BOOKSHELF

Enemy Ancestors: The Anasazi World with a Guide to Sites, by Gary Matlock. Photographs by Scott Warren. Northland Press, Box N, Flagstaff, AZ 86002. 1988. 128 pages. $19.95, softcover.

From about 200 B.C. to A.D. 1300 they lived on that dramatic land we call the Four Corners, where Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona now meet. There on the many sandstone cliffs, usually within sight of a stream, they built their sophisticated dwellings. They had rooms for storage and for shelter within their walls of mud and stone. Babies came into the world here, and elders, old in their thirties, died.

Archeologist Alfred V. Kidder called them Anasazi. It has generally been thought that Anasazi meant "old people" or "ancient ones," but the name comes from a Navajo word meaning "enemy ancestors." That selfcontradictory term is rooted in the Navajo's cultural aversion to any aspect of death, whether site or symbol. Anthropologists tell us the Hopi descendants of the Kayenta Anasazi dislike the Navajo word. The Hopi refer to these ancient pueblo dwellers as Hisatsinom.

Author and archeologist Gary Matlock does a masterful job of presenting his subject to the layman. He places the Anasazi in their natural and cultural setting, then reports the current research findings. The book informs and entertains without condescending or patronizing.

Despite the "guide" in the subtitle, Matlock is purposely vague regarding locations. He hopes the absence of maps and routes will discourage vandals, although a determined visitor can soon locate the sites from the information Matlock gives. He devotes a chapter to the ethics of visiting a site. It is basic common sense, but it bears repeating: "Take nothing. Touch nothing, except with your eyes. You are a guest in a national historic and scientific resource. Once altered by man, once disturbed and displaced, it can never be renewed; the loss can never be recovered." As the public becomes educated and involved in the delicate process of preservation, we will find fewer vandals among us. Books like Enemy Ancestors are excellent teaching tools. In the past few years, several popular publications on the Anasazi have appeared, but no other offers the exquisite photographs, lucent text, and imaginative design of Enemy Ancestors. The book provides an excellent balance between the better-known National Park Service sites and those difficult-to-reach Anasazi dwellings scattered in remote Four Corners canyons. Moon House, for example, sits under a massive ledge in a coral canyon in southeastern Utah. An archeologist once described its pristine condition in a simple statement: "It looks as if they left there last Thursday." Let us hope it always will.

I certify that the statements made by me are correct and complete. Hugh Harelson, Publisher (RIGHT) “Sonoran Desert: Gambel’s Quail,” by Maynard Reece; vertical detail from painting, oil on canvas, 36 by 60 inches. Reece, an Iowa native, has won the prestigious Federal Duck Stamp Competition five times, was elected Artist of the Year by Ducks Unlimited, and has received numerous other awards and honors. As a young man, he worked with and learned much from Ding Darling, a famous political cartoonist and graphic artist. COURTESY OF MR. AND MRS.

ROBERT L. SANDBLOM (BACK COVER) Shrimp boats cluster at the docks of Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point), 65 miles southwest of Lukeville, Arizona, on the Sea of Cortes. TOM ALGIRE