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Violence in the Canyons: the Human Cost of Raiding and Warfare in Northeastern Arizona (AD 300-~1300)

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Violence in the Canyons: the Human Cost of Raiding and Warfare in Northeastern Arizona (AD 300-~1300) UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones December 2017 Violence in the Canyons: The Human Cost of Raiding and Warfare in Northeastern Arizona (AD 300-~1300) Caryn Elizabeth Tegtmeyer University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations Part of the Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons Repository Citation Tegtmeyer, Caryn Elizabeth, "Violence in the Canyons: The Human Cost of Raiding and Warfare in Northeastern Arizona (AD 300-~1300)" (2017). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 3175. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/11889761 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VIOLENCE IN THE CANYONS: THE HUMAN COST OF RAIDING AND WARFARE IN NORTHEASTERN ARIZONA (AD 300-1300) by Caryn Elizabeth Tegtmeyer Bachelor of Science in Anthropology Michigan State University 2009 Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice Michigan State University 2009 Master of Arts in Anthropology Texas State University 2012 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy - Anthropology Department of Anthropology College of Liberal Arts The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas December 2017 Dissertation Approval The Graduate College The University of Nevada, Las Vegas October 31, 2017 This dissertation prepared by Caryn Elizabeth Tegtmeyer entitled Violence in the Canyons: The Human Cost of Raiding and Warfare in Northeastern Arizona (Ad 300-1300) is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy – Anthropology Department of Anthropology Debra Martin, Ph.D. Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan, Ph.D. Examination Committee Chair Graduate College Interim Dean Barbara Roth, Ph.D. Examination Committee Member Liam Frink, Ph.D. Examination Committee Member Joel Lieberman, Ph.D. Graduate College Faculty Representative ii ABSTRACT Violence in the Canyons: The Human Cost of Raiding and Warfare in Northeastern Arizona (AD 300-1300) by Caryn Elizabeth Tegtmeyer Dr. Debra L. Martin, Examination Committee Chair Lincy Professor of Anthropology University of Nevada, Las Vegas Canyon de Chelly sits on the Northeastern border of the Kayenta region in Arizona. Because of the position in which they sit, those who lived there likely lived a unique experience when compared to the rest of the Kayenta cultural tradition, of which they are considered a part. By examining the skeletal remains of the canyon occupants, this study is able to reconstruct the demographic profile (age and sex), aspects of health (pathology, stature), analysis of trauma, and aspects of labor (robusticity and entheses) to create the first, modern, complete skeletal analysis of remains recovered from Canyon de Chelly. This collection of skeletal remains spans a very long occupation, approximately 1000 years from AD 300-1300 and can be broken up into two general time periods: Basketmaker and Pueblo. The specific research strategies laid out for this research attempted to answer big picture questions about what life was like at Canyon del Muerto and Canyon de Chelly during prehistory. These strategies focused on answering questions regarding how trauma played into the everyday experience and how living on the border of Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon may have conflated the amount of violence this population may have experienced. This violence data was then compared to data from the American Southwest as a whole to better contextualize this trauma against other iii populations to see how the individuals at Canyon del Muerto and Canyon de Chelly were faring in comparison. Overall, the results from this study show that Canyon del Muerto and Canyon de Chelly did experience levels of violence on par or greater than both their Kayenta counterparts and many other regions in the American Southwest. It is likely that living on the border of regions that already had an established history of violence (Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon) led to an increase in the level of violence we see in the canyon. The pattern of violence fits that of cyclical raiding or short-term warfare rather than continuous warfare or cultural/ritual violence and resulted in middle and old aged males and females experiencing the majority of the trauma while young adults were largely absent from both the trauma and mortuary record. Those individuals with trauma also appeared to be less healthy overall than those individuals without trauma, as they had higher levels of porotic hyperostosis and the majority of them also had postcranial pathology and a slightly shorter stature. These results suggest that not only are the Kayenta more complicated and varied as a population than many researchers previously thought, but that violence within this region, at least on the periphery did exist and at a relatively high frequency. This is likely related to the fact that Canyon de Chelly existed on the borderland of other cultural traditions that may have led to increased interaction and possibly violence between neighbors. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first and foremost like to thank my committee chair and advisor Dr. Debra Martin for her unwavering support and guidance throughout my entire doctoral education. I have learned so much from her and have gained new perspectives within bioarchaeology and anthropology and she has help me grow as a scholar and as a researcher. I would also like to extend my gratitude to my dissertation committee, Dr. Barb Roth, Dr. Liam Frink and Dr. Joel Lieberman for their feedback and guidance and helping to improve my research and writing and bringing new ideas and perspectives to incorporate into my dissertation. I am very thankful to the American Museum of Natural History for their willingness to accommodate my research, and would personally like to extend my gratitude to Gisselle Garcia for her assistance with the skeletal materials and Kristen Mabel for her assistance within the archives. This research would not have been possible without your help and support. I would not have been successful in my pursuit of a Ph.D or in the completion of this dissertation without the endless support of my family. I would like to thank my father and mother for their endless encouragement and support throughout my entire school career. I would be nothing without you. I would also like to thank all of my friends and colleagues who provided support and advice throughout the entire dissertation process. This research was supported by several scholarships and grants from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas including the Edwards and Olswang Scholarship from the Department of Anthropology and several Graduate Professional Student Association (GPSA) Sponsorship grants. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................ viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ x CHAPTER 1 THE LIMINAL STATE OF LIVING IN THE BORDERLANDS ......................... 1 Southwestern Cultural Groups ..................................................................................................... 4 Mesa Verde .......................................................................................................................... 5 Chaco Canyon ...................................................................................................................... 6 A Bioarchaeological Approach to Research ............................................................................. 8 Violence in the Ancient Southwest ........................................................................................ 10 CHAPTER 2 LIVING IN THE ANCIENT AMERICAN SOUTHWEST ................................... 13 The Kayenta Ancestral Puebloans .......................................................................................... 14 Time Periods in Kayenta Archaeology ................................................................................... 17 Kayenta Archaeology and Bioarchaeology ............................................................................ 19 Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto Archaeology ....................................................... 23 Archaeological Excavation and the Creation of the Skeletal Collection .................................. 25 Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto Bioarchaeology ................................................... 29 Summary ...............................................................................................................................
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