The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology

by Nichols, Deborah L.; Pool, Christopher A.

• ISBN13: 9780195390933
• ISBN10: 0195390938
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-09-24
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeologyprovides 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 theHandbookprovides 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 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 Biography

Deborah L. Nichols is William J. Bryant 1925 Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College.

Christopher A. Pool is University Research Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Mesoamerican Archaeology: Recent Trends
Deborah L. Nichols and Christopher Pool

Part I. Theory, Method, and Practice in Mesoamerican Archaeology
2. A Short History of Theory in Mesoamerican Archaeology, Manuel Gándera
3. Mexico's National Archaeology Programs, Nelly Robles
4. Archaeology in Guatemala: Nationalist, Colonialist, Imperialist, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos
5. The Archaeology of Belize in the 21st Century, Jaime J. Awe
6. Mesoamerica's Southern Frontier, Geoffrey McCafferty, Fabio Amador, Silvia Salgado, and Carrie Dennett
7. Archaeology and Indigenous Peoples, Shoshaunna Parks and Patricia McAnany
8. Time and Space Boundaries: Chronologies and Regions in Mesoamerica, Susan Evans

Part II. Hunter-Gatherers and First Farmers
9. Ice Age Hunter-Gatherers and Colonization of Mesoamerica, Guillermo Acosta Ochoa
10. Archaic Period Foragers and Farmers, Douglas Kennett
11. The Origins of Food Production in Mesoamerica, Dolores Piperno and Bruce Smith

Part III. Villages, Cities, States and Empires
Formation of Early Complex Societies, Cities, and States
12. The Formation of Complex Societies in Mesoamerica, Christopher A. Pool
13. Not Carved in Stone: Building the Gulf Olmec from the Bottom Up, Philip Arnold
14. The Development of Complex Societies in Formative Period Pacific Guatemala and Chiapas, Michael Love
15. Ideology, Polity, and Social History of the Teotihuacan State, Saburo Sugiyama
16. Cultural Evolution in the Southern Highlands of Mexico: From The Emergence of Social Inequality and Urban Society to the Decline of Classic Period States, Christina Elson
17. Archaeology of the Maya Highlands, Barbara Arroyo
18. Complex Societies in the Southern Maya Lowlands: Their Development and Florescence in the Archaeological Record, Arlen Chase and Diane Chase
19. The Rise of Formative Period Complex Societies in Northern Maya Lowlands, Travis Stanton
20. Interaction among the Complex Societies of Classic Period Mesoamerica, Sergio Gómez and Michael Spence
Developmental Cycles: Collapse and Regeneration
21. Concepts of Collapse and Regeneration in Human History, George Cowgill
22. Teotihuacan and the Epiclassic in Central Mexico, Jeffrey Parsons and Yoko Sugiura
23. The Classic Maya Collapse, David Webster
24. Searching for Tollan: Authority and Urbanism in Oaxaca after Monte Albán, Jeffrey Blomster
25. Developmental Cycles in the Gulf Lowlands: Collapse and Regeneration, Annick Daneels
26. Tula and the Toltecs, Dan Healan and Robert Cobean
27. Chichen Itza, Mayapan, and the Postclassic Transition among the Maya of Northern Yucatan, George Bey and William Ringle
28. Late Postclassic Maya Highlands, Greg Borgstede and Eugenia Robinson
29. Southern Pacific Coastal Region of Mesoamerica: A Corridor of Interaction from Olmec to Aztec Times, Robert M. Rosenswig
30. The Tarascan Empire: Postclassic Social Complexity in West Mexico, Helen Pearlstein Pollard
31. The Aztec Empire, Michael Smith and Maëlle Sergheraert
32. The Conquest of Mexico, Michel Oudijk
Peripheries and Frontiers
33. Networks, Cores, and Peripheries: New Frontiers in Interaction Studies, Edward Schortman and Patricia Urban
34. The Southeastern Fringe of Mesoamerica, John Henderson and Kathryn Hudson
35. Current Views on Power, Economics and Subsistence in Ancient West Mexico, Christopher Beekman
36. Mesoamerica and the Southwest/Northwest, Randall McGuire
37. Aztec Boundary Interactions, Michael Ohnersorgen and Marcie Venter

Part IV. Institutions, Beliefs, and Practices: Topical and Comparative Perspectives
Economies and Economic Relations
38. Agricultural Landuse and Intensification, Vernon Scarborough
39. Searching out Prehispanic Landscapes in Mesoamerica, Alfred Siemens
40. Ecological Approaches to Archaeological Research in Central Mexico: New Directions, Emily McClung
41. Sources and Sourcing, Ronald Bishop
42. Crafting and Manufacturing in Mesoamerica: Critical Engagements in Theory and Method, E. Christian Wells
43. The Domestication of Stone in Mesoamerica, John Clark
44. Ceramic Technology and Production, Prudence Rice
45. Mesoamerican Metallurgical Technology and Production, Blanca Maldonado
46. As the Whorl Turns: Function and Meaning in Mesoamerican Textile Production, Geoffery McCafferty and Sherisse MaCafferty
47. Markets, Merchants, and Systems of Exchange, Kenneth Hirth
48. Central Mexican States and Imperial Tribute Systems, Frances Berdan

Social and Political Relations
49. Archaeology of Gender in Mesoamerican Societies, Rosemary Joyce
50. Class and Ethnicity, Elizabeth Brumfiel and Cynthia Robin
51. Households in Ancient Mesoamerica: Domestic Social Organization, Status, Economies, and Rituals, David Carballo
52. "Community", Marcello Canuto and Jason Yaeger
53. Cities and Urbanism in Prehispanic Mesoamerica, Richard Blanton
54. Mesoamerican States and Empires, Gary Feinman
Beliefs and Rituals
55. Creation and Cosmology: Gods and Mythic Origins in Ancient Mesoamerica, Karl Taube
56. Sacred Places and Sacred Landscapes, Katheryn Reese-Taylor
57. Practices and Practitioners, Keith Reilly
58. The Living and the Dead, James Fitzsimmons
Art and Iconography, Calendars, Writing, and Literature
59. Mesoamerican Calendars and Archaeoastronomy, Anthony Aveni
60. Themes in the Art of the Preclassic Period, Mary Pye
61. Art of the Classic Period, Rex Koontz
62. Art in the Aztec Empire, Emily Umberger
63. Early Mesoamerican Writing Systems, John Justeson
64. Maya Writing, Nikolai Grube
65. Scribal Traditions from Highland Mesoamerica (A.D. 300-1000), Javier Urcid
66. Nahua and Mixtec Pictorial Books: Religion and History Through Visual Text, Lori Boornazian Diel
67. Colonial Documents, Eduardo de Jesus Douglas

Part V. The Spanish Conquest and Archaeology of the Colonial and Republican Periods
68. The Spanish Conquest and the Archaeology of the Colonial and Republican Periods, John Pohl
69. Population Decline During and After Conquest, Rebecca Storey
70. Historical Archaeology in Central and Western Mesoamerica, Patricia Fournier and Thomas Charlton
71. Landscape Change in the Maya Region, AD 1450-1910, Rani Alexander