Ancient Zapotec Religion

Author : Michael Lind
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2015-04-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781607323747

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Ancient Zapotec Religion by Michael Lind Pdf

Ancient Zapotec Religion is the first comprehensive study of Zapotec religion as it existed in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca on the eve of the Spanish Conquest. Author Michael Lind brings a new perspective, focusing not on underlying theological principles but on the material and spatial expressions of religious practice. Using sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish colonial documents and archaeological findings related to the time period leading up to the Spanish Conquest, he presents new information on deities, ancestor worship and sacred bundles, the Zapotec cosmos, the priesthood, religious ceremonies and rituals, the nature of temples, the distinctive features of the sacred and solar calendars, and the religious significance of the murals of Mitla—the most sacred and holy center. He also shows how Zapotec religion served to integrate Zapotec city-state structure throughout the valley of Oaxaca, neighboring mountain regions, and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Ancient Zapotec Religion is the first in-depth and interdisciplinary book on the Zapotecs and their religious practices and will be of great interest to archaeologists, epigraphers, historians, and specialists in Native American, Latin American, and religious studies.

Author : Hourly History
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 48 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2019-07-23
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1082163090

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Zapotec Civilization by Hourly History Pdf

Zapotec CivilizationThe Zapotecs formed one of the most important of the pre-Columbian civilizations. For one thousand years, their main city of Monte Albán was one of the largest and most sophisticated in Mesoamerica. Building this city was an astonishing engineering feat-it involved flattening a hill in the center of the Oaxaca Valley to create an artificial plateau and then constructing a series of large, ornate buildings on this inaccessible site. Maintaining this large city on a site with no natural source of water must have required an enormous and willing workforce. Despite this, Monte Albán became one of the largest and most important cities in Mesoamerica, and the Zapotecs came to dominate not just the Oaxaca Valley but many adjacent lands. Inside you will read about...✓ The Emergence of the Zapotecs and Monte Albán ✓ Monte Albán Phase 1 to 5 ✓ Zapotec Architecture, Art, and Science ✓ Zapotec Religion and Society ✓ Legacy And much more! We don't know why or how the Zapotecs suddenly seemed to acquire new engineering and architectural skills, but their rise to prominence was astonishingly swift. Once in a position of dominance, they maintained their hold over the region for more than one thousand years. Then, for reasons that are equally unclear, the Zapotecs faced a slow decline which saw them abandon Monte Albán to decay and ruin and return to the Oaxaca Valley floor to become once again a mainly agrarian, peasant people. The Zapotecs still exist as a separate culture in Mexico, but they have never regained their prominence and are now little more than one of the indigenous peoples of that region. This is the story of the rapid rise and gradual decline of the ancient Zapotec people.

Author : William R. Arfman
Publisher : Sidestone Press
Page : 162 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Ancestor worship
ISBN : 9789088900082

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Visiting the Calvario at Mitla, Oaxaca by William R. Arfman Pdf

In the centre of the Mexican town of Mitla stands a run-down chapel on an overgrown pre-colonial pyramid. The chapel, housing three crosses, is the town's Calvario, the local representation of the hill on which Christ died. Although buses full of tourists on their way to Chiapas or on daytrips from Oaxaca City swarm the town every day almost none of them ever visit the Calvario. Instead they stick to the tourist zone to marvel at the famous mosaic friezes of the pre-colonial temples and shop for traditional souvenirs in the tourist market. If they would climb the steep steps to the chapel they would discover that despite appearances the building still sees extensive use as pilgrims from the wide Zapotec region visit it to bring offerings to and ask favours of the souls of their dearly departed. And as these offerings consist of elaborate arrangements of flowers, fruits, black candles, cacao beans and bundles of copal incense, such tourists might well start to wonder where the origins of these practices lie. It is this question that this thesis seeks to answer. To achieve this, current theories on cultural continuity, syncretism, the materiality of religion and ritual theory are combined with a study of archaeological, historical, iconographical and anthropological sources. In addition ethnographic fieldwork has been conducted to come to a better understanding of the offerings made in the Calvario today. In three parts, the thesis first addresses the history of Mitla as 'The Place of the Dead', then of the Calvario as a ritual location and finally of the offerings for the dead. Combining these three lines of research an interesting image is formed of the continuity of ancestor veneration in this busy tourist town.

Author : C. Margaret Scarry,Dale L. Hutchinson,Benjamin S. Arbuckle
Publisher : University Press of Florida
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2022-12-30
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813070247

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Ancient Foodways by C. Margaret Scarry,Dale L. Hutchinson,Benjamin S. Arbuckle Pdf

How archaeology can shed light on past foodways and social worlds Through various case studies, Ancient Foodways illustrates how archaeologists can use bioarchaeology, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, architecture, and other evidence to understand how food acquisition, preparation, and consumption intersect with economics, politics, and ritual. Spanning four continents and several millennia of human history, this volume is a comprehensive and contemporary survey of how archaeological data can be used to interpret past foodways and reconstruct past social worlds.  This volume is organized around four major themes: feasting and politics; sacrifice, ritual, and ancestors; diet, landscape, and health; and integrative methods. Contributors weave together multiple threads of evidence relating to plants, animals, craft production, and human health and reconnect the material remnants with behaviors, practices, and meanings. The case studies show the varied and creative ways that multiple sources of evidence can be used to shed light on past foodways.  Ancient Foodways demonstrates how environmental and cultural factors shaped past subsistence strategies and cooking practices and reveals the role food played in shaping cultural identity and exchange networks, while also examining how food production methods can lead to environmental destruction and the detrimental role of dietary constraints on human health. 

Author : Susan Toby Evans,David L. Webster
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 1322 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Archaeology
ISBN : 0815308876

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Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America by Susan Toby Evans,David L. Webster Pdf

This reference is devoted to the pre-Columbian archaeology of the Mesoamerican culture area, one of the six cradles of early civilization. It features in-depth articles on the major cultural areas of ancient Mexico and Central America; coverage of important sites, including the world-renowned discoveries as well as many lesser-known locations; articles on day-to-day life of ancient peoples in these regions; and several bandw regional and site maps and photographs. Entries are arranged alphabetically and cover introductory archaeological facts (flora, fauna, human growth and development, nonorganic resources), chronologies of various periods (Paleoindian, Archaic, Formative, Classic and Postclassic, and Colonial), cultural features, Maya, regional summaries, research methods and resources, ethnohistorical methods and sources, and scholars and research history. Edited by archaeologists Evans and Webster, both of whom are associated with Pennsylvania State University. c. Book News Inc.

Author : Robert W. Preucel
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2010-04-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781405199131

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Archaeological Semiotics by Robert W. Preucel Pdf

This interdisciplinary book examines archaeology’s engagement with semiotics, from its early structuralist beginnings to its more recent Peircian encounters. It represents the first sustained engagement with Peircian semiotics in archaeology, as well as the first discussion of how pragmatic anthropology articulates with anthropological archaeology. Its central thesis is that archaeology is a distinctive kind of semiotic enterprise; one devoted to giving meaning to the past in the present through the study of materiality. It compliments standard studies of linguistics and reformulates contemporary theories of material culture. Providing an introduction to Saussure and a review of his legacy across structural, symbolic, and cognitive anthropology, Preucel goes on to present the Peircian alternative and highlights its influence on pragmatic anthropology. Of special interest are the discussions of the interrelations of structuralism and processual archaeology, poststructuralism and postprocessual archaeologies, and cognitive science and cognitive archaeology. The author offers two original case studies demonstrating how material culture pragmatically mediates social relations- one focusing on the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt from 1680-1694 and the other on the New England utopian community of Brook Farm from 1842-1846. Throughout his analysis, Preucel emphasizes the close links between archaeology and other social sciences. But he also contends that archaeology, by virtue of the powerful ideological character of the past, can open up new spaces for discourse and dialogue about meaning, and, in the process, make a valuable contribution to contemporary semiotics.

Author : David Tavárez
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Page : 487 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2022-02-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9781477324530

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Rethinking Zapotec Time by David Tavárez Pdf

2023 — Best Subsequent Book — Native American and Indigenous Studies Association 2023 — Honorable Mention, Best Book in the Social Sciences — Latin American Studies Association, Mexico Section 2022 — Marysa Navarro Best Book Prize — New England Council of Latin American Studies 2023 — Honorable Mention, LASA Mexico Social Sciences Book Prize — Mexico Section, Latin American Studies Association (LASA) As the first exhaustive translation and analysis of an extraordinary Zapotec calendar and ritual song corpus, seized in New Spain in 1704, this book expands our understanding of Mesoamerican history, cosmology, and culture. In 1702, after the brutal suppression of a Zapotec revolt, the bishop of Oaxaca proclaimed an amnesty for idolatry in exchange for collective confessions. To evade conflict, Northern Zapotec communities denounced ritual specialists and surrendered sacred songs and 102 divinatory manuals, which preserve cosmological accounts, exchanges with divine beings, and protocols of pre-Columbian origin that strongly resemble sections of the Codex Borgia. These texts were sent to Spain as evidence of failed Dominican evangelization efforts, and there they remained, in oblivion, until the 1960s. In this book, David Tavárez dives deep into this formidable archive of ritual and divinatory manuals, the largest calendar corpus in the colonial Americas, and emerges with a rich understanding of Indigenous social and cultural history, Mesoamerican theories of cosmos and time, and Zapotec ancestor worship. Drawing on his knowledge of Zapotec and Nahuatl, two decades of archival research, and a decade of fieldwork, Tavárez dissects Mesoamerican calendars as well as Native resistance and accommodation to the colonial conquest of time, while also addressing entangled transatlantic histories and shining new light on texts still connected to contemporary observances in Zapotec communities.

Author : Marc A. Abramiuk
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780262017688

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The Foundations of Cognitive Archaeology by Marc A. Abramiuk Pdf

"In The foundations of cognitive archaeology, Marc Abramiuk proposes a multidisciplinary basis for the study of the mind in the past, arguing that archaeology and the cognitive sciences have much to offer one another. Abramiuk draws on relevant topics from philosophy, biological anthropology, cognitive psychology, cognitive anthropology, and archaeology to establish theoretically founded and empirically substantiated principles of a discipline that integrates different approaches to mind-related archaeological research. ..."--Publisher description.

Author : Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
Page : 261 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2013-05-06
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813560724

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Zapotecs on the Move by Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez Pdf

Through interviews with three generations of Yalálag Zapotecs (“Yaláltecos”) in Los Angeles and Yalálag, Oaxaca, this book examines the impact of international migration on this community. It traces five decades of migration to Los Angeles in order to delineate migration patterns, community formation in Los Angeles, and the emergence of transnational identities of the first and second generations of Yalálag Zapotecs in the United States, exploring why these immigrants and their descendents now think of themselves as Mexican, Mexican Indian immigrants, Oaxaqueños, and Latinos—identities they did not claim in Mexico. Based on multi-site fieldwork conducted over a five-year period, Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez analyzes how and why Yalálag Zapotec identity and culture have been reconfigured in the United States, using such cultural practices as music, dance, and religious rituals as a lens to bring this dynamic process into focus. By illustrating the sociocultural, economic, and political practices that link immigrants in Los Angeles to those left behind, the book documents how transnational migration has reflected, shaped, and transformed these practices in both their place of origin and immigration.

Author : Kit W. Wesler
Publisher : University Press of America
Page : 347 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780761858454

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An Archaeology of Religion by Kit W. Wesler Pdf

An Archaeology of Religion challenges traditional conventions by refusing to respect the geographic and temporal boundaries with which archaeologists too often define their field. This book is an ambitious attempt to survey how scholars approach the identification of religious sites and practices in the archaeological record.

Author : Patricia Plunket
Publisher : Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press
Page : 146 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2002-07-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781938770692

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Domestic Ritual in Ancient Mesoamerica by Patricia Plunket Pdf

Although the concepts and patterns of ritual varied through time in relation to general sociopolitical transformations and local historical circumstances in ancient Mesoamerica, most archaeologists would agree that certain underlying themes and structures modeled the ritual phenomena of this complex culture area. By focusing on ritual expression at the household level, this volume seeks to compare the manifestations of domestic ritual across time and space in both the cores and peripheries, in the cities and in the villages. The authors explore the ways in which cosmological principles and concepts of the sacred were used in the construction of ritual space and practice, how local landscapes provided templates for the images and paraphernalia recovered from archaeological contexts, how foreign enclaves relied on ritual for social reproduction, and how domestic ritual was related to, and indeed embedded in, institutionalized state religions.

Author : Christina Elson
Publisher : U OF M MUSEUM ANTHRO ARCHAEOLOGY
Page : 155 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2007-01-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9780915703661

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Excavations at Cerro Tilcajete by Christina Elson Pdf

Author : Timothy Insoll
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 1135 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2011-10-28
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780191617386

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The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion by Timothy Insoll Pdf

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion provides a comprehensive overview by period and region of the relevant archaeological material in relation to theory, methodology, definition, and practice. Although, as the title indicates, the focus is upon archaeological investigations of ritual and religion, by necessity ideas and evidence from other disciplines are also included, among them anthropology, ethnography, religious studies, and history. The Handbook covers a global span - Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, and the Americas - and reaches from the earliest prehistory (the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic) to modern times. In addition, chapters focus upon relevant themes, ranging from landscape to death, from taboo to water, from gender to rites of passage, from ritual to fasting and feasting. Written by over sixty specialists, renowned in their respective fields, the Handbook presents the very best in current scholarship, and will serve both as a comprehensive introduction to its subject and as a stimulus to further research.

Author : Joyce Marcus
Publisher : U OF M MUSEUM ANTHRO ARCHAEOLOGY
Page : 471 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2020-02-12
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780915703937

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Zapotec Monuments and Political History by Joyce Marcus Pdf

""Zapotec is one of the major hieroglyphic writing systems of ancient Mesoamerica. This volume explains the origins and spread of Zapotec writing, the role of Zapotec writing in the changing political agendas of the region, and the decline of hieroglyphic writing in the Valley of Oaxaca."--Provided by publisher"--

Author : Harvey Whitehouse,Luther H. Martin
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : History
ISBN : 0759106215

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Theorizing Religions Past by Harvey Whitehouse,Luther H. Martin Pdf

A collection of archaeologists and historians examine the modes of religiosity theory for its usefulness in explaining the origins and history of religions.