Scarlet macaws (Ara macao) are native to the southern parts of Mexico and Central and South America, but they—as well as other materials from these southern areas—are seen in the U.S. Southwest and Mexican Northwest (SW/NW) as early as 600– 700 CE (McKusick 2001; Szuter, this volume; Vokes and Gregory 2007). Although this was not the first time that objects, architectural styles, or ideas made their way into the SW/ NW from distant locales to the south, it marked a point at which various nonlocal ob- jects and materials (e.g., scarlet macaws, copper bells, shell trumpets) began to circulate consistently throughout this region. e circulation of these nonlocal objects and ideas lasted until well after the European invasion, and many remain significant to descendant communities of the SW/NW today (e.g., Mills and Ferguson 2008; Seowtewa, this volume; Whiteley, this volume). Many kinds of objects entered and circulated in the SW/NW through myriad pro- cesses including trade, pilgrimages, and traveling merchants. Most of these objects, such as shell, copper bells, and turquoise, are inert, lightweight, and relatively easy to carry. In contrast, macaws are most definitely not inert and would have required specialized knowledge to transport. In this chapter, we place the human experience at the forefront of archaeological discussions by exploring what it might have been like to transport and raise scarlet macaws in the past. Scarlet macaws are particularly interesting, given that macaw biology has not changed fundamentally in the hundreds of years since macaws were first introduced to the SW/NW. Despite advances in technology, macaw keepers in the past would have had the same challenges (e.g., food, temperament) that macaw keepers face today. To understand the human experience of transporting macaws, while also gaining some insights into the macaws’ experiences, we draw from ethnohistoric accounts of human-macaw interactions, archaeological understandings of exchange and long-distance transport of objects in Mesoamerica and the SW/NW, contemporary macaw biology, and years of experience handling and raising scarlet macaws. We draw especially on archaeological evidence of aviculture, including the raising and transport of macaws, from Paquimé (1200– 1450 CE) in northwest Chihuahua. We point out the many challenges of transporting and raising macaws in the past and explore potential solutions that their human keepers could have employed. e Human Experience of Transporting and Raising Scarlet Macaws at Paquimé in Northern Chihuahua, Mexico Christopher W. Schwartz, Kelley L. M. Taylor, and Michelle Hegmon 13