TheAmericanSouthwestisoneofthemostimportantarchaeologicalregionsintheworld,withmanyofthebest-studiedexamplesofhunter-gathererandvillage-basedsocieties.Researchhasbeencarriedoutintheregionforwelloveracentury,andduringthistimetheSouthwesthasrepeatedlystoodattheforefrontofthedevelopmentofnewarchaeologicalmethodsandtheories.Moreover,researchintheSouthwesthaslongbeenakeysiteofcollaborationbetweenarchaeologists,ethnographers,historians,linguists,biologicalanthropologists,andindigenousintellectuals.Thisvolumemarksthemostambitiousefforttotakestockoftheempiricalevidence,theoreticalorientations,andhistoricalreconstructionsoftheAmericanSouthwest.Overseventytopscholarshavejoinedforcestoproduceanunparalleledsurveyofstateofarchaeologicalknowledgeintheregion.Themedchaptersonparticularmethodsandtheoriesareaccompaniedbycomprehensiveoverviewsoftheculturehistoriesofparticulararchaeologicalsequences,fromtheinitialPaleoindianoccupation,totheriseofamajorritualcenterinChacoCanyon,totheonsetoftheSpanishandAmericanimperialprojects.Theresultisanessentialvolumeforanyresearcherworkingintheregionaswellasanyarchaeologistlookingtotakethepulseofcontemporarytrendsinthiskeyresearchtradition.
