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A group of books just published by The University of Arizona Press explore issues and topics related to archaeology, American Indian populations and border towns.

By University Communications
December 8, 2008

New titles in categories such as anthropology, American Indian studies, border studies and archaeology have been published by The University of Arizona Press.

Kristin T. Ruppel's "Unearthing Indian Land"

Ruppel examines the consequences of United States-American Indian land policies and offers an inclusive look at the more than 100 years of such policies.

Ruppel considers the complicated issues surrounding American Indian land ownership in the United States, tracing the complex legacies of allotment, including numerous instructive examples of a policy gone wrong and how such happenings disrupted native families.

For instance, she writes about the General Allotment Act of 1887, also known as the Dawes Act. As part of the act, individual American Indians were issued title to land allotments while so-called "surplus" lands were opened to non-Indian settlement. During the forty-seven years that the act remained in effect, American Indians lost an estimated 90 million acres of land – about two-thirds of the land they had held in 1887.

Eugene S. Hunn's "A Zapotec Natural History. Trees, Herbs, and Flower, Birds, Beasts, and Bugs in the Life of San Juan Gbëë"

Hunn offers a comprehensive ethnobiology of a San Juan Gbëë, a Zapotec community located in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

A renowned anthropologist and ethnobiologist, Hunn has spent years working in the community studying its residents and their knowledge of the local environment, which is rich with varied biodiversity.

His book describes the people who live in the small time and speaks to their remarkable knowledge of the natural world in which they live – everyone, young children included, can identify and name hundreds of local plants, animals, and fungi, together with the details of their life cycles, habitat preferences, and functions in the economic, aesthetic, and spiritual lives of the town.

The book includes a CD-ROM featuring inventories of the plants, animal, and fungal categories recognized by San Juan's people. The disc also includes a series of indexes and a library of more than 1,200 images illustrating the town's plants, people, landscapes and daily activities.

"Cultural Transmission and Material Culture. Breaking Down Boundaries" edited by Miriam T. Stark, Brenda J. Bowser and Lee Horne

The book explores the ways in which people develop, maintain and change cultural boundaries through time – topics that are relevant in the social and behavioral sciences, anthropology and archeology.

Working in several disciplines, contributors to the book reported on research in the areas of cultural boundaries, cultural transmission and the socially organized nature of learning.

Contributors include leading scholars from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe who employ archaeological, ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological, experimental and simulation data to link micro-scale processes of cultural transmission to macro-scale processes of social group boundary formation, continuity and change.

Daniel M. Sabet's "Nonprofits and their Networks"

Sabet examines the vital role of nonprofit organizations along the U.S.-Mexico border where few policy issues face such acute challenges as those related to water. His research compares the experiences of organizations in four prominent Mexican border cities: Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juárez and Nuevo Laredo.

Border cities, where low-income neighborhoods often lack water and sewer services, face an uncertain future water supply. It is also a location where water contamination poses a risk to the health of residents and the environment.

Sabet also looks at the ways in whhich responses by government agencies have been insufficient and explains why increasing economic development has mainly resulted in increasing problems. These limitations of government and market forces suggest that nonprofit organizations – termed by some to be the "third sector – may play an important role in meeting the growing challenges in the region.

Stephen W. Silliman' "Collaborating at the Trowel's Edge"

A fundamental issue for 21^st century archaeologists is the need to better direct their efforts toward supporting rather than harming indigenous peoples.

Collaborative indigenous archaeology has already begun to stress the importance of cooperative, community-based research; this book now offers an up-to-date assessment of how Native American and non-native archaeologists have jointly undertaken research that is not only politically aware and historically minded but fundamentally better as well.

Eighteen contributors – many with tribal affiliations – cover the current state of collaborative indigenous archaeology in North America to show where the discipline is headed. The book is, in effect, a guide for rethinking field schools and is an essential volume for anyone involved in North American archaeology as well as those working with indigenous peoples in other parts of the world. It both reflects the rapidly changing landscape of archaeology and charts new directions to ensure the ongoing vitality of the discipline.