EVALUATING MODELS OF CHACO
A Virtual Conference
From http://www.colorado.edu/Conferences/chaco/
| Organized by
Stephen H. Lekson J. McKim Malville Dan Yankosky |
Sponsored by
The University of Colorado and CONFLUENCE CREATIONS |
 |
"Over the years there have been innumerable explanations offered for the Chaco system. As Linda Cordell and others have pointed out, there has been little attempt to evaluate the various explanations against one another. Instead, the tradition has been one of proposing new explanations or variations on older ones. I believe it is time to convene a workshop on the evaluation of Chacoan models." George Gumerman |
The conference is meant to be highly interactive and to evolve as comments, criticisms, and additions come in. Please email your comments to malville@spot.colorado.edu and we will expeditiously post them.
The conference consists of three parts:
A. What is Chaco?
- a. Chaco Canyon Tour (Dan Yankosky/J. McKim Malville)
- b. Chaco Roads (John Kantner)
- c. Great Houses (David R. Wilcox)
- d. Outliers
- e. Chacoan Chronology (Tom Windes)
B. Chacoan models
- a. Ideological Models (J. McKim Malville)
- b. Chaco Co-Traditions (Gwinn Vivian)
- c. Chaco as an Emergent Segmentary State (J. McKim Malville)
- d. Political
- e. Marxist Models of Chacoan Prehistory (Dean Saitta)
- f. Ecological
- g. Trade, redistribution, and production
- h. Mesoamerican Themes and Chaco Canyon (F. J. Mathien)
C. Evaluating the models
We view this section as the heart of the electronic conference in which we invite your email responses to any or all of the following questions. If you can, please answer specific questions in your reply it will help us with organization of the reponses.
- a. What data of the archaeological record are inconsistent with and may refute any of the models?
- b. What data support any of the models?
- c. What new kinds of data are needed to test any of the models?
- d. What modifications can you suggest that will make any of the models easier to test?
- e. What new models are needed?
- f. What combinations of models make sense?
- g. In your judgment what is the most successful model?
D. Bibliography
Copyright 1997 University of Colorado