No comments about Rockhounding New Mexico: A Guide to 140 of the State's Best Rockhounding Sites.

No comments about El Malpais, Mt. Taylor, and the Zuni Mountains: A Hiking Guide and History (A Coyote Book).

No comments about Stopping Time: A Rephotographic Survey of Lake Tahoe.

1 comments about The Chaco Experience: Landscape and Ideology at the Center Place (Resident Scholar).

1. Van Dyke's multilayered study centers on the Chaco Canyon spiritual, cultural center. The Chacos were a Southwestern Native American tribe from which the familiar Pueblos are descended. This Chaco site flourished from about 850AD to 1200AD.
   
   Remarking that the "Chacoan landscape was to be experienced," Van Dyke tries to recreate this experience for herself as much as this is possible by "walking where the Chacoans walked, perceiving spaces as closely as possible to the ways in which they perceived them." Besides scholarly and imaginative scrutiny and hypothesis regarding numerous artifacts and ruins of the Chaco spiritual site, the author also looks to elements of historical and present-day Pueblo mythology, belief, and spiritual practices to help her form an idea of Chaco spirituality and spiritual practices and corresponding reasons for and uses of buildings and objects of the site.
   
   While basically and for the most part rigorously a work of archaeological research and related anthropology, the book adds a considerable dimension to this by being primarily concerned about the site as the "center place," a key concept and often particular site in any mythology and spirituality sometimes known as the "omphalos." This gives the book a wider interest than most archaeological, anthropological books which do little more than organize findings and explain the design of structures, use of utensils, identify references of symbols, and the like. Yet despite Van Dyke's obvious keen interest in, and in many ways affinity with the particular Native American spirituality, with the author's determined, consistent reliance on the physical evidence of the artifacts, consultation with respected scholarly research and opinion (the bibliography is about fifty pages of references in small type), and habit of reasoning rather than speculating, the book does not take on the style of a New Age-like celebration of Native American or other aboriginal spirituality. Besides up-to-date reporting on the archaeological work and discoveries of the Chaco center place and elucidation of them for what they tell and imply about the place of the site in the Chaco culture and about their spirituality, the author represents a method for greater intellectual and sympathetic understanding of vanished cultures.
   
   The Chaco site is realized as a "palimpsest created over the course of centuries...[e]ach particular moment during that span, each particular construction, built on what came before and influencing what came after." Van Dyke's study has amplitude and insight for paying attention to each particular moment and particular construction while appreciating the site as the highest, most complex expression of the Chacoan culture built according to the ideas of its leaders "to communicate and extol ideas about the way the world works--ideas that legitimated leaders' authority and encouraged visitors to transform themselves into subjects." Grasping the Chacoan culture and its major symbolic remains in this way, as others have done for Aztec and Inca cultures, Van Dyke brings the Chacoan spirituality recognition as a highly-developed, advanced spirituality reflecting the political ideas, self-awareness, class structure, etc., of the society.

No comments about Treasures of New Mexico (Treasure Series).

No comments about Yucatan Pocket Adventures (New Pocket Adventure) (New Pocket Adventure).

1 comments about Los Alamos Outdoors.

1. Dorothy Hoard doesn't just present a book on hiking the Los Alamos outdoors. She leads the hiker on a guided tour of the environs, its geology, its people, its natural and social history. She walks the walks of the ancient Pueblo Indians as she explores the niches of their art, lifestyle, and work. She introduces the hiker to the area's unique rock and land formations, and the fragile yet resourceful flora, while inviting the hiker to appreciate the strength of this ancient land and the art and work of its innovative people. This is a book not just about hiking; this is a book about discovery in the land of the Ancients.

No comments about The Santa Fe & Taos Book: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide, Seventh Edition (Santa Fe and Taos Book).

2 comments about New Mexico's Best Ghost Towns: A Practical Guide.

1. I loved this book. I went on a trip recently to New Mexico and followed one of the paths listed in the book and tried to see if I could find all the places listed. The pictures helped in locating some sites. Some buildings in some of the pictures are gone but it turned out to be a fun and adventurous day trip. I recommend this book if you can get it.



2. Of all of the ghost towns books I own or have read by Phillip Varney, this is probably the worst. But that being said, this book is not that bad. It was written in 1981, so many of the sites are not there any more. It is a black and white photos, which is a drawback once you have seen his newer books. The maps are not really laid out very well. Also the chapters are a little confusing as to their organization. I think he has leaned how to write a perfect ghost town book since (his CO and AZ book are great). But the sites in the book are the best sites to see in NM, he didn't leave anything out. I have been to many of the sites and have taken fantastic pictures myself (in color and B&W). Therefore, I know how good the pictures in the book can look. But if you haven't been to any ghost towns before and you want a New Mexico ghost town book, then it is still one of the best ones out there.

3 comments about New Mexico (America Series).

1. The book is very prettily done. Lots of slick photographs of things that caught the photographers eye. But - not a lot to really give you the scope and majesty of New Mexico. I have found that other books - particularly a book of how-to's for photographers visiting the Southwest [Photographing the Southwest: Volume 2--A Guide to the Natural Landmarks of Arizona & New Mexico, by Laurent Martres] to be actually a much better travel guide.

   However, it looks nice on the coffee table... how's that?




2. I've lived in New Mexico for most of my life, and usually find photo books of the state to be pretty bland and unexciting: adobe areas of Santa Fe, red chile ristras hanging in doorways, monotonous collections of animal-shaped hot air ballons, and Socorro's Very Large Array of satellites facing the sky like sunflowers.
   This book has all those things, but it also has a good variety of weird natural formations, urban parts of Albuquerque, and even some ruins. Many of the photos are beautiful, and overall the collection is eclectic enough to give a person a good idea of many of the unique facets and areas of New Mexico.



3. I ordered 3 of these books as brand-new. I use them for customers who purchase out-of-state investment real estate from me. They enjoy getting a book of the state they purchased in. 1 of the books was used. I was in a short time frame and needed to deliver the books immediately, so I gave 2 clients a brand-new book and 1 client a used book.