Disappearance of the Anasazi Civilization
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Disappearance of the Anasazi civilization
Summary
The Anasazi civilization was a wonderment of there time. They were far ahead of any Indian civilization of that time era. They were cliff-dwelling people who where very knowledgeable in architecture, astronomy, and farming. They had built houses on the sides of cliffs that were more then 5 stories tall with plenty of space and even had religious meeting areas. They had a system for tracking the movement of the sun and the moon and also created a calendar that could track the summer and winter solstices and even the 19 year cycles of the moon. “..an astronomical refinement Europeans had not even achieved yet.” (Liberty Equality Power pg.31)
The whole civilization disappeared off the face of the earth with hardly a trace. In the late 13th century the once growing civilization of he Ansazis disappeared. Many historians, anthropologists, and archeologists have come up with possible evidence of why or how the Anasazis disappeared. There are many possible theories that could explain their disappearance, but according to Olivia Leigh, author of “The mystery of the Anasazi”, says that they fall into three basic categories “The drought theory, The conflict Notion, and the Alien connection.”
The theory that an entire civilization was wiped out or forced to leave because of a severe drought is a possible connection. During 1100 A.D. there where many severe droughts that might cause the people to migrate to a new region, but without even taking there tools or even food? For no trace of them to be found after that they would have had to change there entire way of living. Appearance, religion, their culture, because no further traces of their civilization was found. “Current research suggests that the great drought was no where near as severe as scientists believed ten years ago, certainly not severe enough to drive a nation of people to abandon their homes.” (Leigh).
Imagine a whole tribe being wiped out by warfare with an enemy, but the winning tribe leaving their spoils behind. The conflict notion implies just that a possible warring tribe could have attacked the Anasazi and killed off their entire population that was spread all over. There is no evidence of a battle that would be large enough to destroy such a large civilization and if so then why wouldn’t they steal or destroy the cities. Also, there hasn’t been any evidence of mass graves being uncovered or thousands of bodies even being found. Thousands of artifacts have been discovered from pottery to arrowheads, but no sign of burial grounds.
One Last Bizarre theory is known as the Alien Connection. This theory is far fetched and out of this world. Perhaps the disappearance of an entire civilization could be explained by Alien abduction or even more interesting Anasazis as aliens themselves. There highly knowledgeable society proves that they were very different from any other tribes on the earth. They had great abilities, but where did they disappear too?
Institutional Relationship
The Anasazi’s disappearance raises many issues on a cultural and social level.
Their disappearance will for many years to come leave historians and many other researchers in awe of what came of the Anasazi civilization. Many cultural relationships between the Anasazi and many other tribes will be focused on to possibly help explain their vanishing. The possibility of an entire civilization disappearing with no trace will arouse many economical issues as well. It