2015/11/20 by Robert S. Weiner · 1 voice · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and Rock Art Studies #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Latin American history and culture
paper · doi:10.1080/00231940.2016.1147681
openalex publication_date 2015/11/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
The “Chaco Phenomenon” has been a major research focus within Ancestral Puebloan archaeology, yet while most scholars agree that some kind of shared ideology and ritual permitted the creation of this distinctive network of pueblo villages throughout a vast region of the American Southwest, few have attempted to explain the specifics of Chacoan ritual practice. This paper uses a phenomenological approach to examine exotic imports in Chaco Canyon including turquoise, shell, cacao, copper bells, and macaws and argues for the importance of these objects’ unique sensory characteristics in crafting Chaco's compelling ritual environment. By skillfully employing striking new colors, sounds, and tastes in both “concealed” and “conspicuous” practices of ritual deposition and public performances, Chacoan religious personnel would have not only have demonstrated their spiritual prestige by having acquired such items, but also allowed ritual participants to hear, see, and taste a paradisiacal realm akin to the shared Mesoamerican-Southwestern Flower World. Ultimately, this paper argues that sensory-based archaeological approaches can greatly enrich investigations of ritual practice, cosmology, and human experience at Chaco Canyon.