Patron Gods And Patron Lords

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Patron Gods and Patron Lords

Author : Joanne Baron
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1607325187
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Patron Gods and Patron Lords by : Joanne Baron

Download or read book Patron Gods and Patron Lords written by Joanne Baron and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first comprehensive treatment of Classic Maya patron deity veneration, Joanne P. Baron demonstrates the central importance of patron deity cults in political relationships between both rulers and their subjects and among different Maya kingdoms. Weaving together evidence from inscriptions, images, and artifacts, Patron Gods and Patron Lords provides new insights into how the Classic Maya polity was organized and maintained. Using semiotic theory, Baron draws on three bodies of evidence: ethnographies and manuscripts from Postclassic, Colonial, and modern Maya communities that connect patron saints to pre-Columbian patron gods; hieroglyphic texts from the Classic period that discuss patron deity veneration; and excavations from four patron deity temples at the site of La Corona, Guatemala. She shows how the Classic Maya used patron deity effigies, temples, and acts of devotion to negotiate group membership, social entitlements, and obligations between individuals and communities. She also explores the wider role of these processes in politics, arguing that rituals and discourses related to patron deities ultimately formulated Maya rulership as a locally oriented institution, which limited the ability of powerful kingdoms to create wider religious communities. Applying a new theoretical approach for the archaeological study of ideology and power dynamics, Patron Gods and Patron Lords reveals an overlooked aspect of the belief system of Maya communities.

Maya Narrative Arts

Author : Karen Bassie-Sweet
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1607327422
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Maya Narrative Arts by : Karen Bassie-Sweet

Download or read book Maya Narrative Arts written by Karen Bassie-Sweet and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Maya Narrative Arts, authors Karen Bassie-Sweet and Nicholas A. Hopkins present a comprehensive and innovative analysis of the principles of Classic Maya narrative arts and apply those principles to some of the major monuments of the site of Palenque. They demonstrate a recent methodological shift in the examination of art and inscriptions away from minute technical issues and toward the poetics and narratives of texts and the relationship between texts and images. Bassie-Sweet and Hopkins show that both visual and verbal media present carefully planned narratives, and that the two are intimately related in the composition of Classic Maya monuments. Text and image interaction is discussed through examples of stelae, wall panels, lintels, benches, and miscellaneous artifacts including ceramic vessels and codices. Bassie-Sweet and Hopkins consider the principles of contrast and complementarity that underlie narrative structures and place this study in the context of earlier work, proposing a new paradigm for Maya epigraphy. They also address the narrative organization of texts and images as manifested in selected hieroglyphic inscriptions and the accompanying illustrations, stressing the interplay between the two. Arguing for a more holistic approach to Classic Maya art and literature, Maya Narrative Arts reveals how close observation and reading can be equally if not more productive than theoretical discussions, which too often stray from the very data that they attempt to elucidate. The book will be significant for Mesoamerican art historians, epigraphers, linguists, and archaeologists.

Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica

Author : Nancy Gonlin
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1646421876
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (464 download)

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Book Synopsis Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica by : Nancy Gonlin

Download or read book Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica written by Nancy Gonlin and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2021-12-01 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica is the first volume to explicitly incorporate how nocturnal aspects of the natural world were imbued with deep cultural meanings and expressed by different peoples from various time periods in Mexico and Central America. Material culture, iconography, epigraphy, art history, ethnohistory, ethnographies, and anthropological theory are deftly used to illuminate dimensions of darkness and the night that are often neglected in reconstructions of the past. The anthropological study of night and darkness enriches and strengthens the understanding of human behavior, power, economy, and the supernatural. In eleven case studies featuring the residents of Teotihuacan, the Classic period Maya, inhabitants of Rio Ulúa, and the Aztecs, the authors challenge archaeologists to consider the influence of the ignored dimension of the night and the role and expression of darkness on ancient behavior. Chapters examine the significance of eclipses, burials, tombs, and natural phenomena considered to be portals to the underworld; animals hunted at twilight; the use and ritual meaning of blindfolds; night-blooming plants; nocturnal foodways; fuel sources and lighting technology; and other connected practices. Night and Darkness in Ancient Mesoamerica expands the scope of published research and media on the archaeology of the night. The book will be of interest to those who study the humanistic, anthropological, and archaeological aspects of the Aztec, Maya, Teotihuacanos, and southeastern Mesoamericans, as well as sensory archaeology, art history, material culture studies, anthropological archaeology, paleonutrition, socioeconomics, sociopolitics, epigraphy, mortuary studies, volcanology, and paleoethnobotany. Contributors: Jeremy Coltman, Christine Dixon, Rachel Egan, Kirby Farah, Carolyn Freiwald, Nancy Gonlin, Julia Hendon, Cecelia Klein, Jeanne Lopiparo, Brian McKee, Jan Marie Olson, David M. Reed, Payson Sheets, Venicia Slotten, Michael Thomason, Randolph Widmer, W. Scott Zeleznik

Parallel Worlds

Author : Kerry M. Hull
Publisher : "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN 13 : 1457117533
Total Pages : 510 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (571 download)

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Book Synopsis Parallel Worlds by : Kerry M. Hull

Download or read book Parallel Worlds written by Kerry M. Hull and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite recent developments in epigraphy, ethnopoetics, and the literary investigation of colonial and modern materials, few studies have compared glyphic texts and historic Maya literatures. Parallel Worlds examines Maya writing and literary traditions from the Classic period until today, revealing remarkable continuities across time. In this volume, contributions from leading scholars in Maya literary studies examine Maya discourse from Classic period hieroglyphic inscriptions to contemporary spoken narratives, focusing on parallelism to unite the literature historically. Contributors take an ethnopoetic approach, examining literary and verbal arts from a historical perspective, acknowledging that poetic form is as important as narrative content in deciphering what these writings reveal about ancient and contemporary worldviews. Encompassing a variety of literary motifs, including humor, folklore, incantation, mythology, and more specific forms of parallelism such as couplets, chiasms, kennings, and hyperbatons, Parallel Worlds is a rich journey through Maya culture and pre-Columbian literature that will be of interest to students and scholars of anthropology, ethnography, Latin American history, epigraphy, comparative literature, language studies, indigenous studies, and mythology.

The Bible and Modern Thought

Author : John Rougier Cohu
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Bible and Modern Thought by : John Rougier Cohu

Download or read book The Bible and Modern Thought written by John Rougier Cohu and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art

Author : Joanne Pillsbury
Publisher : Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN 13 : 1588397319
Total Pages : 251 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (883 download)

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Book Synopsis Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art by : Joanne Pillsbury

Download or read book Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art written by Joanne Pillsbury and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2022-11-14 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to the complex stories of Mesoamerican divinity through the carvings, ceramics, and metalwork of the Maya Classic period Lives of the Gods reveals how ancient Maya artists evoked a pantheon as rich and complex as the more familiar Greco-Roman, Hindu-Buddhist, and Egyptian deities. Focusing on the period between A.D. 250 and 900, the authors show how this powerful cosmology informed some of the greatest creative achievements of Maya civilization.

Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate

Author : Elizabeth Hill Boone
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 0292712634
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (927 download)

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Book Synopsis Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate by : Elizabeth Hill Boone

Download or read book Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate written by Elizabeth Hill Boone and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2007-02-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In communities throughout precontact Mesoamerica, calendar priests and diviners relied on pictographic almanacs to predict the fate of newborns, to guide people in choosing marriage partners and auspicious wedding dates, to know when to plant and harvest crops, and to be successful in many of life's activities. As the Spanish colonized Mesoamerica in the sixteenth century, they made a determined effort to destroy these books, in which the Aztec and neighboring peoples recorded their understanding of the invisible world of the sacred calendar and the cosmic forces and supernaturals that adhered to time. Today, only a few of these divinatory codices survive. Visually complex, esoteric, and strikingly beautiful, painted books such as the famous Codex Borgia and Codex Borbonicus still serve as portals into the ancient Mexican calendrical systems and the cycles of time and meaning they encode. In this comprehensive study, Elizabeth Hill Boone analyzes the entire extant corpus of Mexican divinatory codices and offers a masterful explanation of the genre as a whole. She introduces the sacred, divinatory calendar and the calendar priests and diviners who owned and used the books. Boone then explains the graphic vocabulary of the calendar and its prophetic forces and describes the organizing principles that structure the codices. She shows how they form almanacs that either offer general purpose guidance or focus topically on specific aspects of life, such as birth, marriage, agriculture and rain, travel, and the forces of the planet Venus. Boone also tackles two major areas of controversy—the great narrative passage in the Codex Borgia, which she freshly interprets as a cosmic narrative of creation, and the disputed origins of the codices, which, she argues, grew out of a single religious and divinatory system.

The Gods of the Nations

Author : Daniel I. Block
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1725232936
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (252 download)

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Book Synopsis The Gods of the Nations by : Daniel I. Block

Download or read book The Gods of the Nations written by Daniel I. Block and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daniel I. Block here explores the relationship between ancient Near Eastern nations and their respective deities. He demonstrates how this relationship was expressed in everyday life, national identity, and history. Israel's theocratic culture is illuminated in comparison to other Near Eastern cultures.

Infrastructures of Religion and Power

Author : Edward Swenson
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1003847129
Total Pages : 487 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Infrastructures of Religion and Power by : Edward Swenson

Download or read book Infrastructures of Religion and Power written by Edward Swenson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-02-06 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the central role of religion in place-making and infrastructural projects in ancient polities. It presents a trilectic approach to archaeological study of religious landscapes that combines Indigenous philosophies with the spatial and semiotic thinking of Lefebvre, Peirce, and proponents of assemblage theories. Case studies from ancient Angkor and the Andes reveal how rituals of place-making activated processes of territorialization and semiosis fundamental to the experience of political worlds that shaped power relations in past societies. The perspectives developed in the book permit a reconstruction of how landscapes were variably conceived, perceived, and lived in the spirit of Henri Lefebvre, and how these registers may have aligned or clashed. In the end, the examination of built environments, infrastructures, and rituals staged within specialized buildings demonstrates how archaeologists can better infer past ontologies, cosmologies, ideologies of time and place, and historically specific political struggles. The study will appeal to students and researchers interested in ritual, infrastructures, landscape, archaeological theory, political institutions, semiotics, human geography, and the civilizations of the ancient Andes and Angkor.

Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica

Author : Sarah Kurnick
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1607324164
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica by : Sarah Kurnick

Download or read book Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica written by Sarah Kurnick and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2016-03-21 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political authority contains an inherent contradiction. Rulers must reinforce social inequality and bolster their own unique position at the top of the sociopolitical hierarchy, yet simultaneously emphasize social similarities and the commonalities shared by all. Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica explores the different and complex ways that those who exercised authority in the region confronted this contradiction. New data from a variety of well-known scholars in Mesoamerican archaeology reveal the creation, perpetuation, and contestation of politically authoritative relationships between rulers and subjects and between nobles and commoners. The contributions span the geographic breadth and temporal extent of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica—from Preclassic Oaxaca to the Classic Petén region of Guatemala to the Postclassic Michoacán—and the contributors weave together archaeological, epigraphic, and ethnohistoric data. Grappling with the questions of how those exercising authority convince others to follow and why individuals often choose to recognize and comply with authority, Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica discusses why the study of political authority is both timely and significant, reviews how scholars have historically understood the operation of political authority, and proposes a new analytical framework to understand how rulers rule. Contributors include Sarah B. Barber, Joanne Baron, Christopher S. Beekman, Jeffrey Brzezinski, Bryce Davenport, Charles Golden, Takeshi Inomata, Arthur A. Joyce, Sarah Kurnick, Carlo J. Lucido, Simon Martin, Tatsuya Murakami, Helen Perlstein Pollard, and Víctor Salazar Chávez.

Bloomsbury Semiotics Volume 3: Semiotics in the Arts and Social Sciences

Author : Jamin Pelkey
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350139378
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Bloomsbury Semiotics Volume 3: Semiotics in the Arts and Social Sciences by : Jamin Pelkey

Download or read book Bloomsbury Semiotics Volume 3: Semiotics in the Arts and Social Sciences written by Jamin Pelkey and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-01-12 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bloomsbury Semiotics offers a state-of-the-art overview of the entire field of semiotics by revealing its influence on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. With four volumes spanning theory, method and practice across the disciplines, this definitive reference work emphasizes and strengthens common bonds shared across intellectual cultures, and facilitates the discovery and recovery of meaning across fields. It comprises: Volume 1: History and Semiosis Volume 2: Semiotics in the Natural and Technical Sciences Volume 3: Semiotics in the Arts and Social Sciences Volume 4: Semiotic Movements Written by leading international experts, the chapters provide comprehensive overviews of the history and status of semiotic inquiry across a diverse range of traditions and disciplines. Together, they highlight key contemporary developments and debates along with ongoing research priorities. Providing the most comprehensive and united overview of the field, Bloomsbury Semiotics enables anyone, from students to seasoned practitioners, to better understand and benefit from semiotic insight and how it relates to their own area of study or research. Volume 3: Semiotics in the Arts and Social Sciences presents the state-of-the art in semiotic approaches to disciplines ranging from philosophy and anthropology to history and archaeology, from sociology and religious studies to music, dance, rhetoric, literature, and structural linguistics. Each chapter goes casts a vision for future research priorities, unanswered questions, and fresh openings for semiotic participation in these and related fields.

Maya Gods of War

Author : Karen Bassie-Sweet
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1646421329
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (464 download)

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Book Synopsis Maya Gods of War by : Karen Bassie-Sweet

Download or read book Maya Gods of War written by Karen Bassie-Sweet and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Numerous archaeological projects have found substantial evidence of the military nature of Maya society, and warfare is a frequent theme of Maya art. Maya Gods of War investigates the Classic period Maya gods who were associated with weapons of war and the flint and obsidian from which those weapons were made. Author Karen Bassie-Sweet traces the semantic markers used to distinguish flint from other types of stone, surveys various types of Chahk thunderbolt deities and their relationship to flint weapons, and explores the connection between lightning and the ruling elite. Additional chapters review these fire and solar deities and their roles in Maya warfare and examine the nature and manifestations of the Central Mexican thunderbolt god Tlaloc, his incorporation into the Maya pantheon, and his identification with meteors and obsidian weapons. Finally, Bassie-Sweet addresses the characteristics of the deity God L, his role as an obsidian merchant god, and his close association with the ancient land route between the highland Guatemalan obsidian sources and the lowlands. Through analysis of the nature of the Teotihuacán deities and exploration of the ways in which these gods were introduced into the Maya region and incorporated into the Maya worldview, Maya Gods of War offers new insights into the relationship between warfare and religious beliefs in Mesoamerica. This significant work will be of interest to scholars of Maya religion and iconography.

PALGRAVE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY AND MONEY

Author : Joseph J. Tinguely
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031541367
Total Pages : 803 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis PALGRAVE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY AND MONEY by : Joseph J. Tinguely

Download or read book PALGRAVE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY AND MONEY written by Joseph J. Tinguely and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2024 with total page 803 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

New Methods and Theories for Analyzing Mississippian Imagery

Author : Bretton T. Giles
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 1683402464
Total Pages : 283 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (834 download)

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Book Synopsis New Methods and Theories for Analyzing Mississippian Imagery by : Bretton T. Giles

Download or read book New Methods and Theories for Analyzing Mississippian Imagery written by Bretton T. Giles and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, contributors show how stylistic and iconographic analyses of Mississippian imagery provide new perspectives on the beliefs, narratives, public ceremonies, ritual regimes, and expressions of power in the communities that created the artwork. Exploring various methodological and theoretical approaches to pre-Columbian visual culture, these essays reconstruct dynamic accounts of Native American history across the U.S. Southeast. These case studies offer innovative examples of how to use style to identify and compare artifacts, how symbols can be interpreted in the absence of writing, and how to situate and historicize Mississippian imagery. They examine designs carved into shell, copper, stone, and wood or incised into ceramic vessels, from spider iconography to owl effigies and depictions of the cosmos. They discuss how these symbols intersect with memory, myths, social hierarchies, religious traditions, and other spheres of Native American life in the past and present. The tools modeled in this volume will open new horizons for learning about the culture and worldviews of past peoples. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series Contributors: David Dye | Shawn P. Lambert | Bretton T. Giles | Vernon J. Knight, Jr. | Anna Semon | J. Grant Stauffer | Jesse Nowak | George E Lankford

Figurines

Author : Jaś Elsner
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192605291
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (926 download)

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Book Synopsis Figurines by : Jaś Elsner

Download or read book Figurines written by Jaś Elsner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-22 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Figurines are objects of handling. As touchable objects, they engage the viewer in different ways from flat art, whether relief sculpture or painting. Unlike the voyeuristic relationship of viewing a neatly framed pictorial narrative as if from the outside, the viewer as handler is always potentially and without protection within the narrative of figurines. As such, they have potential for a potent, even animated, agency in relation to those who use them. This volume concerns figurines as archaeologically-attested materials from literate cultures with surviving documents that have no direct links of contiguity, appropriation, or influence in relation to each other. It is an attempt to put the category of the figurine on the table as a key conceptual and material problematic in the art history of antiquity. It does so through comparative juxtaposition of close-focused chapters drawn from deep art-historical engagement with specific ancient cultures - Chinese, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican, and Greco-Roman. It encourages comparative conversation across the disciplines that constitute the art history of the ancient world through finding categories and models of discourse that may offer fertile ground for comparison and antithesis. It extends the rich and astute literature on prehistoric figurines into understanding the figurine in historical contexts, where literary texts and documents, inscriptions, or surviving terminologies can be adduced alongside material culture. At stake are issues of figuration and anthropomorphism, miniaturization and portability, one-off production and replication, and substitution and scale at the interface of archaeology and art history.

Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas

Author : Lee M. Panich
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000403610
Total Pages : 697 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas by : Lee M. Panich

Download or read book Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas written by Lee M. Panich and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-07-19 with total page 697 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas brings together scholars from across the hemisphere to examine how archaeology can highlight the myriad ways that Indigenous people have negotiated colonial systems from the fifteenth century through to today. The contributions offer a comprehensive look at where the archaeology of colonialism has been and where it is heading. Geographically diverse case studies highlight longstanding theoretical and methodological issues as well as emerging topics in the field. The organization of chapters by key issues and topics, rather than by geography, fosters exploration of the commonalities and contrasts between historical contingencies and scholarly interpretations. Throughout the volume, Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors grapple with the continued colonial nature of archaeology and highlight Native perspectives on the potential of using archaeology to remember and tell colonial histories. This volume is the ideal starting point for students interested in how archaeology can illuminate Indigenous agency in colonial settings. Professionals, including academic and cultural resource management archaeologists, will find it a convenient reference for a range of topics related to the archaeology of colonialism in the Americas.

The Evolution of Social Institutions

Author : Dmitri M. Bondarenko
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030514374
Total Pages : 662 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Social Institutions by : Dmitri M. Bondarenko

Download or read book The Evolution of Social Institutions written by Dmitri M. Bondarenko and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-12 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a novel and innovative approach to the study of social evolution using case studies from the Old and the New World, from prehistory to the present. This approach is based on examining social evolution through the evolution of social institutions. Evolution is defined as the process of structural change. Within this framework the society, or culture, is seen as a system composed of a vast number of social institutions that are constantly interacting and changing. As a result, the structure of society as a whole is also evolving and changing. The authors posit that the combination of evolving social institutions explains the non-linear character of social evolution and that every society develops along its own pathway and pace. Within this framework, society should be seen as the result of the compound effect of the interactions of social institutions specific to it. Further, the transformation of social institutions and relations between them is taking place not only within individual societies but also globally, as institutions may be trans-societal, and even institutions that operate in one society can arise as a reaction to trans-societal trends and demands. The book argues that it may be more productive to look at institutions even within a given society as being parts of trans-societal systems of institutions since, despite their interconnectedness, societies still have boundaries, which their members usually know and respect. Accordingly, the book is a must-read for researchers and scholars in various disciplines who are interested in a better understanding of the origins, history, successes and failures of social institutions.