Art in the Pre-Hispanic Southwest

Radoslaw Palonka is associate professor in the Department of New World Archeology, Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University, and research associate at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center.

The American Southwest remains the locus of a panoply of ancient cultural and artistic developments and long-standing Indigenous traditions. From Durango, CO, to Durango, Mexico, and Las Vegas, NM, to Las Vegas, NV, the Greater Southwest constitutes the developmental arena of such hallowed traditions as those of the Ancestral Pueblo, Mogollon, Hohokam, Sinagua, Salado, Paquimé, Mimbres, Hopi, Navajo, Pima, Paiute, Apache, and Comanche. Anthropological studies of the region and its peoples have witnessed over a century and a half of systematic scientific explorations that have both enriched and muddied understandings of the region's ancient peoples. Palonka succeeds in providing an eminently readable, comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and handsomely illustrated review of the cultural traditions, archaeology, and art history of the Greater Southwest, including northern Mexico. This international perspective is particularly accessible and represents one of the few efforts to internationalize the subject matter, thereby transcending borders, boundaries, and isolationist perspectives that have limited previous works. Palonka's substantive surveys, illustrations, and iconographic interpretations of elaborately decorated ceramics and rock art bolster contextual understandings of the transhumant communities and sedentary town dwellers that comprised the Prehispanic Southwest. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

• Chapter 1. Pre-Hispanic and the Early-Historic SouthwestChapter 2. The Geography, Climate and Environment of the SouthwestChapter 3. Mammoth and Bison Hunters: The Paleoindian and Archaic Periods Chapter 4. Architects, Artists, and Farmers of the Colorado Plateau: Ancestral Pueblo CultureChapter 5. Civilizations in the Arizona Desert: The Hohokam and Salado cultures Chapter 6. Pottery and Settlements in the Highlands: The Mogollon and Mimbres cultures Chapter 7. The Border between Mesoamerica and the Southwest: Casas Grandes and the Cultural Traditions of Northern MexicoChapter 8. Farmers and Hunter-Gatherers from Utah: The Fremont Culture Chapter 9. Hunter-Gatherers in the Pre-Hispanic and Early Historic Period in the Southwest: The Apache, Navajo, and Ute