Aquatic Adaptations in Mesoamerica

Aquatic Adaptations in Mesoamerica
Author: Eduardo Williams
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2022-08-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1789699126

This book explores the subsistence strategies that ancient Mesoamericans implemented to survive and thrive in their environments. It discusses the natural settings, production sites, techniques, artifacts, cultural landscapes, traditional knowledge, and other features linked to human subsistence in aquatic environments.

The Hydraulic System of Uxul

The Hydraulic System of Uxul
Author: Nicolaus Seefeld
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2018-09-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1784919306

This research seeks to close an essential research gap – the understanding of the water management strategies of the Maya in pre-Hispanic times. It focuses on the archaeological investigation of the hydraulic system of Uxul, a medium-sized Maya centre in the south of the state of Campeche, Mexico.

Emergence and Collapse of Early Villages

Emergence and Collapse of Early Villages
Author: Timothy A. Kohler
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2012-04-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520270142

Comparing simulations from agent-based models with the precisely dated archaeological record from this area, this text will interest archaeologists working in the Southwest and in Neolithic studies as well as anyone applying modeling techniques to understanding how human societies shapes, and are shaped by the environment.

The Routledge Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction Including Climate Change Adaptation

The Routledge Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction Including Climate Change Adaptation
Author: Ilan Kelman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2017-09-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1317408659

The Routledge Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction Including Climate Change Adaptation aims to provide an overview and critique of the current state of knowledge, policy, and practice, encouraging engagement, and reflection on bringing the two sectors together. This long-awaited and welcomed volume makes a compelling case that a common research agenda and a series of practical policies and policy recommendations can and should be put in place. Over 40 contributions explore DRR including CCA in five parts. The first part presents and interrogates much of the typical vocabulary seen in DRR including CCA, not only pointing out the useful and not-so-useful dimensions, but also providing alternatives and positive examples. The second part explains how to move forward creating and supporting positive crossovers and connections, while the third one explores some aspects of multi-dimensional approaches to knowing and understanding. The fourth part argues for a balanced approach to governance, taking both governmental and non-governmental governance, as well as different scales of governance, into consideration. The final part of the Handbook emphasises DRR including CCA as an investment, rather than a cost, and connects its further implementation with livelihoods of people around the world. This handbook highlights the connections amongst the processes of dealing with disasters and dealing with climate change. It demonstrates how little climate change brings which is new and emphasises the strengths of placing climate change within wider contexts in order to draw on all our strengths while overcoming limitations with specialities. It will prove to be a valuable guide for graduate and advanced undergraduate students, academics, policy makers, and practitioners with an interest in disaster risk reduction and climate change.

Identity and Subsistence

Identity and Subsistence
Author: Sarah M. Nelson
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2007
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780759111141

Throughout human history, gender has served as one of the ways in which human beings form their identities and then make their way in the world. But it is not the only way: We also discover ourselves through race, age, class, and other categories. Increasingly, archaeologists are recovering evidence of the ways in which gender has been important in identity-formation in the past, especially in its interaction with other social factors. In Identity and Subsistence, a number of scholars look at how the idea of gender has worked with respect to the formation of the self, masculinity and femininity, human evolution, and the development of early agrarian and pastoralist societies.

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.

Lifeways in the Northern Maya Lowlands

Lifeways in the Northern Maya Lowlands
Author: Jennifer P. Mathews
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2006
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780816524167

The flat, dry reaches of the northern Yucat‡n Peninsula have been largely ignored by archaeologists drawn to the more illustrious sites of the south. This book is the first volume to focus entirely on the northern Maya lowlands, presenting a broad cross-section of current research projects in the region by both established and up-and-coming scholars. To address the heretofore unrecognized importance of the northern lowlands in Maya prehistory, the contributors cover key topics relevant to Maya studies: the environmental and historical significance of the region, the archaeology of both large and small sites, the development of agriculture, resource management, ancient politics, and long-distance interaction among sites. As a volume in the series Native Peoples of the Americas, it adds a human dimension to archaeological findings by incorporating modern ethnographic data. By exploring various social and political levels of Maya society through a broad expanse of time, Lifeways in the Northern Maya Lowlands not only reconstructs a little-known past, it also suggests the broad implications of archaeology for related studies of tourism, household economies, and ethno-archaeology. It is a benchmark work that pointedly demonstrates the need for researchers in both north and south to ignore modern geographic boundaries in their search for new ideas to further their understanding of the ancient Maya.

Religious Transformation in the Late Pre-Hispanic Pueblo World

Religious Transformation in the Late Pre-Hispanic Pueblo World
Author: Donna M. Glowacki
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816503982

The mid-thirteenth century AD marks the beginning of tremendous social change among Ancestral Pueblo peoples of the northern US Southwest that foreshadow the emergence of the modern Pueblo world. Regional depopulations, long-distance migrations, and widespread resettlement into large plaza-oriented villages forever altered community life. Archaeologists have tended to view these historical events as adaptive responses to climatic, environmental, and economic conditions. Recently, however, more attention is being given to the central role of religion during these transformative periods, and to how archaeological remains embody the complex social practices through which Ancestral Pueblo understandings of sacred concepts were expressed and transformed. The contributors to this volume employ a wide range of archaeological evidence to examine the origin and development of religious ideologies and the ways they shaped Pueblo societies across the Southwest in the centuries prior to European contact. With its fresh theoretical approach, it contributes to a better understanding of both the Pueblo past and the anthropological study of religion in ancient contexts This volume will be of interest to both regional specialists and to scholars who work with the broader dimensions of religion and ritual in the human experience.

Reimagining Marginalized Foods

Reimagining Marginalized Foods
Author: Elizabeth Finnis
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2012-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816502366

This volume brings together ethnographically based anthropological analyses of shifting meanings and representations associated with the foods, ingredients, and cooking practices of marginalized and/or indigenous cultures. Contributors are particularly interested in how these foods intersect with politics, nationhood and governance, identity, authenticity, and conservation. The chapters cover diverse locales, issues, and foods...A conceptual essay on food and social boundaries rounds out the collection. Throughout, the contributors address important questions...(and) provide a thoughtful inquiry into what happens when food and culinary practices are moved from cultural physical margins, and how such movements can be shaped by- and employed in the pursuit of- political, social, and cultural goals. -- Book Jacket.