Jefferson Reid and Stephanie Whittlesey. 1999. Grasshopper Pueblo: A Story of Archaeology and Ancient Life. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 172 pages, plus 4 pages of references, and an index.
This book by the authors of the Archaeology of Ancient Arizona is a treat, simply a treat. The site of Grasshopper Pueblo was the home of the Mogollon people for the latter half of the 13th and the first half of the 14th centuries AD; and the home of an archaeological crew for the better part of 30 summers. Reid and Whittlesley interweave the two human occupations of this beautiful austere place in the mountain country of central Arizona, in an entertaining and illuminating manner.
In an introductory chapter entitled "The Land, the People, and the Place," the authors surprise us by first focusing on the dynamics of the field school, its history and its background, before presenting a capsulation of the Mogollon history and background. The next part--the heart--of the book is structured chronologically, according to both the Mogollon culture history and to the development of the field school at Grasshopper Pueblo. In its prehistoric past, Grasshopper Pueblo was an amalgamation of smaller groups of people in the mountains wedged between the Colorado Plateau and the desert; family and kin groups living at Chodistaas Pueblo and Grasshopper Spring, brought together at Grasshopper Pueblo to survive drought conditions. These chapters also discuss ecology, sociology, and ideology at Grasshopper; and they echo in a most familiar way the discussion of the field school's ecology, sociology, and ideology. Grasshopper was abandoned in the middle 14th century when the Mogollon suffered a long drought and were forced to break apart into small groups again. Grasshopper's field school closed when it lost monetary support--both abandonments the result of scarce resources.
The authors state that they believe the main message the reader should obtain from the book is that human culture is tremendously flexible, that when the requirements of the people are not served by the culture, the culture must change. I think the humanizing element of description of the field school in the book brings the Mogollon alive, in a way I hadn't seen before.
Grasshopper Pueblo is a short book; but it is well written, and nicely illustrated with black and white photographs and site maps. I particularly want to thank the authors for the wonderful picture of Emil Haury, first excavator at Grasshopper Pueblo. Indiana Jones, eat your heart out.
Grasshopper Pueblo is a short book; but it is well written, and nicely illustrated with black and white photographs and site maps. I particularly want to thank the authors for the wonderful picture of Emil Haury, first excavator at Grasshopper Pueblo. Indiana Jones, eat your heart out.
