Christine S Vanpool
Biographic Data
| ID | 3600128 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christine S Vanpool |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christine S |
| FAMILY NAME | Vanpool |
| SIGNATURE | VANPOOL C S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Missouri |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 133 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Meeting the Spirits: Creating Extraordinary Experiences at an Ancient Community in the Chihuahuan Desert
Trance, posture, and tobacco in the Casas Grandes shamanic tradition: Altered states of consciousness and the interaction effects of behavioral variables
Here, we describe how Casas Grandes Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) shamanic practices of the North American Southwest used tobacco shamanism, a ritual stance called the Tennessee Diviner (TD) posture, and cultural expectations to generate trance experiences of soul flight and divination. We introduce a conceptual model that holds that specific trance experiences are the emergent result of human minds interacting with additional factors including …
Shaman Pots, Sympathetic Magic, and Spinning Souls among the Medio Period Casas Grandes: Altered States of Consciousness in Other-than-Human Persons
Medio Period (AD 1200 to 1450) Casas Grandes shamans used tobacco and possibly other entheogens to initiate trance states that allowed their spirits to travel across the cosmos. These trance experiences involved a sense of vertigo and soul flight that is cross-culturally common and occurs with tobacco-based nicotine intoxication. The Medio Period shamans also relied on and interacted with other-than-human persons during their travels, including m…
An Anthropological Study of Spirits
This is the first book-length consideration of the anthropological study of spirits as an explicit topic of interest.
Anthropological Study of Spirits
Bringing the Inert to Life: The Activation of Animate Beings
Animist cultures around the world are based on interactions among humans and other-than-human beings. Humans are active agents in this process and often establish alliances with other-than-human beings to accomplish a variety of goals. The means of establishing these alliances is an emerging area of interest in studies of animist ontologies. We demonstrate here that these allies are often object-persons specifically made or modified by humans to …
The Reality of Casas Grandes Potters: Realistic Portraits of Spirits and Shamans
Most Native American groups believed in a form of animism in which spirit essence(s) infused forces of nature (e.g., the wind and thunder), many living plants and creatures, and many inanimate objects. This animism created other-than-human persons in which spirits were fused with matter that allowed them to interact with and even influence humans. Art in Western culture tends to denote "imagination", and many scholars studying Native American art…
The Economy of Specialized Ceramic Craft Production in the Casas Grandes Region
Recent analyses use geometric morphometrics (GM), the quantitative study of shape and its variation, to examine aspects of the archaeological record. Our research builds on such applications to examine the organization of production by applying GM analysis to whole ceramic vessels from the Casas Grandes culture of northwest Mexico. We quantify variation in vessel shape and size and conclude that specialists made at least some of the Ramos and Bab…
Visiting the horned serpent's home: A relational analysis of Paquimé as a pilgrimage site in the North American Southwest
Paquimé, Chihuahua, was the ceremonial center of the Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) Casas Grandes world, and the focus of regional pilgrimages. We use a relational perspective to explore the connections that were created and expressed during the pilgrimage. We propose that Paquimé was considered a living city, and that pilgrims actively supported its vitality through offerings of marine shells and other symbolically important goods. A region-wide…
Religion and Cosmology in the Casas Grandes World
Social Interaction, Social Status, and the Organization of Medio Period Craft Production as Evidenced in Ground Stone Artifacts from 76 Draw
The analysis of ground stone artifacts is a productive avenue for gaining useful information regarding the past societies of the North American Southwest. Here we present the results of the analysis of 255 ground stone items recovered from 76 Draw, a Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) settlement in New Mexico. We find that locally available stone was used to make a variety of utilitarian items. We then compare the assemblage to previously reported gr…
Dressing the Person: Clothing and Identity in the Casas Grandes World
Casas Grandes Medio-period (A.D. 1200-1450) human effigies are unique in the North American Southwest in that they depict primary and secondary sexual traits, making determination of sex and gender roles possible. Here, we build on previous discussions by considering the importance of depictions of clothing (e.g., belts and sashes), personal adornments (e.g., necklaces and bracelets), facial decorations, and other aspects of dress. We find that M…
Animating Architecture and the Assembly of an Elite City: Birth and Dedication of Nonhuman Persons at Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico
We discuss the role of dedication ceremonies at Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico, using an animistic perspective involving other-than-human, spiritually potent agents who influence and are influenced by humans. Animated agents can include artifacts and architecture, which humans create through negotiating with other agents (e.g., the potter negotiates with the clay, kiln, and fire to make pottery). Dedication ceremonies in such cases help bring active …
Wayward Shamans: The Prehistory of an Idea
Casas Grandes Phenomenon
Between AD 1200 and 1450, the Casas Grandes Phenomenon—a distinctive political and religious system—swept across northwestern Mexico, southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and westernmost Texas. The hallmark of this phenomenon is its symbolic system, dominated by horned serpent and macaw imagery that is reflected on polychrome pottery and rock art, and in architecture. Southwestern archaeologists generally agree that the Casas Grandes phenom…
The Spirit in the Material: A Case Study of Animism in the American Southwest
People often imbue their surroundings, including tools, with a 'life essence' that makes them active objects. A growing number of archaeologists are beginning to study how such 'living' beings impact human behavior. These archaeologists use the term 'object agency,' but employ many different ontologicai approaches. We explore this variation, and present a framework comparing different ontologicai models archaeologists use. We adopt an animistic p…
The signs of the sacred: Identifying shamans using archaeological evidence
The Semantics of Local Knowledge: Using Ethnosemantics to Study Folk Taxonomies Represented in the Archaeological Record
A culture's semantic structure reflects and affects local knowledge (the conceptual structure used to interact with the environment). Archaeological analysis of iconography reflecting folk taxonomies and other aspects of local knowledge will consequently provide insight into many different aspects of past cultures. A methodology for modeling folk taxonomy is introduced. Both Linnaean and folk taxonomies are based on gross morphological traits, cr…
Gender in Middle Range Societies: A Case Study in Casas Grandes Iconography
Gender analyses have provided useful insights into the social organization of the people anthropologists study. Here we demonstrate how Casas Grandes gender roles influenced other aspects of Casas Grandes worldview and social life. Medio period (A.D. 1200-1450) iconography depicts differences between males and females. Gender roles were not only defined by their proximity to males and females but to birds and serpents. Furthermore, Casas Grandes …
Design Analysis of Chihuahuan Polychrome Jars from North American Museum Collections . Mitch J. Hendrickson
The Shaman-Priests of the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico
The Casas Grandes culture flourished between two well-known regions: Mesoamerica and the North American Southwest. An analysis of Medio period (A.D. 1200-1450) pottery suggests that Paquimé, the center of the Casas Grandes world, was dominated by shaman-priests. The pottery includes images that document a 'classic shamanic journey' between this world and the spirit world. These images can be connected to the leaders of Paquimé and to valuable obj…
Postprocessualism and the Nature of Science: A Response to Comments by Hutson and Arnold and Wilkens
The comments by Hutson and Arnold and Wilkens challenge our 1999 argument that postprocessual research can be scientific. Both critique our characteristics of science. Arnold and Wilkens contend that postprocessual research is never scientific, because postprocessualists do not evaluate knowledge claims using information derived independently from the claims being evaluated. We argue that Arnold and Wilkens' criticisms are based on an inaccurate …
Flaked Stone and Social Interaction in the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico
This analysis uses flaked stone artifacts to gain insight into the social and economic structure of the Casas Grandes region, northern Chihuahua, Mexico. It begins by considering the intrasite variation in flaked stone reduction at Galeana, a large site near the modern town of Galeana. The analysis of debitage and cores from Galeana indicates that the assemblage is primarily the product of hard hammer, generalized reduction of locally available m…
The Scientific Nature of Postprocessualism
The compatibility of processual and postprocessual archaeology has been heavily debated. This discussion is frequently phrased in terms of scientific vs. nonscientific/humanistic archaeology. We suggest that the 'postprocessual debate' is based on a mischaracterization of science that is pervasive in archaeology, and is largely unnecessary when a more reasonable view of the nature of science is considered. To demonstrate this point, we begin our …
The Scientific Nature of Postprocessualism
The compatibility of processual and postprocessual archaeology has been heavily debated. This discussion is frequently phrased in terms of scientific vs. nonscientific/humanistic archaeology. We suggest that the 'postprocessual debate' is based on a mischaracterization of science that is pervasive in archaeology, and is largely unnecessary when a more reasonable view of the nature of science is considered. To demonstrate this point, we begin our …
The Spirit in the Material: A Case Study of Animism in the American Southwest
People often imbue their surroundings, including tools, with a 'life essence' that makes them active objects. A growing number of archaeologists are beginning to study how such 'living' beings impact human behavior. These archaeologists use the term 'object agency,' but employ many different ontologicai approaches. We explore this variation, and present a framework comparing different ontologicai models archaeologists use. We adopt an animistic p…
The Shaman-Priests of the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico
The Casas Grandes culture flourished between two well-known regions: Mesoamerica and the North American Southwest. An analysis of Medio period (A.D. 1200-1450) pottery suggests that Paquimé, the center of the Casas Grandes world, was dominated by shaman-priests. The pottery includes images that document a 'classic shamanic journey' between this world and the spirit world. These images can be connected to the leaders of Paquimé and to valuable obj…
Flaked Stone and Social Interaction in the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico
This analysis uses flaked stone artifacts to gain insight into the social and economic structure of the Casas Grandes region, northern Chihuahua, Mexico. It begins by considering the intrasite variation in flaked stone reduction at Galeana, a large site near the modern town of Galeana. The analysis of debitage and cores from Galeana indicates that the assemblage is primarily the product of hard hammer, generalized reduction of locally available m…
The Economy of Specialized Ceramic Craft Production in the Casas Grandes Region
Recent analyses use geometric morphometrics (GM), the quantitative study of shape and its variation, to examine aspects of the archaeological record. Our research builds on such applications to examine the organization of production by applying GM analysis to whole ceramic vessels from the Casas Grandes culture of northwest Mexico. We quantify variation in vessel shape and size and conclude that specialists made at least some of the Ramos and Bab…
Animating Architecture and the Assembly of an Elite City: Birth and Dedication of Nonhuman Persons at Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico
We discuss the role of dedication ceremonies at Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico, using an animistic perspective involving other-than-human, spiritually potent agents who influence and are influenced by humans. Animated agents can include artifacts and architecture, which humans create through negotiating with other agents (e.g., the potter negotiates with the clay, kiln, and fire to make pottery). Dedication ceremonies in such cases help bring active …
Gender in Middle Range Societies: A Case Study in Casas Grandes Iconography
Gender analyses have provided useful insights into the social organization of the people anthropologists study. Here we demonstrate how Casas Grandes gender roles influenced other aspects of Casas Grandes worldview and social life. Medio period (A.D. 1200-1450) iconography depicts differences between males and females. Gender roles were not only defined by their proximity to males and females but to birds and serpents. Furthermore, Casas Grandes …
Dressing the Person: Clothing and Identity in the Casas Grandes World
Casas Grandes Medio-period (A.D. 1200-1450) human effigies are unique in the North American Southwest in that they depict primary and secondary sexual traits, making determination of sex and gender roles possible. Here, we build on previous discussions by considering the importance of depictions of clothing (e.g., belts and sashes), personal adornments (e.g., necklaces and bracelets), facial decorations, and other aspects of dress. We find that M…
The Semantics of Local Knowledge: Using Ethnosemantics to Study Folk Taxonomies Represented in the Archaeological Record
A culture's semantic structure reflects and affects local knowledge (the conceptual structure used to interact with the environment). Archaeological analysis of iconography reflecting folk taxonomies and other aspects of local knowledge will consequently provide insight into many different aspects of past cultures. A methodology for modeling folk taxonomy is introduced. Both Linnaean and folk taxonomies are based on gross morphological traits, cr…
Visiting the horned serpent's home: A relational analysis of Paquimé as a pilgrimage site in the North American Southwest
Paquimé, Chihuahua, was the ceremonial center of the Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) Casas Grandes world, and the focus of regional pilgrimages. We use a relational perspective to explore the connections that were created and expressed during the pilgrimage. We propose that Paquimé was considered a living city, and that pilgrims actively supported its vitality through offerings of marine shells and other symbolically important goods. A region-wide…
Social Interaction, Social Status, and the Organization of Medio Period Craft Production as Evidenced in Ground Stone Artifacts from 76 Draw
The analysis of ground stone artifacts is a productive avenue for gaining useful information regarding the past societies of the North American Southwest. Here we present the results of the analysis of 255 ground stone items recovered from 76 Draw, a Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) settlement in New Mexico. We find that locally available stone was used to make a variety of utilitarian items. We then compare the assemblage to previously reported gr…
Trance, posture, and tobacco in the Casas Grandes shamanic tradition: Altered states of consciousness and the interaction effects of behavioral variables
Here, we describe how Casas Grandes Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) shamanic practices of the North American Southwest used tobacco shamanism, a ritual stance called the Tennessee Diviner (TD) posture, and cultural expectations to generate trance experiences of soul flight and divination. We introduce a conceptual model that holds that specific trance experiences are the emergent result of human minds interacting with additional factors including …
The Reality of Casas Grandes Potters: Realistic Portraits of Spirits and Shamans
Most Native American groups believed in a form of animism in which spirit essence(s) infused forces of nature (e.g., the wind and thunder), many living plants and creatures, and many inanimate objects. This animism created other-than-human persons in which spirits were fused with matter that allowed them to interact with and even influence humans. Art in Western culture tends to denote "imagination", and many scholars studying Native American art…
Postprocessualism and the Nature of Science: A Response to Comments by Hutson and Arnold and Wilkens
The comments by Hutson and Arnold and Wilkens challenge our 1999 argument that postprocessual research can be scientific. Both critique our characteristics of science. Arnold and Wilkens contend that postprocessual research is never scientific, because postprocessualists do not evaluate knowledge claims using information derived independently from the claims being evaluated. We argue that Arnold and Wilkens' criticisms are based on an inaccurate …
Bringing the Inert to Life: The Activation of Animate Beings
Animist cultures around the world are based on interactions among humans and other-than-human beings. Humans are active agents in this process and often establish alliances with other-than-human beings to accomplish a variety of goals. The means of establishing these alliances is an emerging area of interest in studies of animist ontologies. We demonstrate here that these allies are often object-persons specifically made or modified by humans to …
The Scientific Nature of Postprocessualism
The compatibility of processual and postprocessual archaeology has been heavily debated. This discussion is frequently phrased in terms of scientific vs. nonscientific/humanistic archaeology. We suggest that the 'postprocessual debate' is based on a mischaracterization of science that is pervasive in archaeology, and is largely unnecessary when a more reasonable view of the nature of science is considered. To demonstrate this point, we begin our …
Flaked Stone and Social Interaction in the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico
This analysis uses flaked stone artifacts to gain insight into the social and economic structure of the Casas Grandes region, northern Chihuahua, Mexico. It begins by considering the intrasite variation in flaked stone reduction at Galeana, a large site near the modern town of Galeana. The analysis of debitage and cores from Galeana indicates that the assemblage is primarily the product of hard hammer, generalized reduction of locally available m…
Postprocessualism and the Nature of Science: A Response to Comments by Hutson and Arnold and Wilkens
The comments by Hutson and Arnold and Wilkens challenge our 1999 argument that postprocessual research can be scientific. Both critique our characteristics of science. Arnold and Wilkens contend that postprocessual research is never scientific, because postprocessualists do not evaluate knowledge claims using information derived independently from the claims being evaluated. We argue that Arnold and Wilkens' criticisms are based on an inaccurate …
The Shaman-Priests of the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico
The Casas Grandes culture flourished between two well-known regions: Mesoamerica and the North American Southwest. An analysis of Medio period (A.D. 1200-1450) pottery suggests that Paquimé, the center of the Casas Grandes world, was dominated by shaman-priests. The pottery includes images that document a 'classic shamanic journey' between this world and the spirit world. These images can be connected to the leaders of Paquimé and to valuable obj…
Design Analysis of Chihuahuan Polychrome Jars from North American Museum Collections . Mitch J. Hendrickson
Gender in Middle Range Societies: A Case Study in Casas Grandes Iconography
Gender analyses have provided useful insights into the social organization of the people anthropologists study. Here we demonstrate how Casas Grandes gender roles influenced other aspects of Casas Grandes worldview and social life. Medio period (A.D. 1200-1450) iconography depicts differences between males and females. Gender roles were not only defined by their proximity to males and females but to birds and serpents. Furthermore, Casas Grandes …
The signs of the sacred: Identifying shamans using archaeological evidence
The Semantics of Local Knowledge: Using Ethnosemantics to Study Folk Taxonomies Represented in the Archaeological Record
A culture's semantic structure reflects and affects local knowledge (the conceptual structure used to interact with the environment). Archaeological analysis of iconography reflecting folk taxonomies and other aspects of local knowledge will consequently provide insight into many different aspects of past cultures. A methodology for modeling folk taxonomy is introduced. Both Linnaean and folk taxonomies are based on gross morphological traits, cr…
Casas Grandes Phenomenon
Between AD 1200 and 1450, the Casas Grandes Phenomenon—a distinctive political and religious system—swept across northwestern Mexico, southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and westernmost Texas. The hallmark of this phenomenon is its symbolic system, dominated by horned serpent and macaw imagery that is reflected on polychrome pottery and rock art, and in architecture. Southwestern archaeologists generally agree that the Casas Grandes phenom…
The Spirit in the Material: A Case Study of Animism in the American Southwest
People often imbue their surroundings, including tools, with a 'life essence' that makes them active objects. A growing number of archaeologists are beginning to study how such 'living' beings impact human behavior. These archaeologists use the term 'object agency,' but employ many different ontologicai approaches. We explore this variation, and present a framework comparing different ontologicai models archaeologists use. We adopt an animistic p…
Wayward Shamans: The Prehistory of an Idea
Animating Architecture and the Assembly of an Elite City: Birth and Dedication of Nonhuman Persons at Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico
We discuss the role of dedication ceremonies at Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico, using an animistic perspective involving other-than-human, spiritually potent agents who influence and are influenced by humans. Animated agents can include artifacts and architecture, which humans create through negotiating with other agents (e.g., the potter negotiates with the clay, kiln, and fire to make pottery). Dedication ceremonies in such cases help bring active …
Religion and Cosmology in the Casas Grandes World
Social Interaction, Social Status, and the Organization of Medio Period Craft Production as Evidenced in Ground Stone Artifacts from 76 Draw
The analysis of ground stone artifacts is a productive avenue for gaining useful information regarding the past societies of the North American Southwest. Here we present the results of the analysis of 255 ground stone items recovered from 76 Draw, a Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) settlement in New Mexico. We find that locally available stone was used to make a variety of utilitarian items. We then compare the assemblage to previously reported gr…
Dressing the Person: Clothing and Identity in the Casas Grandes World
Casas Grandes Medio-period (A.D. 1200-1450) human effigies are unique in the North American Southwest in that they depict primary and secondary sexual traits, making determination of sex and gender roles possible. Here, we build on previous discussions by considering the importance of depictions of clothing (e.g., belts and sashes), personal adornments (e.g., necklaces and bracelets), facial decorations, and other aspects of dress. We find that M…
The Economy of Specialized Ceramic Craft Production in the Casas Grandes Region
Recent analyses use geometric morphometrics (GM), the quantitative study of shape and its variation, to examine aspects of the archaeological record. Our research builds on such applications to examine the organization of production by applying GM analysis to whole ceramic vessels from the Casas Grandes culture of northwest Mexico. We quantify variation in vessel shape and size and conclude that specialists made at least some of the Ramos and Bab…
Visiting the horned serpent's home: A relational analysis of Paquimé as a pilgrimage site in the North American Southwest
Paquimé, Chihuahua, was the ceremonial center of the Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) Casas Grandes world, and the focus of regional pilgrimages. We use a relational perspective to explore the connections that were created and expressed during the pilgrimage. We propose that Paquimé was considered a living city, and that pilgrims actively supported its vitality through offerings of marine shells and other symbolically important goods. A region-wide…
The Reality of Casas Grandes Potters: Realistic Portraits of Spirits and Shamans
Most Native American groups believed in a form of animism in which spirit essence(s) infused forces of nature (e.g., the wind and thunder), many living plants and creatures, and many inanimate objects. This animism created other-than-human persons in which spirits were fused with matter that allowed them to interact with and even influence humans. Art in Western culture tends to denote "imagination", and many scholars studying Native American art…
Bringing the Inert to Life: The Activation of Animate Beings
Animist cultures around the world are based on interactions among humans and other-than-human beings. Humans are active agents in this process and often establish alliances with other-than-human beings to accomplish a variety of goals. The means of establishing these alliances is an emerging area of interest in studies of animist ontologies. We demonstrate here that these allies are often object-persons specifically made or modified by humans to …
An Anthropological Study of Spirits
This is the first book-length consideration of the anthropological study of spirits as an explicit topic of interest.
Anthropological Study of Spirits
Meeting the Spirits: Creating Extraordinary Experiences at an Ancient Community in the Chihuahuan Desert
Trance, posture, and tobacco in the Casas Grandes shamanic tradition: Altered states of consciousness and the interaction effects of behavioral variables
Here, we describe how Casas Grandes Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) shamanic practices of the North American Southwest used tobacco shamanism, a ritual stance called the Tennessee Diviner (TD) posture, and cultural expectations to generate trance experiences of soul flight and divination. We introduce a conceptual model that holds that specific trance experiences are the emergent result of human minds interacting with additional factors including …
Shaman Pots, Sympathetic Magic, and Spinning Souls among the Medio Period Casas Grandes: Altered States of Consciousness in Other-than-Human Persons
Medio Period (AD 1200 to 1450) Casas Grandes shamans used tobacco and possibly other entheogens to initiate trance states that allowed their spirits to travel across the cosmos. These trance experiences involved a sense of vertigo and soul flight that is cross-culturally common and occurs with tobacco-based nicotine intoxication. The Medio Period shamans also relied on and interacted with other-than-human persons during their travels, including m…
Archaeology (15 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (15 works) · History (15 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (12 works) · Art (12 works) · Anthropology (9 works) · Geography (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Epistemology (8 works)