The purpose of the CAASW is to advance the study and practice of archaeoastronomy of the American Southwest. The CAASW is committed to recognizing significant contributions to knowledge and the importance of research, professional standards and excellence in the study of archaeoastronomy, effective dissemination and presentation of archaeoastronomical knowledge, and innovation and originality of approach.

The American Southwest was one of the early and fruitful areas of cultural astronomy study, and remains so to this day.  However, the opportunity for professional and avocational archaeoastronomers to share their research has been limited.  To mark the International Year of Astronomy 2009, and to provide a forum to promote research and a better understanding of the cultural significance of astronomical knowledge among American Southwest cultures, the first biennial Conference on Archaeoastronomy of the American Southwest (CAASW) was held from June 11-13, 2009.  The theme of the conference, held in Camp Verde, Arizona, was "Creating Sustainability in American Southwest Archaeoastronomy Research."

The proceedings from the 2009 Conference will be published shortly as Volume 23 of the Journal of Astronomy in Culture by the University of Texas Press. To subscribe to Volume 23, visit their website.

The success of this conference was followed by the Archaeoastronomy in the Field Workshop, held at the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park in Phoenix Arizona on March 11-12, 2010. The workshop presented an intense and hands-on series of presentatons and discussions to further the standardization of archaeoastronomy documentation and recording.

The next event held was the 2011 Conference on Archaeoastronomy of the American Southwest, at the University of NewMexico, site of the historic 1983 conference “Astronomy and Ceremony in the Prehistoric Southwest” [Papers of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology #2]. CAASW 2011 took place at the Hibben Center, Thursday, June16 through noon Saturday, June 18. An outreach lecture was given on the evening of June 16 by Dr .E.C. Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory and acclaimed author of several books on archaeoastronomy.