GLOSSARY
Acoma
(AH-koh-mah) A pueblo near Grants, New Mexico, where many
descendants of the Anasazi now live. See RÍO GRANDE
REGION
Adobe
(ah-DOH-bay or uh-DOH-bee) [Spanish] 1. Typically, a
sun-dried brick made of sand, clay and straw. 2. A dwelling or construction using such
bricks. Adobe construction is found around the world, including the Americas, Europe, Asia
and Africa. Adobe is still used as a building material in the American Southwest.
A.D.
Correctly placed before, not after a date, it indicates the
year,
counting from what was originally believed to be the year in which
Jesus was born. [Latin Anno Domini, "year of the Lord"]
amaranth
A grain with a blood-red or purplish tassel. In the Amaranthus
family which includes the Love-lies-bleeding, pigweed and
tumbleweed.
Anasazi
(ah-nuh-SAH-zee) [ Diné
Navajo for "enemy ancestors" or "ancient people who are not us"] A
distinct culture that lasted from about 1200 B.C. until about A.D. 1300 in the Four Corners Area of the
U.S. Southwest. Many modern Puebloan descendants of the Anasazi, including the Hopi,
object to the use of this term. See Hisatsinom and Moqui. The Anasazi are also referred to as "the Ancient Ones,"
"the Old Ones" and, more recently, "Ancestral Puebloan Peoples."
Ancient Ones
Another name for the Anasazi.
apocynum
(uh-PAH-see-num) A relative of milkweed.
Archaic, Archaic Period
1. A name given by archaeologists to a hunter-gatherer culture
that occupied the American Southwest after the departure of the
big game hunters and before maize was widely cultivated. 2. The
era in which they lived, from about 7000 to 1200 B.C. See
ANASAZI CHRONOLOGY
arroyo
(ah-ROY-yo) Dry gully. [Spanish]
atlatl
(aht-LAH-tl) A throwing stick or spear thrower with finger
loops
and a dart or spear in a groove, which is projected at high velocity.
Greater range than thrown spear. Replaced by bow and arrow.
Avanyu
(ah-VAH-nyoo) As Palulukon, the Plumed Water Snake, is known
along the Rio Grande. The mammae, or breasts, of
Avanyu/Palulukon are believed to be the source of the blood of all
animals and of all the waters of the land.
Aztec or Aztec Ruins
Aztec Ruins National Monument, near Aztec, New Mexico.
See Chaco Region
Betatakin
[Navajo for "ledge house"] An ancient Anasazi pueblo in Tsegi
Canyon at Navajo National Monument. The Hopi name is
Talastima ("place of the corn tassel"). See KAYENTA REGION
Canyon de Chelly
(Canyon de SHAY) An area of Anasazi occupation in the
Kayenta Region in northeastern Arizona. "Chelly" may be a
corruption of the Navajo word tsegi.
Chaco (Canyon or Region)
(CHAH-koh) Probably the highest level of Anasazi societal and
cultural development occurred in the Chaco Region centered in
Chaco Canyon in the northwest corner of New Mexico.
Chaco Phenomenon
Around A.D. 1000 the Chaco Anasazi advanced well
beyond those in other regions in terms of numbers, the ability to
capture water runoff, and in the size and complexity of its network
of outlier villages.
Chetro Ketl
A Chaco Great House or pueblo. See CHACO REGION
Cíbola Region
(SEE-boh-lah) [Spanish for American Bison] Centered on the
existing Zuni Indian Reservation, near Gallup, New Mexico,
Cíbola is the smallest of the Anasazi regions. See CÍBOLA
REGION
cist
Small storage bin, usually made of upright stone slabs partly
buried in the earth and used to protect stored food items from
animals. Often used for burial of human remains.
clan
An extended family created by the joining of more than one
family.
See CLANS &
TRIBES
Diné
(dih-NEH) What the Navaho (or Navajo)
people call themselves.
Dineh
See Diné.
egalitarianism
A belief system that holds that all people are essentially equal and
should have the same social, political and economic rights and
opportunities.
El Morro
(El MOHR-oh) [Spanish for "knob" or "bluff"] El Morro National
Monument, near Ramah, New Mexico. See CIBOLA REGION
Four Corners Area
An area of the American Southwest named
for the only point in the U.S. where four states — Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and
Utah — meet.
Frémont or Fremont
A cultural subgroup which coexisted
with and was probably influenced by the Anasazi. Located in southern and eastern Utah and
northwestern Colorado, the Frémont were a cultural blend of the Southwest Tradition
and people of the Great Basin to the west.
Great Basin
A large inland region comprising about
200,000 square miles in the Western United States bounded by the Sierra Nevada Mountains
on the west and the Wahsatch Mountains on the east.
Great House
1. Symmetrical planned towns with a uniform or similar
architectural style. 2. A form of pueblo.
See CHACO REGION
Hakataya
(hah-kuh-TIE-yuh) A cultural subgroup
of the Southwest
Tradition which coexisted with
the Anasazi, Hohokam and Mogollon peoples. The best known regional group of the Hakataya
was the Sinagua.
See SOUTHWEST
CULTURES MAP
hamlet
Very small village.
hierarchical
Organized in ranks of power and seniority.
Hisatsinom
(hih-ZAHT-sih-nohm) [Hopi for
"people of long ago" or "ancestral Hopi" or "the Old Ones"]
The name the Hopi usually give to their ancient ancestors. Preferred by the
Hopi to the Diné Navajo word, "Anasazi."
Hohokam
(ho-HO-kum) A separate culture which
coexisted and had
commerce with the Anasazi. These ancient farmers lived in what is now central Arizona.
See SOUTHWEST CULTURES MAP
Homol'ovi
[Hopi for "place of the little
hills"] Homol'ovi Ruins State Park, Arizona.
See KAYENTA
REGION
Hopi or Hopiland
The home of the Hopi Native American Indian tribe -Anasazi
descendants - in northeastern Arizona.
hunter-gatherer
A culture or member of a culture that
obtains food by hunting
game and gathering wild berries, roots, grains and fruits rather
than raising livestock or crops (agriculture). See
AGRICULTURE &
OTHER FOOD SOURCES
jacal
(hah-KAHL) [Spanish, from Nahuatl]
Construction using walls of close-set wooden stakes plastered with mud and roofed with
straw, rushes or other materials. Related to adobe.
Jemez
(HAY-mez or HEM-ez) 1. An existing Towa-speaking pueblo
west of Santa Fe, New Mexico. 2. The mountains in the same
area. See RÍO GRANDE REGION
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