The collapse of the Anasazi civilization is perhaps the greatest “unsolved mystery” of the prehistoric Southwest. It is also the focus of Craig Childs’ book House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest. The word Anasazi comes from the Navajo language meaning “enemy ancestors,” not “old ones,” as it was once thought. The Hopi Indians, who are descendants of the Anasazi people, prefer the term “Hisatsinom” or “Ancestral Puebloan.” Childs explores this and other issues in Southwest archaeology concerning the disappearance of the Anasazi in the thirteenth century. House of Rain reads like a travel guide, a mystery, and an archaeology book. Childs explores ancient ruins and kivas throughout the entire Colorado Plateau region, including Chaco Canyon in New Mexico (the cultural center of the Anasazi) and Mesa Verde in Colorado, and even northern Mexico. The book is more interesting with descriptions of his adventures, such as wading through floods in canyons or other adverse weather conditions. Along the way Childs postulates on various archaeological theories for the decline of the Anasazi. It has been well established that a long drought in the Southwest beginning in the late thirteenth century drove these people out. But other theories abound. For example, Childs explores the validity of archaeologist Stephen H. Lekson’s theory of a “Chaco Meridian,” a connection between the peoples of Chaco Canyon, Aztec, New Mexico, and Paquimé (or Casas Grandes) in northern Mexico that explains phenomena including the Great North Road, macaw feathers, Pueblo Indian mythology, and the rise of kachina ceremonies. Overall, House of Rain is an excellent introduction to the collapse of the Anasazi population for the general reader. What makes this subject fascinating is how researchers have to rely on archaeological evidence like pottery shards and human remains for their answers, not the written record. Childs, Craig, House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2007.
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CategoriesAuthorTom Schmidt lives in Prescott Valley, AZ. Archives
October 2018
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October 2018
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