- Home
- >
- Preservation Archaeology Today
- >
- Weaving a Turkey Feather Blanket
Dear Friends of Southwest Archaeology Today,
This week, I’d like to begin by sharing some good news we learned yesterday afternoon: James Margotta, an alumnus of Archaeology Southwest’s joint Preservation Archaeology Field School with the University of Arizona, has received a prestigious scholarship for his forthcoming graduate studies. This was reported in the Wheaton College News. We’re so pleased for him and proud of him.
I also want to share this list of relief funds for Tribal communities across the Colorado Plateau. It was compiled by our friends at the Grand Canyon Trust.
I hope that you are keeping well,
William H. (Bill) Doelle
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
Weaving a Turkey Feather Blanket
In 2018, Mary Weahkee, an archeologist and anthropologist with the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, was asked to try her hand at a particular task that dates back to more than 1,000 years ago: weave a blanket made of turkey feathers. Weahkee taught herself the technique, the process of winding each feather around yucca cord, by examining ancient blankets housed at museums around the western United States. https://bit.ly/39TyxrQ – New Mexico Wildlife
Rituals of the Times
Anthropologists have long observed that people across cultures tend to perform more rituals in times of uncertainty. Stressful events such as warfare, environmental threat, and material insecurity are often linked with spikes in ritual activity. In a laboratory study in 2015, my colleagues and I found that under conditions of stress people’s behavior tends to become more rigid and repetitive—in other words, more ritualized. https://bit.ly/2XabQgb – Dimitris Xygalatas in Sapiens
Canada’s Health Minister Draws on Background in Anthropology
Patty Hajdu “fell in love” with cultural anthropology at university. Now, as Canada’s federal health minister in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, she’s playing a leading role in an existential battle against a virus that promises to change the course of human societies around the globe – the very thing cultural anthropologists spend their lives studying. “There’s a piece of me that’s still an anthropologist at heart, if you will,” Ms. Hajdu said in an interview. https://tgam.ca/2JOfgNQ – The Globe and Mail
Scholars Share Perspectives on Tucson at the Time of the Spanish Flu
Tucson was a much smaller place the last time it was turned upside down by a global pandemic. In 1918, the city covered less than 8 square miles and was home to fewer than 20,000 people. https://bit.ly/3b47qvH – Arizona Daily Star
Blog: Finding Friends in Low Places
As a desolate stretch of rural country between Phoenix and Yuma, the lower Gila might seem a lonely place to passers-through and day-trippers who see industrial-scale alfalfa farms interspersed by wide tracts of barren plains or a dry river bed. Sure, very few people live there, and only a handful of archaeologists have ever really looked around there. But my experience hasn’t been a lonely one—quite the contrary. I’ve made a lot of new friends while working along the lower Gila River. https://bit.ly/2yIN90g – Aaron Wright at the Preservation Archaeology blog
Blog: Repairing the Ki
On March 5, I went up to the Huhugam Ki Museum at the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and helped Museum Director Gary Owens and his crew do some fix-up work on their historic ki (house) replica. In this picture you can see it is looking a bit weathered but in good overall shape. https://bit.ly/2UPOgUk – Allen Denoyer at the Preservation Archaeology blog
Archaeology of Pull-Tabs
Wijnen is working to amass a reference collection of scores of types, so that any researcher following in his footsteps can examine what they’ve found and slot it into the appropriate place on the taxonomic family tree. Yet unlike some of his peers, Wijnen doesn’t need any jars, preservatives, or cabinets: His specimens are small, and designed to be sturdy. The representatives of the 70-plus types he has recorded so far are cradled in plastic sleeves—the kind a coin collector might use to store her loot. They fit easily inside a leather binder about the size of a photo album. Wijnen’s collection suggests that he is probably the world’s most passionate and rigorous collector of pull tabs—those humble little things that help you crack open anything from tins of fish to cans of beer. https://bit.ly/2yKerDx – Atlas Obscura
A Message from Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
With the safety of its staff, program participants, and community in mind, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center has closed its campus until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, Crow Canyon’s spring and summer programs have been canceled in response to school closures in Colorado and other states. “We miss seeing our supporters on our campus, but the safety of our program participants, visitors, and staff is our paramount concern,” said Liz Perry, president & CEO of Crow Canyon. “As we navigate this new environment, we’re dedicated to meeting our supporters where they are and finding innovative ways to serve them remotely. We look forward to being back together in-person soon, fulfilling our mission with delightfully dirty hands and open hearts.” For more information, visit Crow Canyon’s website at www.crowcanyon.org.
Publication Announcements
Point of Pines Pueblo: A Mountain Mogollon Aggregated Community, by Tammy Stone. University of Utah Archaeological Papers No. 133. https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/point-of-pines-pueblo/
The Global Spanish Empire: Five Hundred Years of Place Making and Pluralism, edited by Christine Beaule and John G. Douglass. University of Arizona Press. https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/the-global-spanish-empire
Online Resources, Events, and Opportunities
Editors’ note: Please keep sharing these with us, and we will keep helping to get the word out. Our inbox is sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org.
Crown Canyon webinars: April 9, 4:00 p.m. MT: Flintknapping Demonstration and Discussion with Tyson Hughes, https://bit.ly/2JMufYz. April 16, 4:00 p.m. MT: Pueblo Farming Project with Mark Varien and Paul Ermigiotti, https://bit.ly/3aTPJ1J. Past webinars and lots of other great content at the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/CrowCanyonConnects
The American Southwest Virtual Museum (Northern Arizona University) is a digital repository of photographs, maps, information, and virtual tours of National Park Service units and museums across the Southwest. This growing collection provides access to high-resolution images of archaeological materials and sites, natural resources, and historic photographs, as well as virtual visitor center and trail tours, interactive artifact displays, and fact sheets and overviews that enhance visitor experience in the Southwest’s National Parks and Monuments and provide researchers a rich database for exploration. https://swvirtualmuseum.nau.edu/wp/
Project Archaeology is doing our best to bring together our free and downloadable resources for everyone to use. Over the next two weeks, we will hopefully bring you more resources from our incredible network members who are doing a great job at adapting their museums and classrooms for virtual learning. We are proud of the numerous PA Network members for everything they are doing – you embody what it means to be a friend, neighbor, and community member. Please, enjoy some of our Project Archaeology lessons and do not hesitate to contact us. https://projectarchaeology.org/2020/03/23/free-online-lessons/
The Smithsonian Learning Lab is committed to supporting teachers and their students around the globe as they face unprecedented new learning challenges. Here, on the Learning Lab, teachers have access to millions of digital resources from across the Smithsonian’s museums, research centers, libraries, archives, and more. You will also find pre-packaged collections that contain lessons, activities, and recommended resources made by Smithsonian museum educators as well as thousands of classroom teachers like you. https://s.si.edu/2Xj5wmP
Park It! National park activities and learning you can do without leaving your home. From the National Parks Conservation Association. https://bit.ly/2VfeDSE
We’re happy to help get the word out. Please submit news, publication announcements, and other resources to this link for consideration: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/submit-to-sat/
Questions? sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org
Explore the News
-
Join Today
Keep up with the latest discoveries in southwestern archaeology. Join today, and receive Archaeology Southwest Magazine, among other member benefits.