The Anasazi By Lisa Feiner

THE ANASAZI A thousand years ago in what is now the American Southwest, the Anasazi (a Navajo word meaning "ancient ones" or possibly "ancient enemies") built dramatic adobe dwellings, or pueblos. Chaco Canyon was the center of Anasazi civilization.

How the Anasazi lived Pueblo Bonito, one of the largest of the Chaco Canyon pueblos, is a good example of how the Anasazi lived. Pueblo Bonito rose four to five stories high ﾑ an astounding achievement for the time. Rooms surrounded a central plaza, and throughout the settlement were a number of kivas, meeting places that served a ceremonial purpose. The total population of Pueblo Bonito was probably around 1,200 people at its height. Surrounding the pueblo were a number of smaller dwellings and structures. Numerous communities looked to Chaco Canyon for political and religious guidance.

Reminder of 8 categories: 1.Deforestation & Habitat destruction 2.Soil problems (erosion, salinization, & soil fertility loss) 3.Water Management problems 4.Over hunting 5.Over fishing 6.Effects of introduced species on native species 7.Human population growth 8.Increased per-capita impact of people

Reminder of 5 factors: 1.Environmental damage 2.Climate change 3.Hostile Neighbors 4.Friendly trade partners (5th is always a significant factor:) 5.Societies response to its environmental problems.

4 of 5 factors played a roll in Anasazi Collapse: The only factor that did not have convincing evidence for the collapse was External Enemies. This is mainly because they were too distant from any external enemies.

“The Anasazi collapse…illustrating well our themes of human environmental impact and climate change intersecting, environmental and population problems spilling over into warfare, the strengths but also the dangers of complex non- self-sufficient societies dependent on imports and exports, and societies collapsing swiftly after attaining peak population numbers and power” (p 137).

Dendrochronology Dendrochronology= Tree ring dating Used to get relatively accurate dates about Anasazi Used to reconstruct past climate

3 main alternative types of agriculture: Fundamental problem: how to obtain enough H2O to grow crops in an environment where rainfall is so low that little or no farming occurs there today. 1.Dry land agriculture- relying on rainfall from higher elevations 2.Water Table in ground reached close enough to plant roots to extend down. 3.Collecting water runoff in ditches or canals to irrigate fields.

Previous solutions lasted up to 1000 years, but all succumbed to human impact & climate change. 1.Live at higher elevations. 2.Farm at warmer low elevations. 3.Plant crops only in areas with reliable springs & groundwater tables. 4.Occupy an area for a few decades until soil & game was exhausted. 5.Plant crops at many sites, and harvest those which were successful (required complex political & social system) 6.Plant crops & live near permanent or dependable sources of water, on landscape benches above main floodways.

Risks for all 6 solutions: Cause increase in population Society becomes more complex Turned into a mini-empire (3 levels) well-fed elite living in luxury to less well-fed peasantry doing work and raising food. Become more interdependent No longer locally self-sufficient Chico Canyon soon imported all goods, and nothing tangible was exported. Deforestation- in a dry climate tree re-growth too slow to keep up with the rate at which Anasazi use wood.

Controversy over Cannibalism Cannibalism takes two forms: 1.Eating bodies enemies killed in war. 2.Eating one’s own relatives who had died of natural causes. Although many deny that the Anasazi participated in cannibalism, there is much evidence that this did occur.

The final blow: drought Around 1130 A.D. Society now held more people, more dependent on outlying settlements, & no land left unoccupied. Around A.D. Chaco Canyon was virtually abandoned.

The Anasazi did not vanish as people. Other Native American societies have incorporated aspects of Anasazi into their lifestyles. Such as Hopi & Zuni pueblos. Exists because Anasazi didn’t just disappear, they had a planned evacuation.

Conclusion/Summary “Over the six centuries the human population of Chaco Canyon grew, its demands on the environment grew, its environmental resources declined, and people came to be living increasingly close to the margin of what the environment could support. That was the ultimate cause of abandonment. The proximate cause…was the drought that finally pushed the Chacoans over the edge, a drought that a society living at a lower population density could have survived.”