Ruth Van Dyke | Binghamton University (original) (raw)
Articles and Book Chapters by Ruth Van Dyke
What Does This Have to Do with Archaeology? Festschrift for the Occasion of Reinhard Bernbeck’s 65th Birthday, 2023
https://www.sidestone.com/books/what-does-this-have-to-do-with-archaeology
Las torres del norte del San Juan, inclusive ésos en Mesa Verde, en Hovenweep, y en el monumento ... more Las torres del norte del San Juan, inclusive ésos en Mesa Verde, en Hovenweep, y en el monumento nacional de Canyons of the Ancients, fueron construidos en cimas de mesa, en casas en acantilado, por los bordes de cañones, y en fondos de cañones durante Pueblo III (dC. 1150-1300) – un tiempo de trastorno social y ambiental. Las torres han sido interpretadas por arqueólogos como fortalezas defensivas, miradores, lugares para mandar señales, observatorios astronómicos, almacenes, e instalaciones ceremoniales. Las explicaciones que se relacionan con la visibilidad de las torres son las más convincentes. Como edificios públicos sumamente visibles, las torres tuvieron significados abstractos y simbólicos así como usos concretos y funcionales. Aquí preguntamos, no solamente, “¿Para qué sirvieron las torres?” pero además “¿Qué significan las torres?” Una posibilidad es que las torres intentaban animar la cohesión social invocando un pasado imaginado y compartido de Chaco. Las torres sugieren algunas de las mismas ideas encontradas en edificios monumentales de Chaco, inclusive la albañilería del estilo de McElmo, el concepto de la verticalidad, y la intervisibilidad con formas icónicas de la tierra. Otra posibilidad es que las torres simbolizaron un conducto fuera de la agitación social y ambiental de Pueblo III a un nivel más alto de las capas del universo. Basamos esta interpretación en dos líneas de evidencia. Primero, las tradiciones orales de los Pueblos proporcionan el precedente para subir hacia arriba a capas más altas del mundo para escapar tiempos duros. Segundo, las torres siempre son asociadas con kivas, con el agua, con las concavidades subterráneas, o con sitios más tempranos – todos lugares que, en las cosmologías de los Pueblos, abren al mundo abajo de nuestro plano actual.
In this chapter, I use the Chacoan archaeology of the Southwest United States to illustrate the p... more In this chapter, I use the Chacoan archaeology of the Southwest United States to illustrate the power of imagined narratives to take us out of the twodimensional world of data and interpretation and into the three-dimensional world of sensory lives. Imagined narratives are essentially creative nonfiction-the use of archaeological information to construct imagined lives in the past. Narratives must resonate coherently with, and be grounded in, archaeological evidence. Imagined narratives can give voice to multiple perspectives, emphasizing the interplay among past peoples' experiences, roles, genders, ages, statuses, ethnicities, and occupations. Imagined narratives can be analytical tools that provide us with alternative ways of thinking about, not just representing, the past. As I try to imagine a series of events in ancient Chaco from the point of view of a particular individual, not only does the past become closer, more personal, and more humanized, but the effort brings into relief the many things I do not know and the questions I have not yet thought to ask.
Archaeologies of Memory, Jan 1, 2003
Muchos arqueólogos han desafiado el dualismo del pensamiento moderno que categóricamente separa a... more Muchos arqueólogos han desafiado el dualismo del pensamiento moderno que categóricamente separa a los agentes humanos de los objetos materiales inanimados. A efectos de lograr un distanciamiento de este dualismo cartesiano, se ha comenzado a emplear en arqueología el concepto de "agencia de los objetos" derivado del trabajo de Bruno Latour y Alfred Gell, quienes le asignan una agencia intencional a los objetos. En este artículo argumento que la * Traducido por Félix A. Acuto. Nota del traductor: el título original en inglés de este trabajo es Intentionality Matters: A Critique of Object Agency in Archaeology. Aquí la autora realiza un juego de palabras ya que matter puede traducirse simultáneamente como materia y como importancia.
Chaco's northern prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and …, Jan 1, 2008
American Antiquity, Jan 1, 2004
Archaeologies of Memory, Jan 1, 2003
Journal of social archaeology, Jan 1, 2009
American antiquity, Jan 1, 1999
The Archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An Eleventh …, Jan 1, 2006
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Jan 1, 1999
Because architecture shapes and is shaped by human actions and perceptions, architectural variabi... more Because architecture shapes and is shaped by human actions and perceptions, architectural variability has the potential to provide information about relationships among prehistoric social groups. This study examines communicative and enculturative information contained in Bonitostyle architecture constructed in Chaco Canyon and outlying communities during the late eleventh century A.D. Does the appearance of Bonito-style architecture at outliers constitute direct involvement on the part of a centralized, Chacoan entity or could local people have been emulating Bonito-style architecture they saw at Chaco or in neighboring communities? These questions have implications for existing models of Chacoan social organization. To investigate, a comparative architectural analysis uses data from 61 great houses in 55 outlier communities. Analysis is based on the premise that outlier similarity should reflect a unified, direct Chacoan source for Bonito-style architecture, and diversity should reflect the converse. Because highly visible, external architectural characteristics can be emulated, five internal, low-visibility greathouse architectural attributes were selected for comparison. Results indicate substantial diversity is contained within the Chacoan world. A variety of relationships probably existed between outlier communities and Chaco Canyon, and a range of explanatory models is necessary. Bonito-style architecture is more likely to be associated with a struggle to legitimate social power than with spontaneous, cooperative communal activity. Competitive emulation may account for the appearance of Bonito-style architecture in outlier communities toward the local end of the outlier spectrum. . Not only are architectural remains perhaps the most durable and the most visible aspect of material culture subject to the archaeologist's gaze, but buildings provide a direct means for reconstruction of the interactive, recursive relationship between lived experience and the built environment. Prehistoric structures have been employed by archaeologists in the American Southwest in the construction of temporal, social, functional, and demographic knowledge Schlanger 1986). Architectural variability has the potential to provide information about relationships among social groups. Prehistoric builders made choices about materials, techniques, and structural configurations that cannot be reduced to functional concerns. Low-visibility or internal architectural attributes lack overt communicative potential and thus reflect the learning frameworks of the builders; patterning among internal architectural characteristics can be used to distinguish
Journal of field archaeology, Jan 1, 1999
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Jan 1, 2008
American Anthropologist, Jan 1, 2006
What Does This Have to Do with Archaeology? Festschrift for the Occasion of Reinhard Bernbeck’s 65th Birthday, 2023
https://www.sidestone.com/books/what-does-this-have-to-do-with-archaeology
Las torres del norte del San Juan, inclusive ésos en Mesa Verde, en Hovenweep, y en el monumento ... more Las torres del norte del San Juan, inclusive ésos en Mesa Verde, en Hovenweep, y en el monumento nacional de Canyons of the Ancients, fueron construidos en cimas de mesa, en casas en acantilado, por los bordes de cañones, y en fondos de cañones durante Pueblo III (dC. 1150-1300) – un tiempo de trastorno social y ambiental. Las torres han sido interpretadas por arqueólogos como fortalezas defensivas, miradores, lugares para mandar señales, observatorios astronómicos, almacenes, e instalaciones ceremoniales. Las explicaciones que se relacionan con la visibilidad de las torres son las más convincentes. Como edificios públicos sumamente visibles, las torres tuvieron significados abstractos y simbólicos así como usos concretos y funcionales. Aquí preguntamos, no solamente, “¿Para qué sirvieron las torres?” pero además “¿Qué significan las torres?” Una posibilidad es que las torres intentaban animar la cohesión social invocando un pasado imaginado y compartido de Chaco. Las torres sugieren algunas de las mismas ideas encontradas en edificios monumentales de Chaco, inclusive la albañilería del estilo de McElmo, el concepto de la verticalidad, y la intervisibilidad con formas icónicas de la tierra. Otra posibilidad es que las torres simbolizaron un conducto fuera de la agitación social y ambiental de Pueblo III a un nivel más alto de las capas del universo. Basamos esta interpretación en dos líneas de evidencia. Primero, las tradiciones orales de los Pueblos proporcionan el precedente para subir hacia arriba a capas más altas del mundo para escapar tiempos duros. Segundo, las torres siempre son asociadas con kivas, con el agua, con las concavidades subterráneas, o con sitios más tempranos – todos lugares que, en las cosmologías de los Pueblos, abren al mundo abajo de nuestro plano actual.
In this chapter, I use the Chacoan archaeology of the Southwest United States to illustrate the p... more In this chapter, I use the Chacoan archaeology of the Southwest United States to illustrate the power of imagined narratives to take us out of the twodimensional world of data and interpretation and into the three-dimensional world of sensory lives. Imagined narratives are essentially creative nonfiction-the use of archaeological information to construct imagined lives in the past. Narratives must resonate coherently with, and be grounded in, archaeological evidence. Imagined narratives can give voice to multiple perspectives, emphasizing the interplay among past peoples' experiences, roles, genders, ages, statuses, ethnicities, and occupations. Imagined narratives can be analytical tools that provide us with alternative ways of thinking about, not just representing, the past. As I try to imagine a series of events in ancient Chaco from the point of view of a particular individual, not only does the past become closer, more personal, and more humanized, but the effort brings into relief the many things I do not know and the questions I have not yet thought to ask.
Archaeologies of Memory, Jan 1, 2003
Muchos arqueólogos han desafiado el dualismo del pensamiento moderno que categóricamente separa a... more Muchos arqueólogos han desafiado el dualismo del pensamiento moderno que categóricamente separa a los agentes humanos de los objetos materiales inanimados. A efectos de lograr un distanciamiento de este dualismo cartesiano, se ha comenzado a emplear en arqueología el concepto de "agencia de los objetos" derivado del trabajo de Bruno Latour y Alfred Gell, quienes le asignan una agencia intencional a los objetos. En este artículo argumento que la * Traducido por Félix A. Acuto. Nota del traductor: el título original en inglés de este trabajo es Intentionality Matters: A Critique of Object Agency in Archaeology. Aquí la autora realiza un juego de palabras ya que matter puede traducirse simultáneamente como materia y como importancia.
Chaco's northern prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and …, Jan 1, 2008
American Antiquity, Jan 1, 2004
Archaeologies of Memory, Jan 1, 2003
Journal of social archaeology, Jan 1, 2009
American antiquity, Jan 1, 1999
The Archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An Eleventh …, Jan 1, 2006
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Jan 1, 1999
Because architecture shapes and is shaped by human actions and perceptions, architectural variabi... more Because architecture shapes and is shaped by human actions and perceptions, architectural variability has the potential to provide information about relationships among prehistoric social groups. This study examines communicative and enculturative information contained in Bonitostyle architecture constructed in Chaco Canyon and outlying communities during the late eleventh century A.D. Does the appearance of Bonito-style architecture at outliers constitute direct involvement on the part of a centralized, Chacoan entity or could local people have been emulating Bonito-style architecture they saw at Chaco or in neighboring communities? These questions have implications for existing models of Chacoan social organization. To investigate, a comparative architectural analysis uses data from 61 great houses in 55 outlier communities. Analysis is based on the premise that outlier similarity should reflect a unified, direct Chacoan source for Bonito-style architecture, and diversity should reflect the converse. Because highly visible, external architectural characteristics can be emulated, five internal, low-visibility greathouse architectural attributes were selected for comparison. Results indicate substantial diversity is contained within the Chacoan world. A variety of relationships probably existed between outlier communities and Chaco Canyon, and a range of explanatory models is necessary. Bonito-style architecture is more likely to be associated with a struggle to legitimate social power than with spontaneous, cooperative communal activity. Competitive emulation may account for the appearance of Bonito-style architecture in outlier communities toward the local end of the outlier spectrum. . Not only are architectural remains perhaps the most durable and the most visible aspect of material culture subject to the archaeologist's gaze, but buildings provide a direct means for reconstruction of the interactive, recursive relationship between lived experience and the built environment. Prehistoric structures have been employed by archaeologists in the American Southwest in the construction of temporal, social, functional, and demographic knowledge Schlanger 1986). Architectural variability has the potential to provide information about relationships among social groups. Prehistoric builders made choices about materials, techniques, and structural configurations that cannot be reduced to functional concerns. Low-visibility or internal architectural attributes lack overt communicative potential and thus reflect the learning frameworks of the builders; patterning among internal architectural characteristics can be used to distinguish
Journal of field archaeology, Jan 1, 1999
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Jan 1, 2008
American Anthropologist, Jan 1, 2006
SAA archaeologicalrecord, Jan 1, 2008
American Anthropologist, Jan 1, 2009
Winner of the 2021 American Anthropological Association Engaged Anthropology Award Winner of th... more Winner of the 2021 American Anthropological Association Engaged Anthropology Award
Winner of the 2022 Society for American Archaeology Book Award (Popular Category)
http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/Books/bid2553.htm
In the prehistoric Southwest, nonlocal artifact frequencies provide a gauge of participation in e... more In the prehistoric Southwest, nonlocal artifact frequencies provide a gauge of participation in exchange networks or interaction spheres. Trachyte-tempered Chuskan ceramic wares are found in high frequencies at Chacoan outlier communities on the San Juan Basin floor west of Chaco Canyon. At contemporaneous communities on the South Chaco Slope and in the Red Mesa Valley, Chuskan wares appear rarely, if at all. The location, nature, and significance of the implied boundary are explored in this paper from the perspective of the southern sites. Correlations with other lines of material evidence are sought, and implications for various Chacoan models are discussed.
The 19th century westward expansion of European populations across the North American continent i... more The 19th century westward expansion of European populations across the North American continent is well chronicled in history but underexplored in archaeology. In the simplistic, categorical narratives sometimes favored by local heritage associations, Europeans are portrayed as valiant pioneers, overcoming hardships (including hostile natives) to persevere, survive, and succeed. By contrast, post-colonial, anthropological counter-narratives often portray Europeans as the intentional (or sometimes unwitting) purveyors of the destruction of indigenous lands, lives and lifeways. More recently, historical archaeologists have begun to develop the concept of hybridities, challenging us to realize that interactions and among indigenous and colonizing groups were much more complicated. In this paper, I explore colonial-era hybridities and negotiations through the lens of mid-19th century Alsatian migrants to south Texas. In 1842, the predominantly white, wealthy governors of the new Republic of Texas began to lure European peasants to the western frontier with promises of free land. Unbeknownst to the migrants, they were meant to form a human buffer between the established Euroamerican population of Texas and the bellicose Comanche on the western plains. The Alsatian immigrants found themselves in a hot, flat, alien landscape where they had to construct a place for themselves amidst long-established Mexican settlers, Lutheran German immigrants, and the afore-mentioned Comanche. Oral histories as well as archaeological evidence indicates that interactions among these groups were multi-faceted and complex, resulting in constructions of hybrid identities.
Subjects and Narratives in Archaeology, 2015