Mesoamerican Archaeology: Theory and Practice / Edition 1

by Julia A. Hendon, Rosemary A. Joyce

Overview

Offering an alternative to traditional textbooks, MesoamericanArchaeology: Theory and Practice places the reader in themiddle of contemporary debates by top archaeologists activelyexploring the major prehispanic societies of Central America.

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• Offers a comprehensive introduction to the archaeology ofMesoamerica by focusing on key time periods, sites, and the issuesthese times and places require us to confront.
  
• Examines key moments in the Mesoamerican historical tradition,from the earliest villages where Olmec art flourished, to the Aztecand Maya City-states that Spanish invaders described in the 16thcentury.
  
• Engages the chronological benchmarks of precolumbian socialdevelopment in Mesoamerica, such as the transition to village life,emergence of political stratification, and formation ofMesoamerican urban centers.
  
• Includes an extensive introduction by the editors that situatescontemporary Mesoamerican archaeology in the broader terms of thesocial politics of archaeology.

For further resources to use with this book - including studyquestions, maps and photographs - visit the website atwww.blackwellpublishing.com/BSGA/mesoam

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780631230526
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	07/15/2003
Series:	Wiley Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology Series
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Julia A. Hendon is Associate Professor of Anthropology atGettysburg College. She is a Maya archaeologist with fieldexperience since 1980 in Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras, and isthe former editor of Anthropological Literature: An Index toPeriodical Articles and Essays (1988–1996).

Rosemary A. Joyce is Professor of Anthropology at theUniversity of California, Berkeley. She has been engaged inarchaeological fieldwork in Honduras since 1977. Her most recentpublications include: Gender and Power in PrehispanicMesoamerica (2001), The Languages of Archaeology (2002),and Embodied Lives: Egypt and the Ancient Maya (editor, withLynn Meskell, 2003).

Table of Contents

Series Editors' Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

List of Figures

List of Contributors

1. Mesoamerica: A Working Model
Rosemary A. Joyce, University of California, Berkeley

2. Mesoamerica Goes Public: Early Ceremonial Centers, Leaders, and Communities
John E. Clark, Brigham Young University

3. Shared Art Styles and Long-Distance Contact in Early Mesoamerica
Richard G. Lesure, University of California, Los Angeles

4. Governance and Policy at Classic Teotihuacan
Saburo Sugiyama, Aichi Prefectural University, Japan

5. Social Identity and Daily Life at Classic Teotihuacan
Linda Manzanilla, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

6. Social Diversity and Everyday Life within Classic Maya Settlements
Cynthia Robin, Northwestern University

7. Classic Maya Landscapes and Settlement
Wendy Ashmore, University of California, Riverside

8. Sacred Space and Social Relations in the Classic Valley of Oaxaca
Arthur A. Joyce, University of Colorado

9. The Archaeology of History in Postclassic Oaxaca
John M. D. Pohl, University of California, Los Angeles

10. Meaning by Design: Ceramics, Feasting and Figured Worlds in Postclassic Mexico
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel, Albion College

11. The Rural and Urban Landscapes of the Aztec State: Regional Perspectives and the Basin of Mexico Settlement Pattern Project
Deborah L. Nichols, Dartmouth College

12. Postclassic and Colonial Period Sources on Maya Society and History
Julia A. Hendon, Gettysburg College

Glossary

Index

Editorial Reviews

"This is not the same old culture history but a respectablecompilation of recent fieldwork and analysis within a framework ofinnovative problem-oriented research. Joyce's introductory chapteris a synthetic tour de force." Journal of the RoyalAnthropological Institute

"With specially commissioned essays by leading scholars, this isan excellent up-to-date introduction to Mesoamerican archaeology."Oxbow Books

"In this volume archaeologists have, at last, a textbook onMesoamerica that combines recent data with current social thought.The chapters are beautifully written and provocative, giving deeperinsight into Mesoamerican cultural diversity without simplifying5000 years into a single story. Hendon and Joyce have chosencontributors who are not just specialists, but who are some of themost exciting thinkers of our generation." K. Anne Pyburn,Indiana University

"Mesoamerican Archaeology: Theory and Practice is anoutstanding book. It is exactly what we’ve needed in thefield for a very long time and should be used by everyone teachinga course in Mesoamerican archaeology. Hendon and Joyce have done anoutstanding job of integrating fresh essays by leading scholarsinto a text that is both theoretically informed and empirically upto date. The combination of theory and data make it anindispensable work." Michael Love, California State University,Northridge

From the Publisher