Winds from the North: Tewa Origins and Historical Anthropology

The “abandonment” of Mesa Verde and the formation of the Rio Grande Pueblos represent two classic events in North American prehistory. Yet, despite a century of research, no consensus has been reached on precisely how, or even if, these two events were related. In this landmark study, Scott Ortman proposes a novel and compelling solution to this problem through an investigation of the genetic, linguistic, and cultural heritage of the Tewa Pueblo people of New Mexico.

Integrating data and methods from human biology, linguistics, archaeology, and cultural anthropology, Ortman shows that a striking social transformation took place as Mesa Verde people moved to the Rio Grande, such that the resulting ancestral Tewa culture was a unique hybrid of ideas and practices from various sources. While addressing several longstanding questions in American archaeology, Winds from the North also serves as a methodological guidebook, including new approaches to integrating archaeology and language based on cognitive science research. As such, it will be of interest to researchers throughout the social and human sciences.

Speaker's career: 

Scott Ortman is an Omidyar Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute and Lightfoot Fellow at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. He is also the author of "Winds from the North: Tewa origins and historical anthropology," now available from theUniversity of Utah Press.
 
"I am an anthropologist by training who has several related interests. One is the analysis and modeling of coupled natural and human systems over long periods, especially in the U.S. Southwest. Another is historical anthropology, or the integration of historical linguistics, human biology, archaeology, and oral tradition to better-understand the histories of non-literate societies. I am also interested in applications of concepts and methods from cognitive linguistics in historical linguistics and archaeology. Finally, I am interested in the role of political processes in the evolution of human diversity; especially the ways discourse and power interact with material conditions and individual rationality to promote or discourage social transformation.