Description
Book SynopsisThis volume presents a far-ranging conversation on the topic of Hohokam platform mounds in the history of the southern Arizona desert, exploring why they were built, how they were used, and what they meant in the lives of the farmers who built them. Vapaki brings together diverse theoretical approaches, a mix of big-picture and tightly focused perspectives, coverage of the variation in mounds that provides depth for specialists, breadth for those working in other areas and on other topics, and a rich corpus of research ideas and theoretical perspectives. Contributors grapple with questions about platform mounds, including the social, political, ideological, symbolic, and adaptive factors that contributed to their development, spread, and eventual cessation.
The differing perspectives presented here about what motivated Ancestral O’Odham populations of the Hohokam Period to build these monuments, whether as displays of status, identity, political ability, membership in regional networks, and as architectural models of the cosmological order, offer insights to researchers studying monumental architecture in other contexts. O’Odham knowledge of the history and uses of mounds is combined with archaeological data to understand the place of platform mounds in the lives of the Ancestors and as a continuing presence among their modern descendants.
Trade Review “An exceptional collection of essays relating to the origin, spread, function, purpose, and demise of these prominent architectural features at villages across the larger Hohokam cultural area or sphere of influence in the later thirteenth and fourteenth centuries."—T. Kathleen Henderson, Desert Archaeology
"This volume makes a significant contribution by successfully uniting a diverse mix of works under the umbrella of understanding Hohokam-area platform mounds. Although the only thing that unites some of these chapters is the topic of platform mounds, that approach works well here; there ought to be something in this volume for everyone."—Karen Schollmeyer, Archaeology Southwest
Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface: Vapaki of the Ancestors by Chris Loendorf and Barnaby V. Lewis
- Acknowledgments
- Editors’ Note
- Part I: Introduction
- 1. Platform Mounds of the Sonoran Desert by Glen E. Rice, Arleyn W. Simon, Chris Loendorf, Carla R. Van West, and Jeffrey S. Dean
- Part II: A Context for the Study of Platform Mounds
- 2. Platform Mounds and Ethnographic Analogy Revisited: Defining the Functional Universe by Mark D. Elson
- 3. West Mexican Connections and Classic Period Hohokam Platform Mounds by Suzanne K. Fish and Paul R. Fish
- 4. Contextualizing Platform Mounds by Carla R. Van West and Jeffrey S. Dean
- 5. Akimel O’Odham Traditional Knowledge Regarding Platform Mounds by Linda Morgan, Barnaby V. Lewis, and Chris Loendorf
- Part III: Development of Platform Mounds
- 6. The Gatlin Site Platform Mound by David E. Doyel
- 7. What We Know and What We Wished We Knew about Hohokam Platform Mounds by David R. Abbott
- 8. When is a Platform Mound: A Focus on Diversity and Function by Richard Ciolek-Torello
- Part IV: Platform Mounds at a Local Scale
- 9. Platform Mound Communities along the Middle Gila River by M. Kyle Woodson, Chris Loendorf, and Brian Medchill
- 10. A Monument for Memory: The Pueblo Grande Platform Mound by Todd W. Bostwick, Douglas R. Mitchell, Laurene Montero, and Christian E. Downum
- 11. Social Organization and Leadership Strategies among Tonto Basin Platform Mound Communities by Arleyn W. Simon and Owen Lindauer
- 12. Mounds, Mounding, and Polychrome Pottery: Roosevelt Red Ware and Platform Mounds in the Tonto Basin of Central Arizona by Katherine A. Dungan
- Part V: Platform Mounds on a Regional Scale
- 13. Anarchic Social Movements as an Explanation for Rapid Change: A Case Study from the Hohokam World, AD 1200–1450 by Lewis Borck and Jeffery J. Clark
- 14. Monuments, Costly Signaling, and Replicative Fitness during the Hohokam Era by Glen E. Rice, Christopher N. Watkins, Erica O’Neil, and Erik Steinbach
- Part VI: Conclusion
- 15. Unfinished Work at Platform Mounds by Glen E. Rice and Chris Loendorf
- References
- List of Contributors
- Index
