Reviewed by John Kantner | Reviews | Journal of American Ethnic History, 27.3

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Reviewed by John Kantner | Reviews | Journal of American Ethnic History, 27.3 | The History Cooperative

Reviews

House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization across the American Southwest. By Craig Childs. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007. xiv + 496 pp. Photos, bibliography, glossary, and index. $24.99 (cloth).

I was prepared to dislike Craig Childs's latest book, House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization across the American Southwest. My first exposure to his writing was his widely published movie review of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (2006), in which he presented himself as a "researcher in ancient American archaeology"—and thus, presumably, credentialed to speak to the accuracy of the film. If so, he was the lone archaeologist to defend Gibson's interpretation of the pre-Hispanic Maya. Soon thereafter, as editor of the Society for American Archaeology's trade magazine, The Archaeological Record, I received a letter from several archaeologists associated with the American Museum of Natural History who railed against what they saw as Childs's denigrating view of American Indian peoples, his misrepresentation of professional anthropology, and the questionable and possibly illegal behavior recounted in House of Rain. Just as I was prepared to pick up my own pitchfork and join the anti-Childs mob, an archaeologist for whom I have great respect told me that Childs was misunderstood and unfairly maligned. As a researcher in American archaeology myself, I had to read the book and make up my own mind.

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