Wars and Conflicts in Prehispanic Mesoamerica and the Andes

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Publisher : British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 164 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Wars and Conflicts in Prehispanic Mesoamerica and the Andes by : Peter Eeckhout

Download or read book Wars and Conflicts in Prehispanic Mesoamerica and the Andes written by Peter Eeckhout and published by British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited. This book was released on 2005 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains papers in English and papers in Spanish.

War, Spectacle, and Politics in the Ancient Andes

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1009041290
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis War, Spectacle, and Politics in the Ancient Andes by : Elizabeth N. Arkush

Download or read book War, Spectacle, and Politics in the Ancient Andes written by Elizabeth N. Arkush and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-31 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Warfare in the pre-Columbian Andes took on many forms, from inter-village raids to campaigns of conquest. Andean societies also created spectacular performances and artwork alluding to war – acts of symbolism that worked as political rhetoric while drawing on ancient beliefs about supernatural beings, warriors, and the dead. In this book, Elizabeth Arkush disentangles Andean warfare from Andean war-related spectacle and offers insights into how both evolved over time. Synthesizing the rich archaeological record of fortifications, skeletal injury, and material evidence, she presents fresh visions of war and politics among the Moche, Chimú, Inca, and pre-Inca societies of the conflict-ridden Andean highlands. The changing configurations of Andean power and violence serve as case studies to illustrate a sophisticated general model of the different forms of warfare in pre-modern societies. Arkush's book makes the complex pre-history of Andean warfare accessible by providing a birds-eye view of its major patterns and contrasts.

The Cambridge History of War: Volume 2, War and the Medieval World

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108901190
Total Pages : 854 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cambridge History of War: Volume 2, War and the Medieval World by : David A. Graff

Download or read book The Cambridge History of War: Volume 2, War and the Medieval World written by David A. Graff and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-01 with total page 854 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume II of The Cambridge History of War covers what in Europe is commonly called 'the Middle Ages'. It includes all of the well-known themes of European warfare, from the migrations of the Germanic peoples and the Vikings through the Reconquista, the Crusades and the age of chivalry, to the development of state-controlled gunpowder-wielding armies and the urban militias of the later middle ages; yet its scope is world-wide, ranging across Eurasia and the Americas to trace the interregional connections formed by the great Arab conquests and the expansion of Islam, the migrations of horse nomads such as the Avars and the Turks, the formation of the vast Mongol Empire, and the spread of new technologies – including gunpowder and the earliest firearms – by land and sea.

The Archaeology of Wak'as

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Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1607323184
Total Pages : 423 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis The Archaeology of Wak'as by : Tamara L. Bray

Download or read book The Archaeology of Wak'as written by Tamara L. Bray and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2015-02-15 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this edited volume, Andean wak'as—idols, statues, sacred places, images, and oratories—play a central role in understanding Andean social philosophies, cosmologies, materialities, temporalities, and constructions of personhood. Top Andean scholars from a variety of disciplines cross regional, theoretical, and material boundaries in their chapters, offering innovative methods and theoretical frameworks for interpreting the cultural particulars of Andean ontologies and notions of the sacred. Wak'as were understood as agentive, nonhuman persons within many Andean communities and were fundamental to conceptions of place, alimentation, fertility, identity, and memory and the political construction of ecology and life cycles. The ethnohistoric record indicates that wak'as were thought to speak, hear, and communicate, both among themselves and with humans. In their capacity as nonhuman persons, they shared familial relations with members of the community, for instance, young women were wed to local wak'as made of stone and wak'as had sons and daughters who were identified as the mummified remains of the community's revered ancestors. Integrating linguistic, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and archaeological data, The Archaeology of Wak'as advances our understanding of the nature and culture of wak'as and contributes to the larger theoretical discussions on the meaning and role of–"the sacred” in ancient contexts.

Consummation of the Ages vol V

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Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1300126698
Total Pages : 171 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Consummation of the Ages vol V by : Henry Epps

Download or read book Consummation of the Ages vol V written by Henry Epps and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2012-08-25 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consummation of the ages vol V focuses on the teachings of the end of days, and the return of Jesus Christ. Daniel, John the revelator and Jesus himself foretold of the end of days.

Maya Gods of War

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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.

The Oxford Handbook of the Incas

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019021936X
Total Pages : 881 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the Incas by : Sonia Alconini

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Incas written by Sonia Alconini and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-02 with total page 881 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Spaniards invaded their realm in 1532, the Incas ruled the largest empire of the pre-Columbian Americas. Just over a century earlier, military campaigns began to extend power across a broad swath of the Andean region, bringing local societies into new relationships with colonists and officials who represented the Inca state. With Cuzco as its capital, the Inca empire encompassed a multitude of peoples of diverse geographic origins and cultural traditions dwelling in the outlying provinces and frontier regions. Bringing together an international group of well-established scholars and emerging researchers, this handbook is dedicated to revealing the origins of this empire, as well as its evolution and aftermath. Chapters break new ground using innovative multidisciplinary research from the areas of archaeology, ethnohistory and art history. The scope of this handbook is comprehensive. It places the century of Inca imperial expansion within a broader historical and archaeological context, and then turns from Inca origins to the imperial political economy and institutions that facilitated expansion. Provincial and frontier case studies explore the negotiation and implementation of state policies and institutions, and their effects on the communities and individuals that made up the bulk of the population. Several chapters describe religious power in the Andes, as well as the special statuses that staffed the state religion, maintained records, served royal households, and produced fine craft goods to support state activities. The Incas did not disappear in 1532, and the volume continues into the Colonial and later periods, exploring not only the effects of the Spanish conquest on the lives of the indigenous populations, but also the cultural continuities and discontinuities. Moving into the present, the volume ends will an overview of the ways in which the image of the Inca and the pre-Columbian past is memorialized and reinterpreted by contemporary Andeans.

Mysteries of the Ancient Past

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1591438055
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (914 download)

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Book Synopsis Mysteries of the Ancient Past by : Glenn Kreisberg

Download or read book Mysteries of the Ancient Past written by Glenn Kreisberg and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-10-03 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cutting-edge thinkers on the origins of civilization, the Giza pyramids, pre-Columbian and early America, and the power of human consciousness • With contributions by David Frawley, Geoff Stray, Joscelyn Godwin, Daniel Pinchbeck, Antoine Gigal, and others • Topics range from the origins of the Inca to the architecture of the Giza plateau to unified theories of physics and consciousness • Companion volume to Lost Knowledge of the Ancients As we pull back the curtain from the European version of history, we discover the vast depth of knowledge of our ancient ancestors--knowledge that not only dispels our image of them as primitive peoples but also corresponds with the forefront of modern science, philosophy, and spirituality. With contributions by David Frawley, Geoff Stray, Joscelyn Godwin, Daniel Pinchbeck, Antoine Gigal, and other provocative, cutting-edge thinkers, this collection of essays commissioned by Graham Hancock, bestselling author of Fingerprints of the Gods, represents the latest, often controversial findings in alternative science, history, archaeology, and consciousness research. Covering topics ranging from the origins of the Inca and the secrets hidden in Vedic literature, to the architecture of the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx, to unified theories of physics and consciousness, this book shows how, by recovering our lost history, we too can experience the higher consciousness and advanced wisdom of the ancients.

Re-Creating Primordial Time

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Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1607322218
Total Pages : 534 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Re-Creating Primordial Time by : Gabrielle Vail

Download or read book Re-Creating Primordial Time written by Gabrielle Vail and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Re-Creating Primordial Time offers a new perspective on the Maya codices, documenting the extensive use of creation mythology and foundational rituals in the hieroglyphic texts and iconography of these important manuscripts. Focusing on both pre-Columbian codices and early colonial creation accounts, Vail and Hernández show that in spite of significant cultural change during the Postclassic and Colonial periods, the mythological traditions reveal significant continuity, beginning as far back as the Classic period. Remarkable similarities exist within the Maya tradition, even as new mythologies were introduced through contact with the Gulf Coast region and highland central Mexico. Vail and Hernández analyze the extant Maya codices within the context of later literary sources such as the Books of Chilam Balam, the Popol Vuh, and the Códice Chimalpopoca to present numerous examples highlighting the relationship among creation mythology, rituals, and lore. Compiling and comparing Maya creation mythology with that of the Borgia codices from highland central Mexico, Re-Creating Primordial Time is a significant contribution to the field of Mesoamerican studies and will be of interest to scholars of archaeology, linguistics, epigraphy, and comparative religions alike.

Archaeological Interpretations

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Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 081305754X
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Archaeological Interpretations by : Peter Eeckhout

Download or read book Archaeological Interpretations written by Peter Eeckhout and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2020-06-15 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting studies in Andean archaeology and iconography by leading specialists in the field, this volume tackles the question of how researchers can come to understand the intangible, intellectual worlds of ancient peoples. Archaeological Interpretations is a fascinating ontological journey through Andean cultures from the fourth millennium BC to the sixteenth century, A.D. Through evidence-based case studies, theoretical models, and methodological reflections, contributors discuss the various interpretations that can be derived from the traces of ritual activity that remain in the material record. They discuss how to accurately comprehend the social significance of artifacts beyond their practical use and how to decode the symbolism of sacred images. Addressing topics including the earliest evidence of shamanism in Ecuador, the meaning of masks among the Mochicas in Peru, the value of metal in the Recuay culture, and ceremonies of voluntary abandonment among the Incas, contributors propose original and innovative ways of interpreting the rich Andean archaeological heritage. Contributors: Luis Jaime Castillo Butters | Peter Eeckhout | Christine Hastorf | Abigail Levine | Geroge F. Lau | Frank Meddens | Charles S. Stanish | Edward Swenson | Gary Urton | Francisco Valdez

The Maya and Their Central American Neighbors

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317756088
Total Pages : 459 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (177 download)

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Book Synopsis The Maya and Their Central American Neighbors by : Geoffrey E Braswell

Download or read book The Maya and Their Central American Neighbors written by Geoffrey E Braswell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-16 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient Maya created one of the most studied and best-known civilizations of the Americas. Nevertheless, Maya civilization is often considered either within a vacuum, by sub-region and according to modern political borders, or with reference to the most important urban civilizations of central Mexico. Seldom if ever are the Maya and their Central American neighbors of El Salvador and Honduras considered together, despite the fact that they engaged in mutually beneficial trade, intermarried, and sometimes made war on each other. The Maya and Their Central American Neighbors seeks to fill this lacuna by presenting original research on the archaeology of the whole of the Maya area (from Yucatan to the Maya highlands of Guatemala), western Honduras, and El Salvador. With a focus on settlement pattern analyses, architectural studies, and ceramic analyses, this ground breaking book provides a broad view of this important relationship allowing readers to understand ancient perceptions about the natural and built environment, the role of power, the construction of historical narrative, trade and exchange, multiethnic interaction in pluralistic frontier zones, the origins of settled agricultural life, and the nature of systemic collapse.

Ancient Maya Politics

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108623476
Total Pages : 543 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (86 download)

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Book Synopsis Ancient Maya Politics by : Simon Martin

Download or read book Ancient Maya Politics written by Simon Martin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-18 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Classic Maya have long presented scholars with vexing problems. One of the longest running and most contested of these, and the source of deeply polarized interpretations, has been their political organization. Using recently deciphered inscriptions and fresh archaeological finds, Simon Martin argues that this particular debate can be laid to rest. He offers a comprehensive re-analysis of the issue in an effort to answer a simple question: how did a multitude of small kingdoms survive for some six hundred years without being subsumed within larger states or empires? Using previously unexploited comparative and theoretical approaches, Martin suggests mechanisms that maintained a 'dynamic equilibrium' within a system best understood not as an array of individual polities but an interactive whole. With its rebirth as text-backed historical archaeology, Maya studies has entered a new phase, one capable of building a political anthropology as robust as any other we have for the ancient world.

2012

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317544145
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis 2012 by : Joseph Gelfer

Download or read book 2012 written by Joseph Gelfer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-11 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 21 December 2012 was believed to mark the end of the thirteenth B'ak'tun cycle in the Long Count of the Mayan calendar. Many people believed this date to mark the end of the world or, at the very least, a shift to a new form of global consciousness. Examining how much of the phenomenon is based on the historical record and how much is contemporary fiction, the book explores the landscape of the modern apocalyptic imagination, the economics of the spiritual marketplace, the commodification of countercultural values, and the cult of celebrity.

Reshaping the World

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Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1607329530
Total Pages : 367 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Reshaping the World by : Ana Díaz

Download or read book Reshaping the World written by Ana Díaz and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reshaping the World is a nuanced exploration of the plurality, complexity, and adaptability of Precolumbian and colonial-era Mesoamerican cosmological models and the ways in which anthropologists and historians have used colonial and indigenous texts to understand these models in the past. Since the early twentieth century, it has been popularly accepted that the Precolumbian Mesoamerican cosmological model comprised nine fixed layers of underworld and thirteen fixed layers of heavens. This layered model, which bears a close structural resemblance to a number of Eurasian cosmological models, derived in large part from scholars’ reliance on colonial texts, such as the post–Spanish Conquest Codex Vaticanus A and Florentine Codex. By reanalyzing and recontextualizing both indigenous and colonial texts and imagery in nine case studies examining Maya, Zapotec, Nahua, and Huichol cultures, the contributors discuss and challenge the commonly accepted notion that the cosmos was a static structure of superimposed levels unrelated to and unaffected by historical events and human actions. Instead, Mesoamerican cosmology consisted of a multitude of cosmographic repertoires that operated simultaneously as a result of historical circumstances and regional variations. These spaces were, and are, dynamic elements shaped, defined, and redefined throughout the course of human history. Indigenous cosmographies could be subdivided and organized in complex and diverse arrangements—as components in a dynamic interplay, which cannot be adequately understood if the cosmological discourse is reduced to a superposition of nine and thirteen levels. Unlike previous studies, which focus on the reconstruction of a pan-Mesoamerican cosmological model, Reshaping the World shows how the movement of people, ideas, and objects in New Spain and neighboring regions produced a deep reconfiguration of Prehispanic cosmological and social structures, enriching them with new conceptions of space and time. The volume exposes the reciprocal influences of Mesoamerican and European theologies during the colonial era, offering expansive new ways of understanding Mesoamerican models of the cosmos. Contributors: Sergio Botta, Ana Díaz, Kerry Hull, Katarzyna Mikulska, Johannes Neurath, Jesper Nielsen, Toke Sellner Reunert†, David Tavárez, Alexander Tokovinine, Gabrielle Vail

A Maya Universe in Stone

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Publisher : Getty Publications
ISBN 13 : 1606067443
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (6 download)

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Book Synopsis A Maya Universe in Stone by : Stephen Houston

Download or read book A Maya Universe in Stone written by Stephen Houston and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first study devoted to a single sculptor in ancient America, as understood through four unprovenanced masterworks traced to a small sector of Guatemala. In 1950, Dana Lamb, an explorer of some notoriety, stumbled on a Maya ruin in the tropical forests of northern Guatemala. Lamb failed to record the location of the site he called Laxtunich, turning his find into the mystery at the center of this book. The lintels he discovered there, long since looted, are probably of a set with two others that are among the masterworks of Maya sculpture from the Classic period. Using fieldwork, physical evidence, and Lamb’s expedition notes, the authors identify a small area with archaeological sites where the carvings were likely produced. Remarkably, the vividly colored lintels, replete with dynastic and cosmic information, can be assigned to a carver, Mayuy, who sculpted his name on two of them. To an extent nearly unique in ancient America, Mayuy can be studied over time as his style developed and his artistic ambition grew. An in-depth analysis of Laxtunich Lintel 1 examines how Mayuy grafted celestial, seasonal, and divine identities onto a local magnate and his overlord from the kingdom of Yaxchilan, Mexico. This volume contextualizes the lintels and points the way to their reprovenancing and, as an ultimate aim, repatriation to Guatemala.

A Forest of History

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Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1646420462
Total Pages : 358 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (464 download)

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Book Synopsis A Forest of History by : Travis W. Stanton

Download or read book A Forest of History written by Travis W. Stanton and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2020-07-01 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Freidel and Linda Schele’s monumental work A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya (1990) offered an innovative, rigorous, and controversial approach to studying the ancient Maya, unifying archaeological, iconographic, and epigraphic data in a form accessible to both scholars and laypeople. Travis Stanton and Kathryn Brown’s A Forest of History: The Maya after the Emergence of Divine Kingship presents a collection of essays that critically engage with and build upon the lasting contributions A Forest of Kings made to Maya epigraphy, iconography, material culture, and history. These original papers present new, cutting-edge research focusing on the social changes leading up to the spread of divine kingship across the lowlands in the first part of the Early Classic. The contributors continue avenues of inquiry such as the timing of the Classic Maya collapse across the southern lowlands, the nature of Maya warfare, the notion of usurpation and “stranger-kings” in the Classic period, the social relationships between the ruler and elite of the Classic period Yaxchilán polity, and struggles for sociopolitical dominance among the later Classic period polities of Chichén Itzá, Cobá, and the Puuc kingdoms. Many of the interpretations and approaches in A Forest of Kings have withstood the test of time, while others have not; a complete understanding of the Classic Maya world is still developing. In A Forest of History recent discoveries are considered in the context of prior scholarship, illustrating both the progress the field has made in the past quarter century and the myriad questions that remain. The volume will be a significant contribution to the literature for students, scholars, and general readers interested in Mesoamerican and Maya archaeology. Contributors: Wendy Ashmore, Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, Wilberth Cruz Alvarado, Arthur A. Demarest, Keith Eppich, David A. Freidel, Charles W. Golden, Stanley P. Guenter, Annabeth Headrick, Aline Magnoni, Joyce Marcus, Marilyn A. Masson, Damaris Menéndez, Susan Milbrath, Olivia C. Navarro-Farr, José Osorio León, Carlos Peraza Lope, Juan Carlos Pérez Calderón, Griselda Pérez Robles, Francisco Pérez Ruíz, Michelle Rich, Jeremy A. Sabloff, Andrew K. Scherer, Karl A. Taube

The Gifted Passage

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300228961
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The Gifted Passage by : Stephen D. Houston

Download or read book The Gifted Passage written by Stephen D. Houston and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this thought-provoking book, preeminent scholar Stephen Houston turns his attention to the crucial role of young males in Classic Maya society, drawing on evidence from art, writing, and material culture. The Gifted Passage establishes that adolescent men in Maya art were the subjects and makers of hieroglyphics, painted ceramics, and murals, in works that helped to shape and reflect masculinity in Maya civilization. The political volatility of the Classic Maya period gave male adolescents valuable status as potential heirs, and many of the most precious surviving ceramics likely celebrated their coming-of-age rituals. The ardent hope was that youths would grow into effective kings and noblemen, capable of leadership in battle and service in royal courts. Aiming to shift mainstream conceptions of the Maya, Houston argues that adolescent men were not simply present in images and texts, but central to both.