Morality and Social Violence Among the Precolonial Maya
An exploration of war, violence, and sacrifice in precolonial Maya culture and its importance in religious practices. As the Gods Kill delivers new insights into warfare, weaponry, violence, and human sacrifice among the ancient Maya. While attending to the particularity of a singular historical context, anthropologist and archaeologist Andrew ......
Illuminating the abstract art of the Inka, what it conveys about Inka values, and its relationship to those who view it. Inka visual culture is unusual in its tendency toward abstraction. Public stonework, vessels used at state feasts, garments worn by the imperial elite-these objects announcing status and power are adorned with geometric ......
Innovation, Creativity, and Culture Change in Ancient Maya Society
An archaeological exploration of the role of creativity and invention in the ancient Maya civilizationDrawing on archaeological findings from the Maya lowlands, War Owl Falling shows how innovation and creativity led to social change in ancient societies. Markus Eberl discusses the ways eighth-century Maya (and Maya commoners in particular) ......
Dental Modification, Cosmology, and Social Identity in Mesoamerica
A study of Maya dental modification from archaeological sites spanning three millennia. Dental modification was common across ancient societies, but perhaps none were more avid practitioners than the Maya. They filed their teeth flat or pointy, polished and drilled them, and crafted decorative inlays of jade and pyrite. Unusually, Maya of all ......
Ethnogenesis and Cultural Continuity in Northwest Mesoamerica
The AztatlAn tradition of northwest Mesoamerica (AD 850/900-1350+) is one of the most understudied and enigmatic cultural developments in the Americas. This volume presents a spectrum of interdisciplinary research into AztatlAn societies, combining innovative archaeological methods with historical and ethnographic investigations. The results offer ......
Born in Siberia during a turbulent period in Russian history, Tatiana Proskouriakoff came to America with her family when her father was commissioned during World War I by Czar Nicholas II to oversee the production of munitions in the United States. With the Czar's abdication and the onset of the Russian Revolution, the Proskouriakoffs' brief ......
Body Beliefs and Ritual in Ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes
The meanings of ritualized head treatments among ancient Mesoamerican and Andean peoples is the subject of this book, the first overarching coverage of an important subject. Heads are sources of power that protect, impersonate, emulate sacred forces, distinguish, or acquire identity within the native world. The essays in this book examine these ......
This provocative examination of Aztec marriage practices offers a powerful analysis of the dynamics of society and politics in Mexico before and after the Spanish conquest. The author surveys what it means to be polygynous by comparing the practice in other cultures, past and present, and he uses its demographic consequences to flesh out this ......
