Landscape, Movement, and Religion in Southwestern Archaeology

SUMMER COURSE

Robert Weiner, instructor

Join Prof. Robert Weiner for five-days of learning and discussions on the historic SAR campus in Santa Fe.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course offers an introduction to key cultures, periods, and places in the archaeology of the Indigenous Southwest, including Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, Snaketown, Casa Grande, and Bandelier. We will approach the history of these cultures and places through the three lenses of landscape, religion, and movement. How did Indigenous ancestors relate to the land, water, and sky, not simply as the “environment,” but as active participants in history? Why and how did precontact Indigenous cultures foreground movement in their ways of life, both as a concept and literal practices of migration and ritual? Our investigation will combine archaeological evidence and Native oral traditions as parallel ways of knowing the past. As part of this exploration, we will also think critically about the history of Southwestern archaeology as an academic field, asking how our understanding of the Indigenous Southwestern past transforms when considered as history rather than through traditional archaeological categories.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Dr. Robert Weiner is a postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows at Dartmouth College where he is also a lecturer in the Department of Religion. His research focuses on Chaco Canyon, with particular attention to Chacoan religion, monumental roads, and Diné oral histories. Weiner conducts archaeological fieldwork on the Navajo Nation and elsewhere throughout the Four Corners. He earned concurrent BA and MA degrees from Brown University and a PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder, which he completed as the 2022-23 Paloheimo Fellow at the School for Advanced Research. He has won grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation and American Philosophical Society.

COURSE INFORMATION

Classes will be held each morning from 9:00 AM to noon around a table in the SAR Reception Center at the center of campus. After class, enjoy an outdoor lunch in the shade with the instructor and your classmates. Afternoons are free.

Tuition: $750

Class size is limited to 15 participants.

Registration Deadline: Monday, May 19, 2025

Cancellations and Refunds: Requests for refunds will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

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