Pots, Pans, and People: Material Culture and Nature in Mesoamerican Ceramics

Pots, Pans, and People: Material Culture and Nature in Mesoamerican Ceramics
Author: Eduardo Williams
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2024-07-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1803278102

This book explores material culture and human adaptations to nature over time, with a focus on ceramics. The author also explores the role of ethnoarchaeology and ethnohistory as key elements of a broad research strategy that seeks to understand human interaction with nature over time.

People and Things

People and Things
Author: James M. Skibo
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2008-03-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0387765271

The study of the human-made world, whether it is called artifacts, material culture, or technology, has burgeoned across the academy. Archaeologists have for cen- ries led the way, and today offer investigators myriad programs and conceptual frameworks for engaging the things, ordinary and extraordinary, of everyday life. This book is an attempt by practitioners of one program – Behavioral Archaeology – to furnish between two covers some of our basic principles, heuristic tools, and illustrative case studies. Our greater purpose, however, is to engage the ideas of two competing programs – agency/practice and evolution – in hopes of initiating a dialog. We are convinced that there is enough overlap in goals, interests, and conceptions among these programs to warrant guarded optimism that a more encompassing, more coherent framework for studying the material world can result from a concerted effort to forge a higher-level synthesis. However, in engaging agency/ practice and evolution in Chap. 2, we are not reticent to point out conflicts between Behavioral Archaeology and these programs. This book will appeal to archaeologists and anthropologists as well as historians, sociologists, and philosophers of technology. Those who study science–technology– society interactions may also encounter useful ideas. Finally, this book is suitable for upper-division and graduate courses on anthropological theory, archaeological theory, and the study of technology.

Tarascan Pottery Production in Michoacán, Mexico

Tarascan Pottery Production in Michoacán, Mexico
Author: Eduardo Williams
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2017-08-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1784916749

This book examines a contemporary pottery tradition in Mesoamerica, but also looks back to the earliest examples of cultural development in this area. By means of ethnographic analogy and ceramic ecology, this study seeks to shed light on a modern indigenous community and on the theory, method and practice of ethnoarchaeology.

Wari Women from Huarmey

Wari Women from Huarmey
Author: Wieslaw Wieckowski
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2019-04-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789691850

Excavations at the Castillo de Huarmey archaeological site brought to light the first intact burial of female high-elite members of the Wari culture. This book presents the results of bioarchaeological analyses performed to date, and focuses on reconstructing the funeral rite and social status of the deceased.

Archaeometry of Pre-Columbian Sites and Artifacts

Archaeometry of Pre-Columbian Sites and Artifacts
Author: David A. Scott
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 437
Release: 1994-10-27
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0892362499

Based on the 28th International Archaeometry Symposium jointly sponsored by the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Getty Conservation Institute, this volume offers a rare opportunity to survey under a single cover a wide range of investigations concerning pre-Columbian materials. Twenty chapters detail research in five principal areas: anthropology and materials science; ceramics; stone and obsidian; metals; and archaeological sites and dating. Contributions include Heather Lechtman's investigation of “The Materials Science of Material Culture,” Ron L. Bishop on the compositional analysis of pre-Columbian pottery from the Maya region, Ellen Howe on the use of silver and lead from the Mantaro Valley in Peru, and J. Michael Elam and others on source identification and hydration dating of obsidian artifacts.

American Antiquity

American Antiquity
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 984
Release: 1957
Genre: America
ISBN:

Includes the section "Book reviews."

Ancient West Mexico in the Mesoamerican Ecumene

Ancient West Mexico in the Mesoamerican Ecumene
Author: Eduardo Williams
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2020-02-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789693543

This volume presents a long-overdue synthesis and update on West Mexican archaeology. Ancient West Mexico has often been portrayed as a ‘marginal’ or ‘underdeveloped’ area of Mesoamerica. This book shows that the opposite is true and that it played a critical role in the cultural and historical development of the Mesoamerican ecumene.

Pre-Columbian Foodways

Pre-Columbian Foodways
Author: John Staller
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 691
Release: 2009-11-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1441904719

The significance of food and feasting to Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures has been extensively studied by archaeologists, anthropologists and art historians. Foodways studies have been critical to our understanding of early agriculture, political economies, and the domestication and management of plants and animals. Scholars from diverse fields have explored the symbolic complexity of food and its preparation, as well as the social importance of feasting in contemporary and historical societies. This book unites these disciplinary perspectives — from the social and biological sciences to art history and epigraphy — creating a work comprehensive in scope, which reveals our increasing understanding of the various roles of foods and cuisines in Mesoamerican cultures. The volume is organized thematically into three sections. Part 1 gives an overview of food and feasting practices as well as ancient economies in Mesoamerica. Part 2 details ethnographic, epigraphic and isotopic evidence of these practices. Finally, Part 3 presents the metaphoric value of food in Mesoamerican symbolism, ritual, and mythology. The resulting volume provides a thorough, interdisciplinary resource for understanding, food, feasting, and cultural practices in Mesoamerica.

Born of Clay

Born of Clay
Author: Ramiro Matos Mendieta
Publisher:
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2005
Genre:
ISBN: