Sacred Southwestern Landscapes: Archaeologies of Religious Ecology

Sacred Southwestern Landscapes sweeps through the fabric of the American Southwest. It attempts to examine head-on what archaeologists are so often hesitant to discuss—the sacred, religious, and meaningful within landscapes. Organized from the Southern Southwest to Northern Southwest, from the archaeological past to the “new age” present, Sacred Southwest Landscapes gives a broader context of human relationships with our landscapes. Spanning beyond just Indigenous histories, the book also addresses the evolution of landscapes in the context of Spanish colonization, and it later brings the reader into the present with examinations of the so-called “new age” movement of esoterism in Southwest landscapes.The stage is set in the preface by the editor (Aaron M. Wright), who points to our relationship with the land as a source of knowledge and education in the midst of our current climate crises. Moving through the rest of the volume, however, the climate crisis is not the center focus. Eleven case studies of religious ecology in Southwest archaeological sites address each topic in its own right, leaving the reader to make broader connections. While this can leave the book feeling a bit disjointed at parts, it's evident the editor organized the volume thoughtfully and attempted to bring the material together at the end in the commentary written by Kurt F. Anschuetz (chapter 13).The broad scope of this book invites the readers to notice parallels between different topics. For example, they might connect the archaeological patterning of ritualistic deposits in Mogollon settlements (chapter 2, Myles R. Miller) with the new age practice of ritual deposits by non-Indigenous people. The chapters in this book also repeatedly, and rightfully, reference the undeniable connections between the American Southwest and Mesoamerican culture. Chapters 4 and 5 recontextualize “water in the West” through a sacred lens. The sacredness of the ocean in Hohokam culture (chapter 4) and watery underworld cosmologies depicted in rock imagery in Arizona's Sonoran Desert (chapter 5) provide a unique perspective on water resources in the American desert, despite these cultures being far removed from ocean landscapes. Chapter 6 examines dreamscapes, showing the breadth of landscape study, serving as a reminder to archaeologists to never overlook even the faintest traces of archaeological expressions on the land.The authors in this book seem to reference either their own previous work or earlier work of the other contributors to the volume. However, the editor (Wright) does make efforts to tie in broader fields, such as the emerging discipline of FRE (field of religion and ecology) in the afterword and theories of semiotics and placemaking (chapter 4). Sacred Southwestern Landscapes also addresses a multitude of topics—almost too much to properly cover in the scope of the volume, which could and should be expanded on in other publications. Additional analysis could also focus on other areas of the Southwest not particularly showcased in this volume, such as the northern Four Corners states of Utah and Colorado.I came into Sacred Southwestern Landscapes with a critical and cautious eye for different perspectives. The volume does showcase the inclusion of Indigenous scholars, especially in chapter 6 analyzing dreamscapes, chapter 7 focusing on the power of movement in Navajo landscapes, and chapter 9 looking through Indigenous perspectives of Pueblo cultural landscapes. In other sections of the book, I felt myself craving more critical examination of the topics or a callout for more cultural sensitivities within fieldwork, archaeological study, and historical representations of Indigenous–Euro-American interactions. What does the “new age” movement in places like Taos, New Mexico, mean in the context of cultural appropriation? What are the ethics of mimicking Indigenous iconography within the “archaeology of whiteness” (173) or new agers impacting fragile archaeological sites while attempting to conduct religious practices? This being said, the volume certainly leaves a lot to contemplate.What other archaeologically focused book in the literature today attempts to address what is sacred through archaeological evidence, Indigenous perspectives, theories of placemaking and semiotics, landscapes of Spanish-Franciscan missions, and the creation of esoteric rock art and shrines through the “new age” movement? You'll be hard pressed to find elsewhere what Sacred Southwestern Landscapes offers.