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“A Mother for All the People”: Feminist Science and Chacoan Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Carrie C. Heitman
Carrie C. Heitman*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 833 Oldfather Hall, P.O. Box 880368, Lincoln, NE 68588-0368
*
(cheitman2@unl.edu)
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Abstract

In 1997, Alison Wylie outlined an epistemic and ontological critique of archaeological inquiry to advance feminist science studies. Wylie’s work, I argue, remains relevant and potentially transformative for analysis of the cultural florescence that took place in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, during the ninth through twelfth centuries A.D. Archival, archaeological, and ethnographic data presented here suggest that women had important and undertheorized roles to play in the social transformations that defined emergent Chacoan society. Legacy data made available through the Chaco Research Archive provide evidence in support of Lamphere’s (2000) ritual power model interpretation of the Chacoan florescence. The advent of such open-access resources allows for a critical analysis of gender ideologies and praxis through aggregated legacy sources that augment analyses based on surviving, institutionally curated artifact collections and published sources.

En 1997, Alison Wylie delineó una crítica epistemológica y ontológica de la investigación arqueológica para promover los estudios científicos feministas. Yo planteo que el trabajo de Wylie aún es relevante y potencialmente transformativo para el análisis del florecimiento cultural que tuvo lugar en el Chaco Canyon, New Mexico desde el siglo 9 d.C. hasta el siglo 12 d.C. Los datos de los archivos, arqueológicos y etnográficos presentados aquí, sugieren que las mujeres jugaron papeles importantes que han sido insuficientemente considerados desde la teoría, en las transformaciones sociales que definieron a la sociedad emergente del Chaco. Los datos tradicionales que están disponibles a través de los Archivos de Investigación del Chaco, proveen evidencia que apoya el modelo interpretativo de Lamphere (2000) sobre el poder ritual en el florecimiento del Chaco. El advenimiento de estos nuevos recursos de acceso abierto permite un análisis crítico de ideologías de género y praxis, por medio de las fuentes agregadas al legado tradicional que amplían los análisis previos basados en las fuentes publicadas y en las colecciones de artefactos supervivientes que están muy seleccionadas por las instituciones.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 3 , July 2016 , pp. 471 - 489
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2016 

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