Southeastern Mesoamerica

Author : Whitney A. Goodwin,Erlend Johnson,Alejandro J. Figueroa
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2021-03-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781646420971

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Southeastern Mesoamerica by Whitney A. Goodwin,Erlend Johnson,Alejandro J. Figueroa Pdf

Southeastern Mesoamerica highlights the diversity and dynamism of the Indigenous groups that inhabited and continue to inhabit the borders of Southeastern Mesoamerica, an area that includes parts of present-day Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Chapters combine archaeological, ethnohistoric, and historic data and approaches to better understand the long-term sociopolitical and cultural changes that occurred throughout the entirety of human occupation of this area. Drawing on archaeological evidence ranging back to the late Pleistocene as well as extensive documentation from the historic period, contributors show how Southeastern Mesoamericans created unique identities, strategically incorporating cosmopolitan influences from cultures to the north and south with their own long-lived traditions. These populations developed autochthonous forms of monumental architecture and routes and methods of exchange and had distinct social, cultural, political, and economic traits. They also established unique long-term human-environment relations that were the result of internal creativity and inspiration influenced by local social and natural trajectories. Southeastern Mesoamerica calls upon archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, ethnohistorians, and others working in Mesoamerica, Central America, and other cultural boundaries around the world to reexamine the role Indigenous resilience and agency play in these areas and in the cultural developments and interactions that occur within them. Contributors: Edy Barrios, Christopher Begley, Walter Burgos, Mauricio Díaz García, William R. Fowler, Rosemary A. Joyce, Gloria Lara-Pinto, Eva L. Martínez, William J. McFarlane, Cameron L. McNeil, Lorena D. Mihok, Pastor Rodolfo Gómez Zúñiga, Timothy Scheffler, Edward Schortman, Russell Sheptak, Miranda Suri, Patricia Urban, Antolín Velásquez, E. Christian Wells

Author : William R. Fowler, Jr.
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 1991-08-06
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0849388317

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The Formation of Complex Society in Southeastern Mesoamerica by William R. Fowler, Jr. Pdf

This book presents discussions on the formation of complex society of Southeastern Mesoamerica throughout pre-Columbian times. These societies include ones from the Early Preclassic or Formative period to those encountered by the Spaniards when they arrived in the early 16th century. Diverse classes of data from archaeology, ethnography, and ethnohistory are utilized. The book provides wide spatial and temporal coverage, as well as a wide diversity of theoretical perspectives. Anyone interested in archeology or the evolution of prehistoric complex societies will find this book fascinating.

Author : Patricia A. Urban,Edward M. Schortman
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 409 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2024-03-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781316800089

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Ancient Southeast Mesoamerica by Patricia A. Urban,Edward M. Schortman Pdf

Ancient Southeast Mesoamerica explores the distinctive development and political history of the region from its earliest inhabitants up to the Spanish conquest. It demonstrates how inhabitants from different locales were organized within a matrix of social networks, and how they mobilized the assets that they needed to achieve their own goals.

Author : Murdo J. MacLeod,Robert Wasserstrom
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 318 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 1963
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39015046373422

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Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica by Murdo J. MacLeod,Robert Wasserstrom Pdf

Author : Robert M. Carmack,Janine L. Gasco,Gary H. Gossen
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2016-01-08
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317346791

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The Legacy of Mesoamerica by Robert M. Carmack,Janine L. Gasco,Gary H. Gossen Pdf

The Legacy of Mesoamerica: History and Culture of a Native American Civilization summarizes and integrates information on the origins, historical development, and current situations of the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. It describes their contributions from the development of Mesoamerican Civilization through 20th century and their influence in the world community. For courses on Mesoamerica (Middle America) taught in departments of anthropology, history, and Latin American Studies.

Author : Deborah L. Nichols,Christopher A. Pool
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 1000 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2012-08-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199875009

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The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology by Deborah L. Nichols,Christopher A. Pool Pdf

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.

Author : Julia Guernsey
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 249 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2012-07-23
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781107012462

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Sculpture and Social Dynamics in Preclassic Mesoamerica by Julia Guernsey Pdf

This book examines the functions of sculpture during the Preclassic period in Mesoamerica and its significance in statements of social identity. Julia Guernsey situates the origins and evolution of monumental stone sculpture within a broader social and political context and demonstrates the role that such sculpture played in creating and institutionalizing social hierarchies. This book focuses specifically on an enigmatic type of public, monumental sculpture known as the "potbelly" that traces its antecedents to earlier, small domestic ritual objects and ceramic figurines. The cessation of domestic rituals involving ceramic figurines along the Pacific slope coincided not only with the creation of the first monumental potbelly sculptures, but with the rise of the first state-level societies in Mesoamerica by the advent of the Late Preclassic period. The potbellies became central to the physical representation of new forms of social identity and expressions of political authority during this time of dramatic change.

Author : Joel W. Palka
Publisher : Scarecrow Press
Page : 236 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2010-04-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781461671732

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The A to Z of Ancient Mesoamerica by Joel W. Palka Pdf

Ancient Mesoamerica drew world interest in the 19th century when photographs, drawings, and descriptions of discoveries of ruined cities in exotic locations in Mexico and Central America were published. These accounts from early explorers, archaeologists, and travelers made the cultures and archaeological sites of ancient Mesoamerica including the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Mixtec, Tarascan, Toltec, Zapotec, and other civilizations a major focus of intensive research, public and private funding, and lay interest. The A to Z of Ancient Mesoamerica covers some of the major discoveries throughout ancient Mesoamerica from the last 100 years. The results of previous and continuing research and explorations, plus recent interpretations of ancient cultures and new work at archaeological sites in Mesoamerica are summarized here. Included in this volume are information and insights on archaeological sites, material culture, social and economic organization, religion and belief systems, and the social history of ancient Mesoamerica. The entries contain geographical, chronological, historical, and interpretive data that serve as a condensed and accessible resource of reference material. Also presented here are select historical personages of ancient times and some brief notes on their lives and accomplishments taken from hieroglyphic texts, painted books or codices, and written documents and oral histories from the colonial period. With a bibliography and chronology, this text will be the perfect starting point for high school or undergraduate research, and a helpful ready-reference for more experienced scholars.

Author : Richard G. Lesure
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2011-10-04
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780520950566

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Early Mesoamerican Social Transformations by Richard G. Lesure Pdf

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.

Author : Kenichiro Tsukamoto,Takeshi Inomata
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2014-04-10
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780816598793

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Mesoamerican Plazas by Kenichiro Tsukamoto,Takeshi Inomata Pdf

Until now, archaeological and historical studies of Mesoamerican plazas have been scarce compared to studies of the surrounding monumental architecture such as pyramidal temples and palaces. Many scholars have assumed that ancient Mesoamericans invested their labor, wealth, and symbolic value in pyramids and other prominent buildings, viewing plazas as by-products of these buildings. Even when researchers have recognized the potential significance of plazas, they have thought that plazas as vacant spaces could offer few clues about their cultural and political roles. Mesoamerican Plazas challenges both of these assumptions. The primary question that has motivated the contributors is how Mesoamerican plazas became arenas for the creation and negotiation of social relations and values in a community. The thirteen contributions stress the significance of interplay between power relations and embodied practices set in specific historical and material settings, as outlined by practice theory and performance theory. This approach allows the contributors to explore broader anthropological issues, such as the negotiation of power relations, community making, and the constitution of political authorities. Overall, the contributions establish that physical interactions among people in communal events were not the outcomes of political machinations held behind the scenes, but were the actual political processes through which people created, negotiated, and subverted social realities. If so, spacious plazas that were arguably designed for interactions among a large number of individuals must have also provided critical arenas for the constitution and transformation of society.

Author : Julia Guernsey
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 285 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2020-02-27
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781108478991

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Human Figuration and Fragmentation in Preclassic Mesoamerica by Julia Guernsey Pdf

Explores the social significance of representation of the human body in Preclassic Mesoamerica.

Author : Lisa Delance,Gary M Feinman
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2022-09-28
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781646422883

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Framing Complexity in Formative Mesoamerica by Lisa Delance,Gary M Feinman Pdf

A fresh examination of variable social and economic processes, Framing Complexity in Formative Mesoamerica explores nascent social complexity during the Preclassic/Formative period in Mesoamerica and addresses broader social questions about egalitarian and transegalitarian prehispanic Mesoamerican cultural groups. Contributors present multiple lines of evidence demonstrating the process of social complexity and reconsider a number of traditionally accepted models and presumed tenets as a result of the wealth of empirical data that has been gathered over the past four decades. Their chapters approach complexity as a process rather than a state of being by exploring social aggregation, the emergence of ethnic affiliations, and aspects of regional and macroregional variability. Framing Complexity in Formative Mesoamerica presents some of the most recent data—and the implications of that data—for understanding the development of complex societies as human beings moved into urban environments. The book is an especially important volume for researchers and students working in Mesoamerica, as well as archaeologists taking a comparative approach to questions of complexity. Contributors: Jaime J. Awe, Sarah B. Barber, Jeffrey S. Brezezinski, M. Kathryn Brown, Ryan H. Collins, Kaitlin Crow, Lisa DeLance, Gary M. Feinman, Sara Dzul Gongora, Guy David Hepp, Arthur A. Joyce, Rodrigo Martin Morales, George Micheletti, Deborah L. Nichols, Terry G. Powis, Zoe J. Rawski, Prudence M. Rice, Michael P. Smyth, Katherine E. South, Jon Spenard, Travis W. Stanton, Wesley D. Stoner, Teresa Tremblay Wagner

Author : M. Charlotte Arnauld,Linda R. Manzanilla,Michael E. Smith
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 357 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2012-12-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780816599516

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The Neighborhood as a Social and Spatial Unit in Mesoamerican Cities by M. Charlotte Arnauld,Linda R. Manzanilla,Michael E. Smith Pdf

Recent realizations that prehispanic cities in Mesoamerica were fundamentally different from western cities of the same period have led to increasing examination of the neighborhood as an intermediate unit at the heart of prehispanic urbanization. This book addresses the subject of neighborhoods in archaeology as analytical units between households and whole settlements. The contributions gathered here provide fieldwork data to document the existence of sociopolitically distinct neighborhoods within ancient Mesoamerican settlements, building upon recent advances in multi-scale archaeological studies of these communities. Chapters illustrate the cultural variation across Mesoamerica, including data and interpretations on several different cities with a thematic focus on regional contrasts. This topic is relatively new and complex, and this book is a strong contribution for three interwoven reasons. First, the long history of research on the “Teotihuacan barrios” is scrutinized and withstands the test of new evidence and comparison with other Mesoamerican cities. Second, Maya studies of dense settlement patterns are now mature enough to provide substantial case studies. Third, theoretical investigation of ancient urbanization all over the world is now more complex and open than it was before, giving relevance to Mesoamerican perspectives on ancient and modern societies in time and space. This volume will be of interest not only to scholars and student specialists of the Mesoamerican past but also to social scientists and urbanists looking to contrast ancient cultures worldwide.

Author : Murdo J. MacLeod,Robert Wasserstrom
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1983
Category : History
ISBN : UTEXAS:059172011962539

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Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica by Murdo J. MacLeod,Robert Wasserstrom Pdf

Author : Patricia A. Urban,Edward M. Schortman
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Page : 408 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2014-04-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780292762879

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The Southeast Maya Periphery by Patricia A. Urban,Edward M. Schortman Pdf

Archaeologists are continually faced with a pervasive problem: How can cultures, and the interactions among cultures, be differentiated in the archaeological record? This issue is especially difficult in peripheral areas, such as El Salvador, Honduras, and southern Guatemala in the New World. Encompassing zones that are clearly Mayan in language and culture, especially during the Classic period, this area also includes zones that seem to be non-Mayan. The Southeast Maya Periphery examines both aspects of this territory. For the Maya, emphasis is on two sites: Quirigua, Guatemala, and Copan, Honduras. For the non-Maya zone, information is presented on a variety of sites and subregions—the Lower Motagua Valley in Guatemala; the Naco, Sula, and Comayagua valleys and the site of Playa de los Muertos in Honduras; and the Zapotitan Valley and the sites of Cihuatan and Santa Leticia in El Salvador. Spanning over two thousand years of prehistory, from the Middle Preclassic through the Classic and the poorly understood Postclassic, the essays in this volume address such topics as epigraphy and iconography, architecture, site planning, settlement patterns, and ceramics and include basic information on chronology. Copan and Quirigua are treated both individually and in comparative perspective. This significant study was the first to attempt to deal with the Periphery as a coherent unit. Unique in its comparative presentation of Copan and Quirigua and in the breadth of information on non-Maya sites in the area, The Southeast Maya Periphery consists largely of previously unpublished data. Offering a variety of approaches to both old and new problems, this volume attempts, among other things, to reassess the relationships between Copan and Quirigua and between Highland and Lowland ceramic traditions, to analyze ceramics by neutron activation, and to define the nature of the apparently non-Mayan cultures in the region. This book will be of major interest not only to Mayanists and Mesoamerican archaeologists but also to others interested in the processes of ethnic group boundary formation and maintenance.