An Archaeology of Doings: Secularism and the Study of Pueblo

An Archaeology of Doings: Secularism and the Study of Pueblo Religion

There is an unsettling paradox in the anthropology of religion. Modern understandings of â€œreligionâ€ emerged out of a specifically Western genealogy, and recognizing this, many anthropologists have become deeply suspicious of claims that such understandings can be applied with fidelity to premodern or non-Western contexts. And yet, archaeologists now write about â€œreligionâ€ and â€œritualâ€ with greater ease than ever, even though their deeply premodern and fully non-Western objects of study would seem to make the use of these concepts especially fraught.

In this probing study, Severin Fowles challenges us to consider just what is at stake in archaeological reconstructions of an enchanted past. Focusing on the Ancestral Pueblo societies of the American Southwest, he provocatively argues that the Pueblosâ€”prior to missionizationâ€”did not have a religion at all, but rather something else, something glossed in the indigenous vernacular as â€œdoings.â€ Fowles then outlines a new archaeology of doings that takes us far beyond the familiar terrain of premodern religion.
Country USA
Manufacturer School for Advanced Research Press
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2015-11-01
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	School for Advanced Research Press
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2015-11-01
Format	Kindle eBook

An Archaeology of Doings: Secularism and the Study of Pueblo Religion