 | Religious Transformation in the Late Pre-Hispanic Pueblo World The mid-thirteenth century AD marks the beginning of tremendous social change among Ancestral Pueblo peoples of the northern US Southwest that foreshadow the emergence of the modern Pueblo world. Regional depopulations, long-distance migrations, and widespread resettlement into large plaza-oriented villages forever altered community life. Archaeologists have tended to view these historical events as adaptive responses to climatic, environmental, and economic conditions. Recently, however, more attention is being given to the central role of religion during these transformative periods, and to how archaeological remains embody the complex social practices through which Ancestral Pueblo understandings of sacred concepts were expressed and transformed. Donna M. Glowacki is the John Cardinal O'Hara CSC Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, a senior researcher on the Village Ecodynamics Project, and a long-time research associate with the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. Scott Van Keuren is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Vermont and a Visiting Scholar in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. |
