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“The Archaeology of Ritual, Memory, and Materiality”
Co-chaired by Barbara J. Mills, professor of anthropology, University of Arizona, and William H. Walker, associate professor of anthropology, New Mexico State Univeristy, February 16-18, 2005

Co-Chairs
Barbara J. Mills, Professor
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona
“ Remembering While Forgetting: The Practices of Ritual Deposition at Chaco”

William H. Walker, Associate Professor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, New Mexico State University
“ Stratifying the Souls of Witches and Dogs”

Participants
Susan D. Gillespie, Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology, University of Florida
“ The Invention of History at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico”

Rosemary Joyce, Professor
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
Discussant

Lisa J. Lucero, Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology, New Mexico State University
“ Fragments of Classic Maya Commoner Ritual Life and Death”

Axel Nielsen, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas
Instituto Interdisciplinario Tilcara, Argentina
“ The Materiality of Ancestors: Chullpas and Social Memory in the Late Prehispanic History of the South Andes”

Timothy R. Pauketat, Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
“ Earth, Fire, and the Deposition of Mississippian History”

Joshua Pollard
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, UK
“ Deposition and Material Agency in the Early Neolithic of Southern Britain”

Ann B. Stahl, Professor
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Binghamton
“ The Dynamics of Ritual in Banda, Ghana: An Exploratory Essay”

Left to Right: Ann B. Stahl, Barbara J. Mills, Susan D. Gillespie, William H. Walker, Lisa J. Lucero, Axel Nielsen, Rosemary Joyce, Jason Pollard, and Timothy R. Pauketat

Summary

The Archaeology of Ritual, Memory, and Materiality

Co-chaired by Barbara J. Mills (University of Arizona) and William H. Walker (New Mexico State University), a February seminar, “The Archaeology of Ritual, Memory, and Materiality,” explored innovative methods brought to bear on “purposeful deposits” from activities that arrange or order objects in the archaeological record—for instance, weapons hoards in Europe, dedicatory offerings in Pueblo buildings, and votive deposits in Maya temples.

“ The order of these objects provides a detailed material window into the agency and identity of the people who deposited them,” Mills noted. “Ritual and memory production are two of the most important social practices that can be investigated archaeologically through depositional practices.”