Southwest Landscapes and People is a section of the American
Southwest Virtual Museum that highlights prominent landscapes and
ancient peoples of the American Southwest. It can be found at:
http://swvirtualmuseum.nau.edu/gallery3/index.php/Southwest and is
a collaborative virtual museum project from several individual
National Parks and Monuments, Northern Arizona University
Anthropology Laboratories, the Museum of Northern Arizona, and the
Learning Center of the American Southwest. The site features
continuous modifications meaning material will not necessarily be
the same at any given point in time. Southwest Landscapes and
People is a section of the larger site called the Southwest virtual
museum and contains two subsections titled: Landscapes and
Prehistoric People and Culture. Landscapes - The Landscapes section
features 12 different landscape types found in the Southwest. 9 of
these are well-defined, specific geographic areas such as the
Southern Rockies, Mogollon Rim, the Great Plains, and Colorado
Plateau. Three are more generalized highlights of various features
and aspects of the southwest such as Sand and Rocks, Water
Sculpture, and Fall Reflections. The majority have accompanying
color pictures. For example, the section for the Colorado Plateau
has pictures of areas within the plateau such as coyote gulch,
death hallow, Zion narrows, and wahweap badlands. Each landscape
sub-section has an accompanying short explanation of the region
generally as well as sections explaining the geographic dimensions,
precipitation, elevation, life zone, vegetation, and geology of the
area. Each section also has a link(s) to other sub-sections within
the accompanying Prehistoric People and Culture side of the exhibit
as well as a list of National Parks in that area. This helps to tie
the ancient peoples site of the exhibit to the area(s) they once
inhabited. Prehistoric Peoples and Culture This section contains 17
sub sections highlighting ancient people who have lived in various
regions of the southwest. The majority of these also have
accompanying pictures of the peoples dwellings, artifacts, area of
inhabitance. Each contains a historical explanation of the group of
people, of various lengths, that usually make note of the time
period they lived in, region they inhabited, what their culture was
like generally and what it is best known for now, as well as their
mode of dress, eating, travel, religious life etc. Many sections
give an explanation of how they got their name or what their name
means. For example, the Mimbres people occupied southwestern New
Mexico from A.D. 800 1250. According to the exhibit their name is
Spanish for willows. Much of their architecture and pottery
resembles the Mogollon culture. They are known for producing
pottery depicting humans, geometric designs, and animals. Overall,
the exhibit shows no indications of being specifically geared
toward a certain demographic, although some of the accompanying
text is fairly specific and in depth. It does a good job of
allowing viewers to be exposed to multiple regions and peoples of
the southwest at large and to be able to obtain relevant historical
and geographic information about each. The site is completely free
to visit and has not sign up process. It seems to be a good hybrid
site between public and academic history. It also offers viewers
the option to link up with Facebook to alert them when updates
happen.
Southwest Virtual Museum. Southwest Landscapes and People.
swvirtualmuseum.nau.edu.
http://swvirtualmuseum.nau.edu/gallery3/index.php/Southwest.
(Accessed March 30, 2014)
