Agent of Change

Barbara Roth is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her recent research has focused on changes in household and community organization that occur as groups become more sedentary and dependent on agriculture and move from pithouses to pueblos in the Mimbres Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico.

List of Illustrations



Introduction: The Deposition and Manipulation of Ash in the Past

E. Charles Adams and Barbara J. Roth



Part I: Ash as a Transformative Agent



Chapter 1. The Ritual Closing of Domestic Structures in the Mimbres Mogollon Region

Barbara J. Roth



Chapter 2. Complex Closure Practices Involving Ash at a Small Pueblo in Northeastern Arizona

E. Charles Adams



Chapter 3. Sequencing Termination Events: Preparing Hearths for the Ritual Decommissioning of Ancestral Pueblo Pit Structures in the Northern U.S. Southwest

Susan C. Ryan



Chapter 4. Symbolic Associations: Assessing the Co-occurrence of Turquoise and Ash in the Ancient U.S. Southwest

Samantha G. Fladd, Saul L. Hedquist, E. Charles Adams, and Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa



Chapter 5. Fire, Ash and Sanctuary: Pyrotechnology as Protection in the Pre-Colonial Northern Rio Grande

Michael A. Adler



Chapter 6. Burned Roofs and Cultural Traditions: Renewing and Closing Houses in the Ancient Villages of the Middle Fraser Canyon, British Columbia

Anna Marie Prentiss, Alysha Edwards, Ashley Hampton, Ethan Ryan, Kathryn Bobolinski, and Emma Vance



Chapter 7. Agentive Ash and Dispersed Power in the Cahokia Mississippian World

Melissa R. Baltus and Sarah E. Baires



Chapter 8. Townhouses, Hearths, Fire, Smoke, Ash, and Cherokee Towns in Western North Carolina

Christopher B. Rodning



Chapter 9. Ash as an Agent of Transformation in Iroquoian Society

William Fox



Part II: Ash and Ritual



Chapter 10. Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust in Caddoan Mortuary Ritual

Marvin Kay



Chapter 11. Ashes for Fertility

Cheryl Claassen



Chapter 12. Ashes, Arrows, and Sorcerers

William H. Walker and Judy Berryman



Chapter 13. Divine Food and Fiery Covenants: The Significance of Ash in Ancient Maya Religion

James L. Fitzsimmons



Afterword

Tammy Stone