| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation develops a multi-pronged approach to examining social memory and forgetting throughout the occupation of the Mimbres region in southwest New Mexico, from A.D. 550-1350. I investigate the frequency and intimacy with which corporate groups residing in distinct pueblo room blocks referenced and maintained continuity with their past. Specifically, I explore how groups claimed ancestral space, performed ancientness, and constructed their own historical narratives within landscapes through a variety of cutting, adding, and palimpsest creating activities at three sites. Results indicate that all groups, regardless or primacy or ties to founding groups, practiced and displayed real, imagined, or exaggerated antecedence through architectural superposition, intrusive burials, and other habituated and commemorative activities. Subsequently, analysis also demonstrates that there is a temporal break during the Classic period when inhabitants of sites and nearly all room blocks practiced remembering at much greater frequencies than before that period. Lastly, based on the results, it appears that the memory performances at Galaz are different, as they are practiced much more intensively by the North room block during the Classic period, possibly at the communal scale, and may relate to the ceremonial importance of the site.
The significance of this dissertation research lies in asking previously unasked questions for the Mimbres region. Further, results concerning group social memory contributes to discussions of social inequality and concepts of site “abandonment.” Most importantly, the methodological approach developed here allows for the construction of nuanced and multi-vocal landscape memory narratives and identities based on the ever-changing needs of the present, by ancient actors and archaeologists alike. | en_US |
