Riddles of the Anasazi
After reading the article, Riddles of the Anasazi, several questions popped into my head. What is the truth of the Anasazi people? Were they really cannibals? Did they only kill outcasts, or anyone of their pick? Why did they live in fortified homes? The following paragraphs, hopefully impart information on the above questions.
The Anasazi lived in fortified homes for environmental and social reasons/theories. One environmental reason was a long drought that lasted for 23 years. However, the Anasazi suffered much worse with fifty years of drought before they went into hiding. A social theory about why they moved into fortified homes was nomadic raiders, men/women that drove the Anasazi out of their homes and into hiding. A terrible social reasoning would be cannibalism, when times got tough in their villages, they would make examples of the town outcasts and become cannibals. Cannibalism, were the Anasazi? Or, were they peaceful people afraid of things other than the people around them? The Elders of the Anasazi Tribes today, tell a story of mass murder of each village going against each other. They executed the adult males, and captured and, tortured women and small children. Turner’s book Man Corn also suggests the possibilities of cannibalism; in his book he has documents of 76 differing cases of primitive cannibalism in the southwest. Turner researched this information for thirty years. He has a six criteria system if they reach all six points; he believes that person was killed by a cannibal. The six points are, breaking of long bones to get marrow, cut marks on bones from knives, burning of bones, “anvil abrasionsâ€Â, and “pot polishingâ€Â- a luster on the bones from cooking in a clay pot. Biochemists in Colorado tested the bones of several Anasazi people and found Human coprolite of myoglobin. Its existence there means the Anasazi consumed human flesh. A case against cannibalism would be to just say people who were pronounced
The Anasazi lived in fortified homes for environmental and social reasons/theories. One environmental reason was a long drought that lasted for 23 years. However, the Anasazi suffered much worse with fifty years of drought before they went into hiding. A social theory about why they moved into fortified homes was nomadic raiders, men/women that drove the Anasazi out of their homes and into hiding. A terrible social reasoning would be cannibalism, when times got tough in their villages, they would make examples of the town outcasts and become cannibals. Cannibalism, were the Anasazi? Or, were they peaceful people afraid of things other than the people around them? The Elders of the Anasazi Tribes today, tell a story of mass murder of each village going against each other. They executed the adult males, and captured and, tortured women and small children. Turner’s book Man Corn also suggests the possibilities of cannibalism; in his book he has documents of 76 differing cases of primitive cannibalism in the southwest. Turner researched this information for thirty years. He has a six criteria system if they reach all six points; he believes that person was killed by a cannibal. The six points are, breaking of long bones to get marrow, cut marks on bones from knives, burning of bones, “anvil abrasionsâ€Â, and “pot polishingâ€Â- a luster on the bones from cooking in a clay pot. Biochemists in Colorado tested the bones of several Anasazi people and found Human coprolite of myoglobin. Its existence there means the Anasazi consumed human flesh. A case against cannibalism would be to just say people who were pronounced