"A Mother for All the People": Feminist Science and Chacoan Archaeology

Abstract

In 1997, Alison Wylie outlined an epistemic and ontological critique of archaeological inquiry to advance feminist science studies. Wylie’s work, I argue, remains relevant and potentially transformative for analysis of the cultural florescence that took place in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, during the ninth through twelfth centuries A.D. Archival, archaeological, and ethnographic data presented here suggest that women had important and undertheorized roles to play in the social transformations that defined emergent Chacoan society. Legacy data made available through the Chaco Research Archive provide evidence in support of Lamphere’s (2000) ritual power model interpretation of the Chacoan florescence. The advent of such open-access resources allows for a critical analysis of gender ideologies and praxis through aggregated legacy sources that augment analyses based on surviving, institutionally curated artifact collections and published sources.