Q&A With Alan Sullivan, Anthropology

Alan Sullivan was a field-school student in his early 20s when he started working at the site of Grasshopper Pueblo in Arizona.

His love for the landscape and his research into the ancient cultures of the Southwest haven't abated, 19 years after arriving at UC and many projects in the Copper State later.

The anthropology professor, who earned his PhD at the University of Arizona, offers a few thoughts on the book he recently co-edited, published by University of Arizona Press: "Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest."

Q) The press release says that "Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest" is the first volume dedicated to "understanding the nature of and changes in regional social autonomy, political hegemony, and organizational complexity across the entire prehistoric American Southwest." Given that there's nothing like it out there, how important do you see this work at this place in time?

A) If the book can motivate Southwestern archaeologists to consider incorporating the full range of data in their models of the region's cultural past – not just the big or spectacular sites and elaborately-decorated ceramics that they have typically emphasized – then it will have had the impact we intended.

Alan Sullivan (far right), Patrick Uphus (right center, Anthropology alumnus and employee of Gray and Pape, Inc.), and Anthropology graduate students Kevin Magee (far left) and Hayes Banschbach (left center) inspect the burned remains of an ancient Anasazi settlement in Kaibab National Forest, northern Arizona. The crew was part of Sullivan's and Robert Frohn's (Geography) National Park Service-funded study that is testing the feasibility of using satellite remote sensing to predict the locations of archaeological sites.

Q) How did the book come about?

A) My co-editor and I, as well as the volume's contributors, had become dissatisfied with the ambiguous evidence for "macro-regional" models of economic interaction and socio-political complexity, which focused nearly exclusively on large pueblo sites or earthworks (e.g., so-called "ballcourts").

Furthermore, with few exceptions, little or no mention was made of how populations under the geographic footprints (or "power projection plumes") of regional systems reacted or changed, if they did at all, as these systems expanded and, ultimately, collapsed. Moreover, a huge portion of the ancient Southwest was uninfluenced by regional systems, yet these "hinterlands" rarely figured in conceptions of Southwest prehistory. Consequently, we wanted to begin the process of setting the record straight in order to achieve a more balanced view, one that embraces centers and hinterlands, large and small sites, and all styles of ceramics, of what ancient life in the Southwest might have been like.

Q) And how did your role as an editor evolve?

A) Next to cleaning grease traps, anyone will tell you that editing is the most thankless and unappreciated job. But because my co-editor, Jim Bayman (University of Hawaii), and I were committed to ensuring the project got finished in a timely fashion, we decided to undertake the editorial responsibilities.

Q) Have you met many of the contributors and how strong are their efforts in their areas of research?

A) Although the Southwestern archaeological community is rather large, we have known all of the volume's contributors for many years. One of the reasons they were asked to participate in the project is that each is a recognized, well-published expert in the topic and area that pertains to their chapter.

"Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest"

Q) How varied and important is the geographic area covered by the book for young archaeologists and anthropologists, and for experts, too?

A) Because of constraints on the book's length, we had to carefully select the set of study areas to ensure broad coverage as well as their relevance to the volume's central theme – broadening the phenomena and the models that are to be considered when understanding the Southwest's prehistory (especially during the "frothy" period between AD 800-1500).

We therefore included previously overlooked areas that are crucial for evaluating prevailing ideas about the centrality of regional systems, which dominate current thinking.

Had the book focused only on "hinterlands," the selection of study areas would have been very different. Hence, the book is neither an introduction to Southwestern archaeology nor a reference volume for archaeological practice. Importantly, however, each chapter discusses different models and methods for inferring the dynamics of ancient human settlement from archaeological data and, without exception, many "regional systems" approaches were determined to be theoretically and methodologically problematic. Our hope is that a dispassionate reading of the volume will encourage younger scholars to reexamine orthodox notions of hierarchy, interaction, and social complexity in the Southwest and other areas in the Americas.

Q) How rewarding is it for you to see current and former students in your longtime haunts as they move toward and into their professional lives?

A) It is wonderful to see them conducting independent research, particularly when their efforts are well received by professional archaeologists other than me.

Q) The press release speaks of the region's rich and complicated cultural past. Why, do you think, are the ancient Southwest's peoples and their lives of such enduring interest to so many people, from experts in your field to amateur historians and modern-day travelers?

A) First, beyond its barely imaginable landscapes, which have challenged painters and photographers for centuries, the Southwest is alluring because of its tangible human history and the persistence of its diverse cultures. These peoples are surrounded by their ancestors' achievements, which are visible (unlike the hidden Native American heritage of the American Midwest) and can be experienced by anyone with the means to travel there.

Second, to a large degree, the Southwest's inhabitants (modern and ancient) are icons of the durability of the human spirit that inspire visitors to think about how these people managed to secure livelihoods in what many consider a desert wilderness.

Also, the Southwest and its native peoples are embedded more broadly in the emergence of America as a global nation in the late 19th century because they exposed weaknesses in the young republic's institutions regarding the legal constitution of land and property, promoted often contentious considerations of aboriginal rights vs. state's rights vs. federal policies governing the use of the Southwest's resources, and encouraged the development of science-based principles that guide the stewardship and management of public lands – struggles that continue to this day.

Q) What did you gain from your role in bringing this book to life?

A) The satisfaction that our colleagues, who have so many demands on their time, could be mobilized at institutions around the country to produce strong problem-based contributions within tight deadlines.

Q) And finally: Tell us a little about the potential audience for this book, and what they might take from it.

A) We hope that the book will resonate with two sorts of readers. The first group would be those who have an abiding interest in the history, ecology, and ancient cultures of the Southwest and northern Mexico. The second group would be those who are curious about how archaeologists reason and make inferences about the cultural past, particularly about aspects of everyday domestic life.

In these respects, we are hopeful that "Hinterlands" will provide an alternative to the sensationalistic stories about ancient peoples and their practices, such as those broadcast on the Discovery, History, and National Geographic channels, and that the public will come to appreciate that securing uncontested knowledge of the cultural past is about as likely as the Bengals making the playoffs each year.