The Political Economy of Ancient Mesoamerica

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Author :
Publisher : UNM Press
ISBN 13 : 9780826342980
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (429 download)

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Book Synopsis The Political Economy of Ancient Mesoamerica by : Vernon Lee Scarborough

Download or read book The Political Economy of Ancient Mesoamerica written by Vernon Lee Scarborough and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most culturally diverse regions of the ancient world, Mesoamerica was also one of the fledgling areas for state formation. The case studies in this volume interpret Mesoamerican civilization through the emergence, resilience, and occasional demise of Mesoamerica's early and developing political economies. An exploration of the unique adaptations and approaches taken by Mesoamerican societies to cope with their evolving landscapes provides insight on how these states were organized and the varying ways in which state affairs were conducted between regions and through time. Although several factors are presented and discussed for the rise and fall of the many complex societies, the book maintains a consistent emphasis on the political economy and its transformative effects over labor, land, and water. Inspired by the impact of the annual yearbook Research in Economic Anthropology (REA) and its longstanding editor, Barry L. Isaac, the contributors in this volume were assembled to honor Isaac and selected based on their previous association with Isaac and REA as well as their knowledge of particular regions of Mesoamerica.

The Aztec Economic World

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107142776
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis The Aztec Economic World by : Kenn Hirth

Download or read book The Aztec Economic World written by Kenn Hirth and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-07-12 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first discussion of Aztec economy to include cross-cultural comparisons with other ancient and premodern societies around the world.

Ancient Maya Political Economies

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Publisher : Rowman Altamira
ISBN 13 : 9780759100817
Total Pages : 452 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Ancient Maya Political Economies by : Marilyn A. Masson

Download or read book Ancient Maya Political Economies written by Marilyn A. Masson and published by Rowman Altamira. This book was released on 2002 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Maya Political Economies examines variation in systems of economic production and exchange and how these systems supported the power networks that integrated Maya society. Using models originally developed by William L. Rathje, the authors explore core-periphery relations, the use of household analysis to reconstruct political economy, and evidence for market development. In doing so, they challenge the conventional wisdom of decentralized Maya political authority and replace it with a more complex view of the political economic foundations of Maya civilization.

Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare

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Publisher : Rowman Altamira
ISBN 13 : 9780759102835
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (28 download)

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Book Synopsis Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare by : M. Kathryn Brown

Download or read book Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare written by M. Kathryn Brown and published by Rowman Altamira. This book was released on 2003 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collection of articles providing new research on warfare in ancient Maya and other Mesoamerican societies based on archaeological, ethnohistorical, and linguistic evidence

Ancient Maya Political Dynamics

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Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 081304832X
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Ancient Maya Political Dynamics by : Antonia E. Foias

Download or read book Ancient Maya Political Dynamics written by Antonia E. Foias and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2013-07-02 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foias argues that there is no single Maya political history, but multiple histories, no single Maya state, but multiple polities that need to be understood at the level of the lived experience of individuals. She explores the ways in which the dynamics of political power shaped the lives and landscape of the Maya and how this information can be used to look at other complex societies.

Early Mesoamerican Social Transformations

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Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520950569
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis Early Mesoamerican Social Transformations by : Richard G. Lesure

Download or read book Early Mesoamerican Social Transformations written by Richard G. Lesure and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 3500 and 500 bc, the social landscape of ancient Mesoamerica was completely transformed. At the beginning of this period, the mobile lifeways of a sparse population were oriented toward hunting and gathering. Three millennia later, protourban communities teemed with people. These essays by leading Mesoamerican archaeologists examine developments of the era as they unfolded in the Soconusco region along the Pacific coast of Mexico and Guatemala, a region that has emerged as crucial for understanding the rise of ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica. The contributors explore topics including the gendered division of labor, changes in subsistence, the character of ceremonialism, the emergence of social inequality, and large-scale patterns of population distribution and social change. Together, they demonstrate the contribution of Soconusco to cultural evolution in Mesoamerica and challenge what we thought we knew about the path toward social complexity.

Heterarchy, Political Economy, and the Ancient Maya

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Author :
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 9780816522736
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (227 download)

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Book Synopsis Heterarchy, Political Economy, and the Ancient Maya by : Vernon L. Scarborough

Download or read book Heterarchy, Political Economy, and the Ancient Maya written by Vernon L. Scarborough and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In recent years the Three Rivers region of Belize and Guatemala has been the site of some of the most intensive archaeological research in the Maya Lowlands, providing a wealth of regional data. This volume brings together articles reporting on findings and interpretations of the Programme for Belize Archaeological Project that range over a 10- to 12-year period and that shed new light on how ecology, economy, and political order developed in the ancient past.".

The Archaeology of Environmental Change

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Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 0816549125
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis The Archaeology of Environmental Change by : Christopher T. Fisher

Download or read book The Archaeology of Environmental Change written by Christopher T. Fisher and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Water management, soil conservation, sustainable animal husbandry . . . because such socio-environmental challenges have been faced throughout history, lessons from the past can often inform modern policy. In this book, case studies from a wide range of times and places reveal how archaeology can contribute to a better understanding of humans' relation to the environment. The Archaeology of Environmental Change shows that the challenges facing humanity today, in terms of causing and reacting to environmental change, can be better approached through an attempt to understand how societies in the past dealt with similar circumstances. The contributors draw on archaeological research in multiple regions—North America, Mesoamerica, Europe, the Near East, and Africa—from time periods spanning the Holocene, and from environments ranging from tropical forest to desert. Through such examples as environmental degradation in Transjordan, wildlife management in East Africa, and soil conservation among the ancient Maya, they demonstrate the negative effects humans have had on their environments and how societies in the past dealt with these same problems. All call into question and ultimately refute popular notions of a simple cause-and-effect relationship between people and their environment, and reject the notion of people as either hapless victims of unstoppable forces or inevitable destroyers of natural harmony. These contributions show that by examining long-term trajectories of socio-natural relationships we can better define concepts such as sustainability, land degradation, and conservation—and that gaining a more accurate and complete understanding of these connections is essential for evaluating current theories and models of environmental degradation and conservation. Their insights demonstrate that to understand the present environment and to manage landscapes for the future, we must consider the historical record of the total sweep of anthropogenic environmental change.

Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americas

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131744082X
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americas by : Sarah B. Barber

Download or read book Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americas written by Sarah B. Barber and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-20 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exciting collection explores the interplay of religion and politics in the precolumbian Americas. Each thought-provoking contribution positions religion as a primary factor influencing political innovations in this period, reinterpreting major changes through an examination of how religion both facilitated and constrained transformations in political organization and status relations. Offering unparalleled geographic and temporal coverage of this subject, Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americas spans the entire precolumbian period, from Preceramic Peru to the Contact period in eastern North America, with case studies from North, Middle, and South America. Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americas considers the ways in which religion itself generated political innovation and thus enabled political centralization to occur. It moves beyond a "Great Tradition" focus on elite religion to understand how local political authority was negotiated, contested, bolstered, and undermined within diverse constituencies, demonstrating how religion has transformed non-Western societies. As well as offering readers fresh perspectives on specific archaeological cases, this book breaks new ground in the archaeological examination of religion and society.

The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780813066295
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (662 download)

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Book Synopsis The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies by : Marilyn A. Masson

Download or read book The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies written by Marilyn A. Masson and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timely synthesis of the latest research and perspectives on ancient Maya economics, this volume illuminates the sophistication and intricacy of economic systems in the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods. Contributors from a wide range of disciplines move beyond paradigms of elite control and centralized exchange to focus on individual agency, highlighting production and exchange that took place at all levels of society. Case studies draw on new archaeological evidence from rural households and urban marketplaces to reconstruct the trade networks for tools, ceramics, obsidian, salt, and agricultural goods throughout the empire. They also describe the ways household production integrated with community, regional, and interregional markets. Redirecting the field of ancient Maya economic studies away from simplistic characterizations of the past by fully representing the range of current views on the subject, this volume delves deeply into multiple facets of a complex, interdependent material world. Contributors: Anthony P. Andrews | Chloé Andrieu | Beatriz Balcárcel | Adolfo Iván Batún | George Bey | Ronald L. Bishop | Geoffrey E. Braswell | Marcello Canuto | Bernadette Cap | Arlen F. Chase | Diane Z. Chase | Rubén Chuc Aguilar | Maia Dedrick | Pedro Delgado Kú, | Arthur A. Demarest | Keith Eppich | Bárbara Escamilla Ojeda | Scott L. Fedick | Luis Flores Cobá | Lynda Florey Folan | William J. Folan | David A. Freidel | Tomás Gallareta Negrón | Charles Golden | Stanley P. Guenter | Joel D. Gunn | Richard D. Hansen | Timothy S. Hare | Enrique Hernández | Rachel A. Horowitz | Scott R. Hutson | Takeshi Inomata | Eleanor M. King | Marilyn A. Masson | Patricia A. McAnany | Carlos Morales-Aguilar | Carlos Peraza Lope | Dorie Reents-Budet | Prudence M. Rice | William Ringle | Fernando Robles Castellanos | Alejandra Roche Recinos| Bradley W. Russell | Andrew Scherer | Whittaker Schroder | Payson Sheets | Edgar Suyuc | Alexandre Tokovinine | Paola Torres | Daniela Triadan | Kenichiro Tsukamoto | Clive Vella | Bart Victor | Beniamino Volta | Brent K. S. Woodfill | Andrew R. Wyatt | Norman Yoffee A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase

Human Adaptation in Ancient Mesoamerica

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Author :
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1607323923
Total Pages : 405 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Human Adaptation in Ancient Mesoamerica by : Nancy Gonlin

Download or read book Human Adaptation in Ancient Mesoamerica written by Nancy Gonlin and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the dynamics of human adaptation to social, political, ideological, economic, and environmental factors in Mesoamerica and includes a wide array of topics, such as the hydrological engineering behind Teotihuacan’s layout, the complexities of agriculture and sustainability in the Maya lowlands, and the nuanced history of abandonment among different lineages and households in Maya centers. The authors aptly demonstrate how culture is the mechanism that allows people to adapt to a changing world, and they address how ecological factors, particularly land and water, intersect with nonmaterial and material manifestations of cultural complexity. Contributors further illustrate the continuing utility of the cultural ecological perspective in framing research on adaptations of ancient civilizations. This book celebrates the work of Dr. David Webster, an influential Penn State archaeologist and anthropologist of the Maya region, and highlights human adaptation in Mesoamerica through the scientific lenses of anthropological archaeology and cultural ecology. Contributors include Elliot M. Abrams, Christopher J. Duffy, Susan Toby Evans, Kirk D. French, AnnCorinne Freter, Nancy Gonlin, George R. Milner, Zachary Nelson, Deborah L. Nichols, David M. Reed, Don S. Rice, Prudence M. Rice, Rebecca Storey, Kirk Damon Straight, David Webster, Stephen L. Whittington, Randolph J. Widmer, John D. Wingard, and W. Scott Zeleznik.

The Evolution of Social Institutions

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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.

The Ancient Maya of Mexico

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317543602
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ancient Maya of Mexico by : Geoffrey E. Braswell

Download or read book The Ancient Maya of Mexico written by Geoffrey E. Braswell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The archaeological sites of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula are among the most visited ancient cities of the Americas. Archaeologists have recently made great advances in our understanding of the social and political milieu of the northern Maya lowlands. However, such advances have been under-represented in both scholarly and popular literature until now. 'The Ancient Maya of Mexico' presents the results of new and important archaeological, epigraphic, and art historical research in the Mexican states of Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo. Ranging across the Middle Preclassic to the Modern periods, the volume explores how new archaeological data has transformed our understanding of Maya history. 'The Ancient Maya of Mexico' will be invaluable to students and scholars of archaeology and anthropology, and all those interested in the society, rituals and economic organisation of the Maya region.

The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies

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Author :
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 081305740X
Total Pages : 655 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies by : Marilyn A. Masson

Download or read book The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies written by Marilyn A. Masson and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 655 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timely synthesis of the latest research and perspectives on ancient Maya economics, this volume illuminates the sophistication and intricacy of economic systems in the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods. Contributors from a wide range of disciplines move beyond paradigms of elite control and centralized exchange to focus on individual agency, highlighting production and exchange that took place at all levels of society. Case studies draw on new archaeological evidence from rural households and urban marketplaces to reconstruct the trade networks for tools, ceramics, obsidian, salt, and agricultural goods throughout the empire. They also describe the ways household production integrated with community, regional, and interregional markets. Redirecting the field of ancient Maya economic studies away from simplistic characterizations of the past by fully representing the range of current views on the subject, this volume delves deeply into multiple facets of a complex, interdependent material world. Contributors: Anthony P. Andrews | Chloé Andrieu | Beatriz Balcárcel | Adolfo Iván Batún | George Bey | Ronald L. Bishop | Geoffrey E. Braswell | Marcello Canuto | Bernadette Cap | Arlen F. Chase | Diane Z. Chase | Rubén Chuc Aguilar | Maia Dedrick | Pedro Delgado Kú, | Arthur A. Demarest | Keith Eppich | Bárbara Escamilla Ojeda | Scott L. Fedick | Luis Flores Cobá | Lynda Florey Folan | William J. Folan | David A. Freidel | Tomás Gallareta Negrón | Charles Golden | Stanley P. Guenter | Joel D. Gunn | Richard D. Hansen | Timothy S. Hare | Enrique Hernández | Rachel A. Horowitz | Scott R. Hutson | Takeshi Inomata | Eleanor M. King | Marilyn A. Masson | Patricia A. McAnany | Carlos Morales-Aguilar | Carlos Peraza Lope | Dorie Reents-Budet | Prudence M. Rice | William Ringle | Fernando Robles Castellanos | Alejandra Roche Recinos| Bradley W. Russell | Andrew Scherer | Whittaker Schroder | Payson Sheets | Edgar Suyuc | Alexandre Tokovinine | Paola Torres | Daniela Triadan | Kenichiro Tsukamoto | Clive Vella | Bart Victor | Beniamino Volta | Brent K. S. Woodfill | Andrew R. Wyatt | Norman Yoffee A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase

Cerro Danush

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Author :
Publisher : U OF M MUSEUM ANTHRO ARCHAEOLOGY
ISBN 13 : 0915703823
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis Cerro Danush by : Ronald K. Faulseit

Download or read book Cerro Danush written by Ronald K. Faulseit and published by U OF M MUSEUM ANTHRO ARCHAEOLOGY. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monte Albán was the capital of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, ca. 500 BC–AD 600, but once its control began to wane, other sites filled the political vacuum. Archaeologists have long awaited a meticulous excavation of one of these sites—one that would help us better understand the process that transformed second-tier sites into a series of polities or señoríos that competed with each other for centuries. This book reports in detail on Ronald Faulseit’s excavations at the site of Dainzú-Macuilxóchitl in the Valley of Oaxaca. His 2007–2010 mapping and excavation seasons focused on the Late Classic (AD 600–900) and Early Postclassic (AD 900–1300). The spatial distributions of surface artifacts—collected during the intensive mapping and systematic surface collecting—on residential terraces at Cerro Danush are analyzed to evaluate evidence for craft production, ritual, and abandonment at the community level. This community analysis is complemented by data from the comprehensive excavation of a residential terrace, which documents diachronic patterns of behavior at the household level. The results from Faulseit’s survey and excavations are evaluated within the theoretical frameworks of political cycling and resilience theory. Faulseit concludes that resilient social structures may have helped orchestrate reorganization in the dynamic political landscape of Oaxaca after the political collapse of Monte Albán.

Heart of Creation

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Publisher : University of Alabama Press
ISBN 13 : 0817311386
Total Pages : 363 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (173 download)

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Book Synopsis Heart of Creation by : Andrea Joyce Stone

Download or read book Heart of Creation written by Andrea Joyce Stone and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This accessible, state-of-the-art review of Mayan hieroglyphics and cosmology also serves as a tribute to one of the field's most noted pioneers. The core of this book focuses on the current study of Mayan hieroglyphics as inspired by the recently deceased Mayanist Linda Schele. As author or coauthor of more than 200 books or articles on the Maya, Schele served as the chief disseminator of knowledge to the general public about this ancient Mesoamerican culture, similar to the way in which Margaret Mead introduced anthropology and the people of Borneo to the English-speaking world. Twenty-five contributors offer scholarly writings on subjects ranging from the ritual function of public space at the Olmec site and the gardens of the Great Goddess at Teotihuacan to the understanding of Jupiter in Maya astronomy and the meaning of the water throne of Quirigua Zoomorph P. The workshops on Maya history and writing that Schele conducted in Guatemala and Mexico for the highland people, modern descendants of the Mayan civilization, are thoroughly addressed as is the phenomenon termed "Maya mania"—the explosive growth of interest in Maya epigraphy, iconography, astronomy, and cosmology that Schele stimulated. An appendix provides a bibliography of Schele's publications and a collection of Scheleana, written memories of "the Rabbit Woman" by some of her colleagues and students. Of interest to professionals as well as generalists, this collection will stand as a marker of the state of Mayan studies at the turn of the 21st century and as a tribute to the remarkable personality who guided a large part of that archaeological research for more than two decades.

The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199875006
Total Pages : 996 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (998 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology by : Deborah L. Nichols

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology written by Deborah L. Nichols and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-22 with total page 996 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology provides a current and comprehensive guide to the recent and on-going archaeology of Mesoamerica. Though the emphasis is on prehispanic societies, this Handbook also includes coverage of important new work by archaeologists on the Colonial and Republican periods. Unique among recent works, the text brings together in a single volume article-length regional syntheses and topical overviews written by active scholars in the field of Mesoamerican archaeology. The first section of the Handbook provides an overview of recent history and trends of Mesoamerica and articles on national archaeology programs and practice in Central America and Mexico written by archaeologists from these countries. These are followed by regional syntheses organized by time period, beginning with early hunter-gatherer societies and the first farmers of Mesoamerica and concluding with a discussion of the Spanish Conquest and frontiers and peripheries of Mesoamerica. Topical and comparative articles comprise the remainder of Handbook. They cover important dimensions of prehispanic societies--from ecology, economy, and environment to social and political relations--and discuss significant methodological contributions, such as geo-chemical source studies, as well as new theories and diverse theoretical perspectives. The Handbook concludes with a section on the archaeology of the Spanish conquest and the Colonial and Republican periods to connect the prehispanic, proto-historic, and historic periods. This volume will be a must-read for students and professional archaeologists, as well as other scholars including historians, art historians, geographers, and ethnographers with an interest in Mesoamerica.