A Catalyst for Ideas

by Scarborough, Vernon L.; Schwartz, Douglas Wright

• ISBN13: 9781930618718
• ISBN10: 1930618719
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-30
• Publisher: School for Advanced Research/Sar pr

Summary

In his thirty-four years as president of the School of American Research, Douglas W. Schwartz's far-reaching vision placed SAR on the intellectual edge of research about humans across the globe. Nowhere is this more evident than in his influence on the field of anthropological archaeology. The twelve essays in this volume celebrate his contributions by looking back at changes in the field and forward to vital questions, methods, and theories yet nascent. Ranging geographically from the North American Southwest-where Schwartz himself conducted extensive research-to Mesopotamia, central America, and the Indian subcontinent and chronologically from early hominid evolution through archaic hunter-gatherers to the classic and historical Maya, the distinguished contributors make the case for Schwartz's enduring legacy. Addressing major issues in relations of power, writing systems, and directions for future research, this volume is at once mature in its depth and exciting in its boldness.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	ix
List of Tables	xi
Introduction	3	(16)
Vernon L. Scarborough
Hunter-Gatherers, Archaeology, and the Role of Selection in the Evolution of the Human Mind	19	(22)
Robert L. Kelly
Economic Competition and Agricultural Involution in the Precontact North American Southwest	41	(28)
W. H. Wills
Kinship and the Dynamics of the House: Rediscovering Dualism in the Pueblo Past	69	(32)
Carolyn Heitman
Stephen Plog
The Institutionalization of Leadership and Inequality: Integrating Process and History	101	(20)
Gary M. Feinman
``Invisible'' Social Sectors in Early Mesopotamian State Societies	121	(28)
Gil Stein
The Polycentricity of the Archaic Civilizations	149	(20)
Henry T. Wright
Ecology in Human Evolution: The Origin of Humans and Their Complex Societies	169	(40)
Anna C. Roosevelt
The Power of Landscapes	209	(20)
Vernon L. Scarborough
Polity and Economy in Fourteenth-through Seventeenth-Century South India: Lessons from Archaeology and History	229	(28)
Carla M. Sinopoli
Ideology and Classic Maya Kingship	257	(30)
David Stuart
Ethnohistorical Knowledge and Interdisciplinary Research: Rethinking Colonial ``Resistance'' on the Colonial Frontiers of Yucatan	287	(30)
Grant D. Jones
Concluding Comments: The Continuing Vitality of Anthropological Archaeology	317	(14)
Richard M. Leventhal
Jeremy A. Sabloff
References	331	(80)
Index	411