Results by title

By linking ancient places with present communities, Landscapes of Origin in the Americas explores how cultural landscapes sustain the continuity of origin narratives.

Landscape is a powerful factor in the operation of memory because of the associations narrators make between the local landscape and the events of the stories they tell. Ancestors and mythological events often become fixed in a specific landscape and act as timeless reference points. 

In conventional anthropological literature, "landscape" is the term applied to the meaning local people bestow on their cultural and physical surroundings. In this work, the authors explore the cultural and physical landscapes an individual or cultural group has constructed to define the origins or beginnings of that cultural group as revealed through shared or traditional memory. The cultural landscapes of origins in diverse sites throughout the Americas are investigated through multidisciplinary research, not only to reveal the belief system and mythologies but also to place these origin beliefs in context and relationship to each other. In a continual interaction between the past, present, and future, time is subordinate to place, and history, as defined in Western academic terms, does not exist.



 

Over many centuries, the prehistoric Fremont and Anasazi peoples of present-day Utah left an artistic record in which distinctive styles are readily identifiable. From the Uinta Mountains through the central canyonlands to the Virgin River, Utah’s abundant prehistoric rock art offers glimpses of a lost world.

The Rock Art of Utah is a rich sample of the many varieties of rock art found in the state. Through nearly two hundred high-quality photographs and drawings from the Donald Scott Collection, all made during the 1920s and 1930s, rock art expert Polly Schaafsma provides a fascinating, comprehensive tour of this unique legacy.

From the Uinta Mountains through the central canyonlands to the Virgin River, Utah’s abundant prehistoric rock art offers glimpses of a lost world. Over many centuries, the Fremont and Anasazi peoples left an artistic record in which distinctive styles are readily identifiable.

Explores ancient dialogue between desert farmers and the cosmos

In this visually stunning volume, Polly Schaafsma, leading authority on pre-Hispanic Indian rock imagery and kiva murals of the greater American Southwest, provides an insightful journey into the petroglyphs and rock paintings of the Jornada Mogollon farmers in southern New Mexico's lower Chihuahuan Desert.

Talking to the Rain defines the Rio Grande Tradition, emphasizing the foundational Jornada Style as exemplified by its Mimbres-like imagery as well as its diverse and complex rain-making symbolism. By examining visual metaphors of cosmology and place-making, the book reveals an ancient dialogue between farmers and the cosmos that places rain for crops as its central concern. Exceptional color photographs by François Gohier invite readers to experience the landscapes and locations selected for creating these images. Both scholarly and accessible, Talking to the Rain offers a fresh perspective on cultural landscapes and the profound connections between people, art, and environment, making it essential for understanding Southwest cultural history.