, and then he went off on his own tangents. There's a lot of work being done tying Chaco to the broader region. The most forward thinking would be Steve Lekson's (UC Boulder) work, he proposes a migration along a meridian between Chaco, Aztec, and Paquime. I don't really subscribe to that particular view, but I am not a researcher and my opinion is worthless as far as that goes. I found much of what is written in that article to be debatable at best, fanciful at worst. I'm not sure it is worth going into it line by line. If this is a topic that interests people, books by David Roberts and Craig Childs give an excellent overview of what was going on at this time period, albeit in a very personal manner (e.g. do you care how David gets along with a hiking companion?). Then there are a significant number of books that are accessible to the lay reader without requiring you to read "methods and materials" types of research reports. But Roberts and Childs will give you the gist. I particularly like Childs' "House of Rain".