Identity is an Infinite Now: Being Instead of Becoming Gallina

Abstract

Archaeological research on the Gallina (AD 1100–1300) inhabitants of the region west of the Rio Chama and centered on the Llaves valley has focused on constructing a culture history and examining functional characteristics of artifacts and architecture. Limited research has attempted to understand who the residents of the Gallina heartland were. In this article, using new findings and historical contexts, we argue that the Gallina people had a complicated identity forged around resistance and a deep connection to their past. To better understand them we need to move past previous binary categories used to describe them and perceive them not as isolated or connected, aggressors or victims, traditionalists or innovators, but as an intersectional mix of these axes of identity.

La investigación arqueológica sobre los habitantes Gallina (1100–1300 d. C.) de la región oeste del Río Chama, focalizada en el valle de Llaves, se orientó en la construcción de una historia cultural y el análisis de las características funcionales de los artefactos y la arquitectura. De hecho, han sido escasas las investigaciones que han intentado entender quiénes eran los residentes del Gallina. En este artículo, utilizando nuevos hallazgos y contextos históricos, argumentamos que los grupos Gallina tuvieron una identidad compleja, forjada en torno a la resistencia y a una profunda conexión con su historia. Asimismo, para entenderlas necesitamos movernos más allá de las tradicionales categorías binarias usadas para interpretarlos y percibirlos como aislados o conectados, violentos o víctimas, tradicionalistas o inventores, y en cambio, como una mezcla que abarca todos estos ejes de identidad.

Keywords:

• Gallina
• Social identity
• Resistance
• Power
• Hierarchy
• Egalitarianism
• Pueblo
• History

Acknowledgments

Thanks to J. Michael Bremer who has graciously discussed this topic with both of us for a bit over a decade now, as well to two anonymous peer reviewers. Many thanks are also owed to Lexi Klann who helped transcribe the very difficult to read pdf version of Vera Koehring’s thesis that researchers have been squinting at for decades now.

Additional information

Funding

Portions of Borck’s research was funded by an Haury Fellowship through the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, a Preservation Fellowship at Archaeology Southwest, and National Science Foundation Grant #1522851.