Circularity, Analogy, and Gestalt in the Ancestral Puebloan Cannibalism Debate

Abstract

This study examines the controversy over alleged cannibalism in the prehistoric American Southwest as it played out in scholarly journals. It also examines the lessons those controversies provide technical communication. Data painstakingly collected from human remains at ancestral Pueblo sites have been interpreted as representing cannibalism and, alternatively, as indicating witchcraft, mutilation of the dead, and warfare. Three focal points of this study are the circular process of developing criteria for analysis in archaeology, the role of analogy in building hypotheses, and the role of gestalt in interpretation of the findings. This study also looks at the ways narratives contribute to knowledge building.