Hello World
Hi, I’m teofilo. As Keith mentioned earlier, I will be guest-blogging for him this week. As he also mentioned, I am currently a graduate student in urban planning (at Rutgers) and have also worked seasonally at Chaco Canyon. People often see that combination as rather incongruous, but I think it actually makes a lot of sense, and part of what I’ll be doing here this week is trying to show how the two go together. I’ll especially be focusing on the concept of societal collapse, which is something that gets discussed a lot in both archaeology and planning, at least in certain circles. Chaco has often been drawn into these discussions as an example of collapse in the archaeological record that can be useful as a cautionary example in dealing with current challenges such as climate change. That’s reasonable enough, but I think there are some pretty serious problems with the ways some people have tried to bring Chaco into the modern collapse/sustainability conversation. I’ll be discussing that in more detail in the days to come.
I do have my own blog, Gambler’s House, which focuses on Chaco but also discusses Southwestern archaeology more generally along with a wide variety of related subjects. Most of the posts I do there are rather different from the sort of thing I’ll be doing here, so I doubt I’ll be doing much cross-posting this week, but if you’re interested in this stuff there’s plenty more to see over there.
Anyway, I’m glad to be here, and I thank Keith for the opportunity to expand my horizons a bit and engage with a different sort of audience than I’m used to. It should be an interesting week.
August 23rd, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Greetings teofilo! Fatigues, body armour and helmet are on the table.. pick a locker
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:11 pm
So that is where you end up when you take a wrong turn at Albuquerque
Good to meet you teofilo. Hope your experience here is pleasant.
August 24th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Hi Teofilo and welcome to the zoo. Quick question: Does Gambler’s House have stuff on how climate influenced the comings and goings of people in that part of the world?
August 24th, 2010 at 12:42 am
There’s a bit of discussion of climate in various posts, but nothing really in-depth on it (yet). It is one of the things I’ll be talking about in my posts here, though.
August 24th, 2010 at 12:55 am
I don’t remember where but I do remember reading that most of the Southwest was actually tall grassland back before we got around to messing with the place. Is there any truth to that or am I just flashing back on some Louis L’Amour book?
August 24th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Well, that all depends on how you define “the Southwest” and “tall grassland” (and “we”). I mean, Phoenix has always been a desert, but certainly the Great Plains in northeastern New Mexico were grassland before farming and ranching began, and there were bits of grassland in various other places that have changed to scrubland as a result of grazing. Overall, though, I’d say most recent changes to the Southwestern environment have been pretty modest.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Welcome Aboard! Bon Voyage!
August 25th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
[...] said I would talk about the “collapse” concept while I’m here, so here’s a [...]