Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Sunseri's] work is personal, innovative, and effective in its use of disparate sources, from scientific analysis to oral history, and provides the reader with a well reasoned and supported argument for cultural fluidity and continuation on the New Mexico colonial borderlands."—Peg Kearney,
Journal of Arizona History"
Situational Identities along the Raiding Frontier of Colonial New Mexico offers a strong foundation on which to build future place-based historical archaeologies in the Southwest, deeply informed by those who have thought with the land for generations."—Valerie Bondura,
Society for Historical Archaeology"The ethnic pluralism that emerges from Sunseri's text and artifacts will resonate beyond scholarly circles, offering critical insight into contemporary issues around what it means to be 'New Mexican.'"—Dana Velasco Murillo,
Western Historical Quarterly"
Situational Identities has much to offer those interested in the regional history of New Mexico, the broader history of Spanish frontier spaces, and the important work of blending methodologies across the humanities and social science disciplines."—Sean F. McEnroe,
Hispanic American Historical Review“This case makes a significant contribution to the interdisciplinary study of the Spanish borderlands, especially in New Mexico, and will set the bar for archaeological and anthropological research into
genízaro communities like Casitas.”—Bonnie J. Clark, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Denver and author of
On the Edge of Purgatory: An Archaeology of Place in Hispanic Colorado “This book is a culmination of several years of innovative research at Casitas that is important because it involves local descendent communities for whom this site has great personal and historic meaning. The research is comprehensive and integrates multiple lines of evidence in an unusual way, including documentary, landscape/viewshed, architectural, zooarchaeological, and ceramic analyses.”—Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Maryland and coauthor of
Mission and Pueblo of Santa Catalina de Guale, St. Catherines Island, Georgia: A Comparative Zooarchaeological AnalysisTable of ContentsList of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Standing Fast in the Middle Ground Community Research Mandates as a Privilege to Earn for Historical Archaeology
A Spanish Colonial Project in a Native American Landscape
(Un)documented New Mexico
Previous Archaeological Research
Chapter 2. Digging Out Community Picturing the Cast(a) of the Drama in Northern New Mexico
Frontline Families and Opportunities
A Turning Point on a Critical Frontier
Viewing Research on the Borderlands from a Distance
Borderlands Identities as Strategy
A Historical Archaeology of Identity as a Complex of Possibilities
Concepts of Homescape and Hearthscape
Chapter 3. Homescape
Landscape and Identity
Maps and Mappings
The Tactical Homescape
The Engineered Homescape
Evaluating Topographic Space for Potential as Agricultural Place
Modeling Hydrodynamics of
Acequia Irrigation
Palimpsests of Place Along the Rito Colorado
Landscape Dimensions in Dialogue
Chapter 4. Hearthscape Tools Pottery as Foodway Toolkits
Who made these pots?
Typologies and Historic New Mexican Pottery
Choosing Clay for Making Pots
Transformations of Clay into Tools
The Thermodynamic Art of Firing
Pots in Performance
A Process of Identity
Chapter 5. Hearthscape Ingredients Grazing to Gravy
What Animals Were Part of Life at Casitas?
Creation of the Faunal Archaeological Record
Animal Bodies Becoming Portions
Transformations into Food
Tool Marks and Burning
How was Meat Portioned and Consumed?
Hearthscape Evidence in Dialog
Chapter 6. Historical Archaeology of a Place beyond Labels Foodways Stages of Production and Consumption
Production Practices Related to Consumption
Use and Disposal
Hearthscape Trends Across the
Plazuela Tactical and Engineering Perspectives on Homescape Practices
Complicating Identity on the Frontier By Putting Scales in Dialogue
EPILOGUE: Protecting a Guardian of the Frontier New Directions for Future Research
Archaeology and Preservation as Memory, Performance, and Political Action
REFERENCES CITED
