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xv Introduction T he sandals worn by Basketmaker and Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest have been studied, dissected, described, and interpreted for almost a century. Nevertheless, much about them remains unresolved. In their most elaborate form during the late Basketmaker period, they displayed the most complex fiber structures and designs ever made by the people of the Colorado Plateau. In this book we show how the fabric structure and design on these sandals can be revealing of the history of the people who came together and are known as the Basketmakers and later the Ancestral Pueblo people of the American Southwest. Specifically, this study addresses the origins and functions of Basketmaker II and III sandals within the immediate context of the history of sandal making and wearing and the larger context of population movements that contributed to the establishment of the corn lifeway on the Colorado Plateau. We premise our study on three working ideas: (1) that fabric structure reflects learned traditions of fabrication technologies, (2) that decorative design reflects cultural principles in both pattern making and meaning, and (3) that consistent use of certain technologies and designs references cultural interaction pathways as well as fundamental religious beliefs and ritual practices. Our discoveries about the fabric technologies and design systems on these sandals have enabled us to propose a new reconstruction of the paths of Uto-Aztecan migrations as well as to define the role that decorated sandals played in expressing the cosmological ideas that accompanied the coming of the corn lifeway to the Colorado Plateau. We designed this study to resolve our observation that the extraordinary two-color color-banded designs on Basketmaker III scalloped toe/puckered heel sandals seem to have no direct antecedents in the local assemblages of the northern Southwest. Indeed, the appearance of this elaborate footwear coincides with a period of profound changes that include the shift from pit houses to masonry pueblos and the full transition to sedentary maize agriculture as marked by the introduction of artifact forms and cosmological ideas that were fundamental to the maize-based lifeway of peoples in the Mesoamerican heartland where maize agriculture originated. In order to assess this apparent disconnect, we approached the problem by exploring two features of the sandals that closely reflect traditions that might be expected to have a continuous history as they are practiced and passed along within communities: their fabric structure and their design. However, not only did we find discontinuities and the appearance of new fabric structures and designs, but we also located their probable antecedents in different areas surrounding the Pueblo Southwest. In order to account for these findings , we explored whether these changes represented intrusions of peoples bringing new ideas and practices into the area, the movement of ideas without actual population movements, or the constant process of adaptation by local peoples. We began our investigations in the Archaic, asking which kinds of ideas, features, and practices relating to fabric technology were extant in the area and which were brought into the area. We asked how were these xvi Introduction features maintained or changed to suit their use in the daily and ritual lives of people. Specifically, we sought the origin of the fabric structures that were combined by the late Basketmakers to produce the remarkable Basketmaker III sandals. Likewise, we attempted to determine the significance of the design components that were selected, retained, and elaborated. We asked what was the meaning of the complex patterns on the late Basketmaker sandals, and how did these patterns relate to the developing corn lifeway. In our investigation of these issues we have thrown our net very wide, considering woven assemblages from sites throughout those parts of the western United States and northern Mexico where plant fiber sandals were made, including large parts of the Great Basin, California, the southwestern United States, and northern Mexico (fig. 1). Unfortunately, since sandals are a perishable artifact class, even in a dry environment, we have significant geographic and temporal gaps in our database throughout the large region we have considered . Sample sizes are sometimes small, and direct dating is far less common than we would wish. All of these problems are discussed more specifically and in greater depth in the chapters that follow. However, we believe Chihuahua Sonora Durango Coahuila Arizona New Mexico Colorado Utah Nevada California (Mojave Desert) Rio Sonora Rio Yaqui Rio Fuerte Rio Magdalena Rio Grande Pecos River Rio Mayo Salt River Gila River Colorado River San Juan River Little Colorado River...

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