Cahokia And The North American Worlds

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Cahokia and the North American Worlds

Author : Sarah E. Baires
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781108928762
Total Pages : 75 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (287 download)

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Book Synopsis Cahokia and the North American Worlds by : Sarah E. Baires

Download or read book Cahokia and the North American Worlds written by Sarah E. Baires and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-10 with total page 75 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The City of Cahokia provides a unique case study to review what draws people to a place and why. This Element examines not only the emergence and decline of this great American city but its intersection with the broader Native American world during this period. Cahokia was not an isolated complex but a place vivid on the landscape where people made pilgrimages to and from Cahokia for trade and religious practices. Cahokia was a centre-place with expansive reach and cultural influence. This Element analyses the social and political processes that helped create this city while also reflecting on the trajectory of Native American history in North America.

Cahokia

Author : Sally A. Kitt Chappell
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226101361
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Cahokia by : Sally A. Kitt Chappell

Download or read book Cahokia written by Sally A. Kitt Chappell and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2002-02-15 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the turn of the last millennium, a powerful Native American civilization emerged and flourished in the American Midwest. By A.D. 1050 the population of its capital city, Cahokia, was larger than that of London. Without the use of the wheel, beasts of burden, or metallurgy, its technology was of the Stone Age, yet its culture fostered widespread commerce, refined artistic expression, and monumental architecture. The model for this urbane world was nothing less than the cosmos itself. The climax of their ritual center was a four-tiered pyramid covering fourteen acre rising a hundred feet into the sky—the tallest structure in the United States until 1867. This beautifully illustrated book traces the history of this six-square-mile area in the central Mississippi Valley from the Big Bang to the present. Chappell seeks to answer fundamental questions about this unique, yet still relatively unknown space, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. How did this swampy land become so amenable to human life? Who were the remarkable people who lived here before the Europeans came? Why did the whole civilization disappear so rapidly? What became of the land in the centuries after the Mississippians abandoned it? And finally, what can we learn about ourselves as we look into the changing meaning of Cahokia through the ages? To explore these questions, Chappell probes a wide range of sources, including the work of astronomers, geographers, geologists, anthropologists, and archaeologists. Archival photographs and newspaper accounts, as well as interviews with those who work at the site and Native Americans on their annual pilgrimage to the site, bring the story up to the present. Tying together these many threads, Chappell weaves a rich tale of how different people conferred their values on the same piece of land and how the transformed landscape, in turn, inspired different values in them-cultural, spiritual, agricultural, economic, and humanistic.

The World of Indigenous North America

Author : Robert Warrior
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136331999
Total Pages : 870 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (363 download)

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Book Synopsis The World of Indigenous North America by : Robert Warrior

Download or read book The World of Indigenous North America written by Robert Warrior and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 870 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The World of Indigenous North America is a comprehensive look at issues that concern indigenous people in North America. Though no single volume can cover every tribe and every issue around this fertile area of inquiry, this book takes on the fields of law, archaeology, literature, socio-linguistics, geography, sciences, and gender studies, among others, in order to make sense of the Indigenous experience. Covering both Canada's First Nations and the Native American tribes of the United States, and alluding to the work being done in indigenous studies through the rest of the world, the volume reflects the critical mass of scholarship that has developed in Indigenous Studies over the past decade, and highlights the best new work that is emerging in the field. The World of Indigenous North America is a book for every scholar in the field to own and refer to often. Contributors: Chris Andersen, Joanne Barker, Duane Champagne, Matt Cohen, Charlotte Cote, Maria Cotera, Vincente M. Diaz, Elena Maria Garcia, Hanay Geiogamah, Carole Goldberg, Brendan Hokowhitu, Sharon Holland, LeAnne Howe, Shari Huhndorf, Jennie Joe, Ted Jojola, Daniel Justice, K. Tsianina Lomawaima, Jose Antonio Lucero, Tiya Miles, Felipe Molina, Victor Montejo, Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Val Napoleon, Melissa Nelson, Jean M. O'Brien, Amy E. Den Ouden, Gus Palmer, Michelle Raheja, David Shorter, Noenoe K. Silva, Shannon Speed, Christopher B. Teuton, Sean Teuton, Joe Watkins, James Wilson, Brian Wright-McLeod

Cahokia

Author : Timothy R. Pauketat
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143117475
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis Cahokia by : Timothy R. Pauketat

Download or read book Cahokia written by Timothy R. Pauketat and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-07-27 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating story of a lost city and an unprecedented American civilization located in modern day Illinois near St. Louis While Mayan and Aztec civilizations are widely known and documented, relatively few people are familiar with the largest prehistoric Native American city north of Mexico-a site that expert Timothy Pauketat brings vividly to life in this groundbreaking book. Almost a thousand years ago, a city flourished along the Mississippi River near what is now St. Louis. Built around a sprawling central plaza and known as Cahokia, the site has drawn the attention of generations of archaeologists, whose work produced evidence of complex celestial timepieces, feasts big enough to feed thousands, and disturbing signs of human sacrifice. Drawing on these fascinating finds, Cahokia presents a lively and astonishing narrative of prehistoric America.

The Archaeology of Ancient North America

Author : Timothy R. Pauketat
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 0521762499
Total Pages : 735 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (217 download)

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Book Synopsis The Archaeology of Ancient North America by : Timothy R. Pauketat

Download or read book The Archaeology of Ancient North America written by Timothy R. Pauketat and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 735 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlike extant texts, this textbook treats pre-Columbian Native Americans as history makers who yet matter in our contemporary world.

The Moundbuilders: Ancient Societies of Eastern North America: Second Edition

Author : George R. Milner
Publisher : Thames & Hudson
ISBN 13 : 0500775451
Total Pages : 440 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis The Moundbuilders: Ancient Societies of Eastern North America: Second Edition by : George R. Milner

Download or read book The Moundbuilders: Ancient Societies of Eastern North America: Second Edition written by George R. Milner and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brought up to date with the latest research, The Moundbuilders is the definitive visual guide to North America’s eastern region and the societies that forever changed its landscape. Hailed by Bruce D. Smith, curator of North American archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution, as “without question the best available book on the pre-Columbian . . . societies of eastern North America,” this wide-ranging and richly illustrated volume covers the entire prehistory of the Eastern Woodlands and the thousands of earthen mounds that can be found there, built between 3100 BCE and 1600 CE. The second edition of The Moundbuilders has been brought fully up-to-date, with the latest research on the peopling of the Americas, including more coverage of pre-Clovis groups, new material on Native American communities in the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries CE, and new narratives of migration drawn from ancient and modern DNA. Far-reaching and illustrated throughout, this book is the perfect visual guide to the region for students, tourists, archaeologists, and anyone interested in ancient American history.

Sun Born

Author : W. Michael Gear
Publisher : Tor Books
ISBN 13 : 1466874724
Total Pages : 472 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis Sun Born by : W. Michael Gear

Download or read book Sun Born written by W. Michael Gear and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An old enemy has returned to Cahokia with vengeance in his heart. Will the empire’s living god choose to save his city? A thousand years ago, the mighty Cahokian civilization dominated the North American continent. At the heart of the empire stood a vast city, teeming with tens of thousands of residents, traders, and travelers. The city of Cahokia sent settlers and priests throughout the continent, from Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico, carrying word of the power of their gods. People who wouldn't bow to that power were conquered or slaughtered. Power rested in one being, Morning Star, a god resurrected in the body of a living man. A new threat has come to the city, emissaries from a civilization that rivals and perhaps even surpasses that of Cahokia. It soon becomes apparent to the gods-possessed Lady Night Shadow Star, human sister of Morning Star, that her people could be conquered by this technologically advanced culture. With the fate of their cosmos as a wager, the people of Cahokia are faced with a battle between the gods. Morning Star is unwilling—or unable—to fight to defend his people. Who then, will save them? With Sun Born, the second title in the Morning Star Trilogy, W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear take readers back to this amazing place with a tale of murder, magic, and the battle for a people's very soul. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Globalizations and the Ancient World

Author : Justin Jennings
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139492926
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis Globalizations and the Ancient World by : Justin Jennings

Download or read book Globalizations and the Ancient World written by Justin Jennings and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-08 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Justin Jennings argues that globalization is not just a phenomenon limited to modern times. Instead he contends that the globalization of today is just the latest in a series of globalizing movements in human history. Using the Uruk, Mississippian, and Wari civilizations as case studies, Jennings examines how the growth of the world's first great cities radically transformed their respective areas. The cities required unprecedented exchange networks, creating long-distance flows of ideas, people, and goods. These flows created cascades of interregional interaction that eroded local behavioral norms and social structures. New, hybrid cultures emerged within these globalized regions. Although these networks did not span the whole globe, people in these areas developed globalized cultures as they interacted with one another. Jennings explores how understanding globalization as a recurring event can help in the understanding of both the past and the present.

Latin American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence

Author : Richard J. Chacon
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 9780816525270
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (252 download)

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Book Synopsis Latin American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence by : Richard J. Chacon

Download or read book Latin American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence written by Richard J. Chacon and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2007-09-06 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking multidisciplinary book presents significant essays on historical indigenous violence in Latin America from Tierra del Fuego to central Mexico. The collection explores those uniquely human motivations and environmental variables that have led to the native peoples of Latin America engaging in warfare and ritual violence since antiquity. Based on an American Anthropological Association symposium, this book collects twelve contributions from sixteen authors, all of whom are scholars at the forefront of their fields of study. All of the chapters advance our knowledge of the causes, extent, and consequences of indigenous violenceÑincluding ritualized violenceÑin Latin America. Each major historical/cultural group in Latin America is addressed by at least one contributor. Incorporating the results of dozens of years of research, this volume documents evidence of warfare, violent conflict, and human sacrifice from the fifteenth century to the twentieth, including incidents that occurred before European contact. Together the chapters present a convincing argument that warfare and ritual violence have been woven into the fabric of life in Latin America since remote antiquity. For the first time, expert subject-area work on indigenous violenceÑarchaeological, osteological, ethnographic, historical, and forensicÑhas been assembled in one volume. Much of this work has heretofore been dispersed across various countries and languages. With its collection into one English-language volume, all future writersÑregardless of their discipline or point of viewÑwill have a source to consult for further research. CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction Richard J. Chacon and RubŽn G. Mendoza 1.ÊÊStatus Rivalry and Warfare in the Development and Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization Matt OÕMansky and Arthur A. Demarest 2.ÊÊAztec Militarism and Blood Sacrifice: The Archaeology and Ideology of Ritual Violence RubŽn G. Mendoza 3.ÊÊTerritorial Expansion and Primary State Formation in Oaxaca, Mexico Charles S. Spencer 4.ÊÊImages of Violence in Mesoamerican Mural Art Donald McVicker 5.ÊÊCircum-Caribbean Chiefly Warfare Elsa M. Redmond 6.ÊÊConflict and Conquest in Pre-Hispanic Andean South America: Archaeological Evidence from Northern Coastal Peru John W. Verano 7.ÊÊThe Inti Raymi Festival among the Cotacachi and Otavalo of Highland Ecuador: Blood for the Earth Richard J. Chacon, Yamilette Chacon, and Angel Guandinango 8.ÊÊUpper Amazonian Warfare Stephen Beckerman and James Yost 9.ÊÊComplexity and Causality in Tupinamb‡ Warfare William BalŽe 10.ÊÊHunter-GatherersÕ Aboriginal Warfare in Western Chaco Marcela Mendoza 11.ÊÊThe Struggle for Social Life in Fuego-Patagonia Alfredo Prieto and Rodrigo C‡rdenas 12.ÊÊEthical Considerations and Conclusions Regarding Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence in Latin America Richard J. Chacon and RubŽn G. Mendoza References About the Contributors Index

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age

Author : Annalee Newitz
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 039365267X
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (936 download)

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Book Synopsis Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by : Annalee Newitz

Download or read book Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age written by Annalee Newitz and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and Science Friday A quest to explore some of the most spectacular ancient cities in human history—and figure out why people abandoned them. In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy’s southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today. Newitz travels to all four sites and investigates the cutting-edge research in archaeology, revealing the mix of environmental changes and political turmoil that doomed these ancient settlements. Tracing the early development of urban planning, Newitz also introduces us to the often anonymous workers—slaves, women, immigrants, and manual laborers—who built these cities and created monuments that lasted millennia. Four Lost Cities is a journey into the forgotten past, but, foreseeing a future in which the majority of people on Earth will be living in cities, it may also reveal something of our own fate.

Core/periphery Relations In Precapitalist Worlds

Author : Christopher Chase-Dunn
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429714416
Total Pages : 251 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (297 download)

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Book Synopsis Core/periphery Relations In Precapitalist Worlds by : Christopher Chase-Dunn

Download or read book Core/periphery Relations In Precapitalist Worlds written by Christopher Chase-Dunn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-04-05 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book demonstrates that Immanuel Wallerstein's reluctance to apply core and periphery to precapitalist transformations is a product of the way he views the luxury trade. It utilizes the study of different kinds of world-systems to explore how logics of social reproduction become transformed.

New Worlds for All

Author : Colin G. Calloway
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 1421411210
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (214 download)

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Book Synopsis New Worlds for All by : Colin G. Calloway

Download or read book New Worlds for All written by Colin G. Calloway and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The interactions between Indians and Europeans changed America—and both cultures. Although many Americans consider the establishment of the colonies as the birth of this country, in fact early America existed long before the arrival of the Europeans. From coast to coast, Native Americans had created enduring cultures, and the subsequent European invasion remade much of the land and society. In New Worlds for All, Colin G. Calloway explores the unique and vibrant new cultures that Indians and Europeans forged together in early America. The journey toward this hybrid society kept Europeans' and Indians' lives tightly entwined: living, working, worshiping, traveling, and trading together—as well as fearing, avoiding, despising, and killing one another. In some areas, settlers lived in Indian towns, eating Indian food. In the Mohawk Valley of New York, Europeans tattooed their faces; Indians drank tea. A unique American identity emerged. The second edition of New Worlds for All incorporates fifteen years of additional scholarship on Indian-European relations, such as the role of gender, Indian slavery, relationships with African Americans, and new understandings of frontier society.

The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology

Author : Timothy R. Pauketat
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0195380118
Total Pages : 694 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology by : Timothy R. Pauketat

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology written by Timothy R. Pauketat and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2012-02-23 with total page 694 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology reviews the continent's first and last foragers, farmers, and great pre-Columbian civic and ceremonial centers, from Chaco Canyon to Moundville and beyond.

A New History of the American South

Author : W. Fitzhugh Brundage
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469670194
Total Pages : 613 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (696 download)

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Book Synopsis A New History of the American South by : W. Fitzhugh Brundage

Download or read book A New History of the American South written by W. Fitzhugh Brundage and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2023-03-15 with total page 613 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For at least two centuries, the South's economy, politics, religion, race relations, fiction, music, foodways and more have figured prominently in nearly all facets of American life. In A New History of the American South, W. Fitzhugh Brundage joins a stellar group of accomplished historians in gracefully weaving a new narrative of southern history from its ancient past to the present. This groundbreaking work draws on both well-established and new currents in scholarship, among them global and Atlantic world history, histories of African diaspora, and environmental history. The volume also considers the experiences of all people of the South: Black, white, Indigenous, female, male, poor, and elite. Together, the essays compose a seamless, cogent, and engaging work that can be read cover to cover or sampled at leisure. Contributors are Peter A. Coclanis, Gregory P. Downs, Laura F. Edwards, Robbie Ethridge, Kari Frederickson, Paul Harvey, Kenneth R. Janken, Martha S. Jones, Blair L. M. Kelley, Kate Masur, Michael A. McDonnell, Scott Reynolds Nelson, James D. Rice, Natalie J. Ring, and Jon F. Sensbach.

Advanced Civilizations of Prehistoric America

Author : Frank Joseph
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1591439817
Total Pages : 285 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (914 download)

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Book Synopsis Advanced Civilizations of Prehistoric America by : Frank Joseph

Download or read book Advanced Civilizations of Prehistoric America written by Frank Joseph and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-12-21 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The examination of four great civilizations that existed before Columbus’s arrival in North America offers evidence of sustained contact between the Old and New Worlds • Describes the cultural splendor, political might, and incredibly advanced technology of these precursors to our modern age • Shows that North America’s first civilization, the Adena, was sparked by ancient Kelts from Western Europe and explores links between Hopewell Mound Builders and prehistoric Japanese seafarers Before Rome ruled the Classical World, gleaming stone pyramids stood amid smoking iron foundries from North America’s Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi River. On its east bank, across from today’s St. Louis, Missouri, flourished a walled city more populous than London was one thousand years ago, with a pyramid larger--at its base--than Egypt’s Great Pyramid. During the 12th century, hydraulic engineers laid out a massive irrigation network spanning the American Southwest that, if laid end to end, would stretch from Phoenix, Arizona, to the Canadian border. On a scale to match, they built a five-mile-wide dam from ten million cubic yards of rock. While Europe stumbled through the Dark Ages, a metropolis of weirdly shaped, multistory superstructures, precisely aligned to the sun and moon, sprawled across the New Mexico Desert. Who was responsible for such colossal achievements? Where did their mysterious builders come from, and what became of them? These are some of the questions investigated by Frank Joseph in his examination of ancient influences at work on our continent. He reveals that modern civilization is not the first to arise in North America but was preceded instead by four high cultures that rose and fell over the past three thousand years: the Adena, Hopewell, Mississippian, and Anasazi-Hohokam. How they achieved greatness and why they vanished so completely are the intriguing enigmas explored by this unconventional prehistory of our country, Advanced Civilizations of Prehistoric America.

Landscapes of Ritual Performance in Eastern North America

Author : Cheryl Claassen
Publisher : Oxbow Books
ISBN 13 : 1789259312
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (892 download)

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Book Synopsis Landscapes of Ritual Performance in Eastern North America by : Cheryl Claassen

Download or read book Landscapes of Ritual Performance in Eastern North America written by Cheryl Claassen and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2023-03-31 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the long history of documenting the material culture of the archaeological record, meaning and actions of makers and users of these items is often overlooked. The authors in this book focus on rituals exploring the natural and made landscape stages, the ritual directors, including their progression from shaman to priesthood, and meaning of the rites. They also provide comments on the end or failure of rites and cults from Paleoindian into post-DeSoto years. Chapters examine the archaeological records of Cahokia, the lower Ohio Valley, Aztalan Wisconsin, Vermont, Florida, and Georgia, and others scan the Eastern US, investigating tobacco/datura, color symbolism, deer symbolism, mound stratigraphy, flintknapping, stone caching, cults and their organization, and red ochre. These authors collectively query the beliefs that can be gleaned from mortuary practices and their variation, from mound construction, from imagery, from the choice of landscape setting. While some rituals were short-lived, others can be shown to span millennia as the ritual specialists modified their interpretations and introduced innovations.

Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History

Author : James Ciment
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317474163
Total Pages : 3151 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

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Book Synopsis Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History by : James Ciment

Download or read book Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History written by James Ciment and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-16 with total page 3151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No era in American history has been more fascinating to Americans, or more critical to the ultimate destiny of the United States, than the colonial era. Between the time that the first European settlers established a colony at Jamestown in 1607 through the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the outlines of America's distinctive political culture, economic system, social life, and cultural patterns had begun to emerge. Designed to complement the high school American history curriculum as well as undergraduate survey courses, "Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History" captures it all: the people, institutions, ideas, and events of the first three hundred years of American history. While it focuses on the thirteen British colonies stretching along the Atlantic, Colonial America sets this history in its larger contexts. Entries also cover Canada, the American Southwest and Mexico, and the Caribbean and Atlantic world directly impacting the history of the thirteen colonies. This encyclopedia explores the complete early history of what would become the United States, including portraits of Native American life in the immediate pre-contact period, early Spanish exploration, and the first settlements by Spanish, French, Dutch, Swedish, and English colonists. This monumental five-volume set brings America's colonial heritage vibrantly to life for today's readers. It includes: thematic essays on major issues and topics; detailed A-Z entries on hundreds of people, institutions, events, and ideas; thematic and regional chronologies; hundreds of illustrations; primary documents; and a glossary and multiple indexes.