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Visitant means supernatural being of some sort, like angels or demons. They aren't real now but the world of an Anasazi revolves around them. Of course, what's important to the Anasazi is also very important to the scientists/researchers who dig them... the Archaeologists. The Visitant is two stories in one. It tells of the murder-mystery of a time long past concerning an Anasazi village and the archaeologists on an impact assessment of an ancient burial ground.
The Anasazi part follows Browser, a war chief, as he buries his infant son who had died of the coughing disease. As if that wasn't bad enough, when he was setting his dead son onto the burial pit - he couldn't. The burial pit had been desecrated by another body. Yikes. But wait, there more. The body in the burial pit was his missing wife's. But wait! There's even more... Ash Girl, Browser's wife, had a stone on top of her head signifying that she was a witch! It was a bad day for Browser, especially since later that day, they discover that his secret lover, Hophorn the Sunwatcher, was injured and was near death. She had suffered from blow to the head and was being cared for by Cloudblower the Kokwimu, the village healer and also an elder. Cloudblower needed to take a bit of Hophorn's skull out to let the evil spirits escape. Nice. It was turning out to be a very eventful day for Browser. But it wasn't over. When he was about to retrieve his dead wife's body out of the burial pit, it went missing. They had suspected that Ash Girl turned into an owl and flew witch-ly away. What an exciting day Browser was having!
That was a complete contrast to the archaeological excavation happening right "now". Granted that I might be biased as I had experience going on an archaeological excavation. I still did not care about anyone in that team, except maybe for Dale. I did not care to know about the lives of Dusty, Maureen, Sylvia, etc. The only good part was when Aunt Hail, the NAGPRA monitor's aunt came to visit that it went all exciting. Otherwise, I'm sorry but the archaeologists seem more interested in everybody else's personal lives than the excavation itself. The way Dusty talks, he would NEVER be able to LEAD an excavation where I'm from. How does one not know isotope tests? What?! How did he ever pass school? That's one of the most common bone tests in archaeology. Not everyone does it because it's damn expensive but that's why everybody knows of it. You don't go graduating to leading an excavation if you don't know anything about it. Plus, no one talks like Dusty and Sylvia does in an excavation EVER!!! I've been doing that a long time and I would never dare talk like that to anyone even my own best buddy. Because you're in an isolated place with sharp implements where accidents happen. And rationing plus careful meal plans seems to be not part of this excavation. NO WONDER YOU'RE OVER BUDGET! Where is their quartermaster? Where are the buckets btw? And the most unbelievable thing of all, why does Dusty have firearms in an excavation? What are you?! It defeats the bylaws of scientific investigation. If you are afraid of armed men going to get you, please bring a group of armed men to protect you. You don't go bringing firearms yourself because you are a scientist. OMG. Is this how it is to dig in that part of the world? I'm shocked. I'm even more shocked that Maureen just takes it. Oh you dig with guns, that's wrong... oh well, back to my bones. Plus, what I wanted to see was the pure excitement of archaeologists discovering ancient remains with a whole lot of trauma and others. It feels like a book written by an amateur archaeologists with sentiments that a seasoned archaeologists would have already outgrown.
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The more interesting bit was the Anasazi murder-mystery. Browser's favorite warrior, Catkin, was sent out to fetch Stone Ghost, the ancient detective. He lived out in the desert on his own and was considered your regular crazy old fellow. Stone Ghost visited the other villages that had female members disappearing on them. These villagers assumed that their girls were taken by the evil Fire Dogs as slaves, etc. Funny enough, these girls exhibited headaches and signs of abuse prior to disappearance that they attributed to their Spirit Helper. This had also happened to Ash Girl. Stone Ghost and the outlying villages gathered to Browser's village for the Celebration of the Long Night. Cloudblower performed the rights with Catkin wherein Cloudblower took the chance to tell Catkin about a sexually abused member of the village, you know, as small talk. Cloudblower did not disclose who it was at that time. As the night went on, another girl and Hophorn went missing. Catkin went out to look for them and found the supposed killer who had hit her on the side of her head.
Meanwhile, in the excavation, exciting things are happening. It seems that all the specimens had blows on the head. The later one had them only on the right side. Maureen, the physical anthropologist, suggests that the killer had been examining the language side of the brain by literally bashing heads at specific places. What's more fun is that she'd found cut marks consistent with cutting flesh off bones. That's cannibalism, the most controversial topic on earth.
However, the Anasazi murder-mystery veers us away from that. Catkin sees the supposed killer, Yellow Dove, cutting the flesh off of the now dead Hophorn. Yellow Dove is making corpse powder, a dangerous element that causes ghosts to shrivel and die. In Anasazi mind set, ghosts are as good as the living making corpse powder an element of evil used usually by witches. Darn. Yellow Dove tells Catkin that he's not the killer, there's a bigger one. It was the Spirit Helper who was banging the girls' heads in. He was the one who was killing the girls and not Yellow Dove, who was just there to deflesh and bury the girls afterwards.
Turns out Yellow Dove is in fact Ash Girl, who had developed multiple personalities on account of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child. The Spirit Helper is Two Hearts who was Ash Girl's evil dad. Browser unknowingly shot her with an arrow and she dies in his arms. Browser is an idiot. Not because he shot his wife, it was because he didn't care to know about his wife. Catkin is also an idiot who, as a girl, didn't bother to ask Ash Girl what was the matter. They are all idiots and Ash Girl is the true victim, with Hophorn as the supporting character. Cloudblower had failed miserably but she knew this so she's saved from criticism.
Back in the "now", Aunt Hail confirms that the true killer is not among the individuals in the burials. And that Two Hearts had one this time. So, please expect book two.
I wouldn't pick up book two. The archaeologists are just not interesting and are really more interested in their personal lives. That's really not true in the field. When one goes out in the field, you don't wear your heart on your sleeve. In fact, you leave your heart at home and put up all the shields you've got. Everyday interactions are one of severe, dry and cold politeness. You make friends, yes. But everyone is at their very best at avoiding conflict and upholding professionalism. You don't do anything to upset anyone and you keep your eyes on the ground. Even if you're seeing a conflict happen in front of your eyes, you don't see anything and walk away. You laugh at jokes but all the jokes you would hear are impersonal. You clean up your own mess, make sure that you're around when they give out food. You never complain about the food and you always show up on time. You do NOT leave the group like what Maureen did. You do NOT have personal time, unless you're in the crapper and you don't stay in the crapper for more than 5mins as someone else might want to use it. Everybody will always know where everybody is. And, everybody knows what everybody else is doing. But nobody comments and you keep your head down. That's what happens in an excavation. You work hard, you keep your head down and you keep out of trouble. Oh and you write everything, on your journal and on the records. Nobody keeps records in this book? Exactly.
-- repost of original entry at goodreads.com --
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