Exhibit asks visitors to view water issues through Hohokam perspective

An Arizona State University museum exhibit is reaching new audiences after traveling to the Tempe History Museum.

“Choosing a Future with Water: Lessons from the Hohokam” first opened in March 2011 at the ASU Museum of Anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ School of Human Evolution and Social Change.

Following a redesign and installation at the Tempe History Museum, “Lessons from the Hohokam: Our Future with Water” was launched earlier this month with a ceremony that featured opening remarks by Grady Gammage Jr. A recent article in the Arizona Republic highlighted the event and the exhibit.

Using as an example the ancient Hohokam civilization – which created a vast system of irrigation canals and farmed central Arizona for centuries before abandoning their settlements – the exhibit asks visitors to consider whether the Phoenix area’s burgeoning population has sufficient water resources to sustain unbridled growth.

The exhibit is a move towards faculty research-based museum offerings. Several School of Human Evolution and Social Change faculty were involved, including Southwest archaeologists David Abbott, Keith Kintigh and Margaret Nelson and social-ecological systems expert Marty Anderies.

The school’s museum studies graduate students helped design and execute the exhibit, which includes several interactive features and a strong sustainability component.

The exhibit is slated for further travel to the Chandler History Museum and Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park, and to finally rest at the Deer Valley Rock Art Center.