Southwestern Archaeology, Inc. (SWA) " Got CALICHE ? " Newsletter Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of the Greater Southwest! Tuesday November 2, 2004 ***************************************** MEXICO http://english.daralhayat.com/metro/10-2004/Article-20041031-efdef71f-c0a8-10ed-003a-92dbb622ba95/story.html For Mayan Indians, the last days of October are devoted to cleaning the bones: dusting, polishing, scrubbing and rearranging the skeletal remains of family members. They bury their dead in coffins. But after three or four years, they remove the bodies, dry the now-separated bones in the sun and scrub them clean with a soft cloth or small paintbrushes. The bones are relocated to small wooden boxes and placed inside cement structures and can be viewed from the outside through wrought-iron doors. For days before and weeks after the Day of the Dead celebrations, surviving family members put flowers and lit votive candles in front of the boxes, which are left open to view. Haas insists that bone cleaning "is the most natural thing in the world." "There is nothing to fear from the dead," he says, tenderly rubbing his late father's hair-covered skull. "It's the living we should fear." TEXAS http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/columnists/pallen/stories/MYSA103104.5H.allen.b83a0c.html Remains identified as human bones from 30 to 50 individuals eventually were found at the Hitzfelder site. At the time of the discovery, the burials seemed unusual. However, studies have shown that (this was) a prehistoric Central Texas practice that goes back at least 7,000 years. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/10061322.htm?1c Along the Rio Grande, a dozen or so miles southeast of Presidio in West Texas, there is an effort to acknowledge the existence of an ancient tribe of American Indians. They were once known as Jumano. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002077900_rangers31.html There is nothing for social cachet like a Texas Ranger in the family tree. But SMU in Dallas says new historical accounts are casting the long-revered outlaw and Indian fighters in a decidedly darker light. The scholarship involves investigations into massacres committed in an obscure border war against Mexican bandits and insurrectionists in 1915. NEW MEXICO From Kris Hirst http://archaeology.about.com/od/clovispreclovis/a/blackwater.htm http://archaeology.about.com/od/clovispreclovis/a/blackwater.htm http://archaeology.about.com/od/agriculture/a/pinon.htm http://www.abqjournal.com/north/251005north_news10-30-04.htm Prehistoric human remains were found in burial positions beneath a downtown parking lot during a recent exploratory dig on the site of the proposed civic center, according to Tim Maxwell, the director of the state Office of Archaeological Studies. Other isolated prehistoric human bones were also uncovered during the dig, along with artifacts from the Spanish Colonial period and the New Mexico Territorial period, said Stephen Lentz, the project director. COLORADO http://www.greeleytrib.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041030/NEWS/110300038&rs=2 James Wanner said the skull, mandible and rib uncovered "are definitely prehistoric or early historic at best and could be a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand years old." He was able to determine the remains were from a female because of the shape of the skull and the muscle markings on the bones. http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=biz&article_path=/business/biz041028_1.htm Lynn Dyer's love for Montezuma County's cultural diversity enables her to take ideas and run with them during troubling times. She was marketing director at Crow Canyon, before changing places to join the tourism office seven years ago. UTAH http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2434747 A 41-year-old Milford man charged with multiple counts of possession of protected wildlife along with several drug counts will need to face an evidentiary hearing on his claim of indigence before his case can continue. Investigators contend that Pearson was trading antlers and ancient American Indian artifacts, also taken from his house, for drugs. The artifacts portion of the case is still under investigation. http://www.ut.blm.gov/E-Briefs/10kiva.htm Monticello Field Office Kiva Maintenance Project... http://www.ut.blm.gov/NewsReleases/oct12.htm Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’s Advisory Committee (MAC) met in Cannonville and Escalante, Utah on September 28 and 29. During the intense two day meeting, the Committee discussed topics ranging from the Monument’s Science Program to the Rangeland Health Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) currently being drafted, and from the Monument’s budget to its archeology program. ARIZONA http://www.communitypapers.com/DAILYCOURIER/myarticles.asp?P=1032419&S=400&PubID=13287 Archaeologists often learn by sifting through dumps. But the rest of us may learn more by just sitting in the midst of Howells and listening, by closing our eyes and envisioning what it once was. EVOLUTION http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=98897 A variety of scientific findings point to the need for a revised understanding of the way evolution works. The tree-of-life notion of evolution is seriously misleading. Evolution is better seen as a tangled web of long-term breeding across species lines. Genes, and even entire genomes, can be captured by one organism as it feeds upon, infects, or otherwise associates intimately with another organism. http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/10/31/do3108.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/10/31/ixopinion .html The artistic impressions of the "Hobbit" that appeared in the newspapers was male, with swinging testicles, a six-pack and a slaughtered animal in his arms. The female Hobbit deserved to get her picture in the newspapers. She alerted scientists to the existence of a vanished race. TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY http://www.swanet.org/news.html http://www.swanet.org/zarchives/gotcaliche/ http://www.swanet.org/zarchives/gotcaliche/2004/?M=D http://www.swanet.org/zarchives/gotcaliche/alldailyeditions/?M=D http://www.swanet.org/zarchives/gotcaliche/alldailyeditions/04oct/ Updated: SWA's 'Got CALICHE ?' newsletter archives for October 2004... http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595102116,00.html http://www.hamiltonlocke.com/Products.html#wordcruncher Hamilton-Locke uses a program to analyze text in written statements: WordCruncher has statistical analytical capabilities that allow users to discover and analyze word, phrase, and content within a text or across a group of texts. CYBERIA http://www.newstatesman.com/site.php3?newTemplate=NSReview_Bshop&newDisplayURN=300000090162 Unable to embrace progress? Buddhism counsels against grandiose schemes of political redemption, and against the endless multiplication of desire that constitutes modern capitalism. It is ideally suited to those who find themselves stranded between past and future, between tradition and modernity. Buddhism fills a vacuum created by collapse of religious and political hopes. It is appropriate that it should find its home in California... http://www.prickly-paradigm.com/paradigm1.pdf Marshall Sahlins: Made up of "thorns and thistles," resistant to our efforts, the world, said Augustine, "does not make good what it promises: it is a liar and deceiveth." But God was merciful. He gave us Economics -- a positive science of how to make do with our eternal insufficiencies. The genesis of Economics was the economics of Genesis. Turned out of Paradise, with neither eternal life nor unlimited means of satisfaction, one chooses one good thing and deprives oneself of another. Economic Man inhabiting page one of (any) General Principles of Economics textbook is Adam. http://www.prickly-paradigm.com/paradigm1.pdf Marshall Sahlins: At least as far as Anthropology goes, two things are certain in the long run: one is that we’ll all be dead; but another is that we’ll all be wrong. Clearly, a good scholarly career is where the first comes before the second. ***************************************** Post letter mail and other media to: Southwestern Archaeology, Inc. P.O. Box 61203 Phoenix AZ, USA 85082-1203 602.697.5754 (cellular) Go ahead! Pick up the phone and call us! 602.372.8539 (digital fax) 603.457.7957 (digital fax) http://www.swanet.org (url) http://www.swanet.org/images/license.pdf SWA invites you to redistribute SWA's "Got CALICHE?" Newsletter. We also request your timely news articles, organizational activities and events, technical and scientific writings, and opinion pieces, to be shared with our digital community. SWA's daily newsletter deals with quotidian issues of anthropology and archaeology -- cultural survival, time and space, material culture, social organization, and commerce, to name just a few. Our electronic potlatch and digital totemic increase rites focus and multiply historic preservation activities in the Greater Southwest. SWA's newsletters are "txt" format only, contain no attachments, and are virus free. Newsletter archives and free subscription http://www.swanet.org/news.html For information archived on SWA's server, visit http://search.freefind.com/find.html?id=5116511 Thanks for reading today's edition! Southwestern Archaeology, Inc. (SWA) - A 501(c)(3) customer-centric corporation dedicated to the ethnographic study of the scientific practices of the American Southwest and the Mexican Northwest. 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