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Mesoamerican Plazas
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 Plazaschallenges 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.
eBook
The art of Mesoamerica : from Olmec to Aztec
Expanded and revised in its sixth edition, The Art of Mesoamerica surveys the artistic achievements of the high prehispanic civilizations of Central America Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Toltec and Aztec as well as those of their lesser-known contemporaries. Providing an in-depth examination of central works, this book guides readers through the most iconic palaces, pyramids, sculptures and paintings. From the Olmec Colossal Head 5 recovered from San Lorenzo to the Aztec Calendar Stone found in Mexico Citys Zocalo in 1790, this book reveals the complexity and innovation behind the art and architecture produced in prehispanic civilizations. This new edition incorporates new lavish colour images and extensive updates based on the latest research and dozens of recent discoveries, particularly in Maya art, where excavations at Teotihuacan, the largest city of Mesoamerica, and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztecs, have yielded new sculptures.
eBook
Josef Albers in Mexico
On his first trip to Mexico, in 1935, Josef Albers (1888-1976) encountered the magnificent architecture of ancient Mesoamerica. He later remarked in a letter to Vasily Kandinsky, a former colleague at the Bauhaus, \"Mexico is truly the promised land of abstract art.\" With his wife, artist Anni Albers (1899- 1994), Josef Albers visited Mexico and other Latin American countries nearly a dozen times from 1935-67. They saw numerous archeological sites and monuments, especially in Mexico and Peru. On each visit, he took hundreds of black-and-white photographs of the pyramids, shrines, and sanctuaries at these sites, often grouping multiple images printed at various scales onto 8 by 10 inch sheets. Albers's experiences in Latin America offer an essential context for understanding his paintings and prints, particularly from his Homage to the Square and Variant/Adobe series, examples of which are featured in this show. Exhibition: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, United States (03.11.2017 - 18.02.2018).
Book
Thatched Roofs and Open Sides
Before and during the Seminole Wars, the Seminoles typically used chickee huts as hideouts and shelters. But in the twentieth century, the government deemed the abodes \"primitive\" and \"unfit.\" Rather than move into non-chickee housing, the Seminoles began to modernize and have continued to evolve the thatched roof structures to meet the needs of their current lifestyles.
Today, chickees can still be found throughout tribal land, but they are no longer primary residences. Instead, they are built to teach people about Seminole life and history and to encourage tribal youth to reflect on that aspect of their culture. InThatched Roofs and Open Sides, Carrie Dilley reveals the design, construction, history, and cultural significance of the chickee, the unique Seminole structure made of palmetto and cypress.
Dilley interviews builders and surveys over five hundred chickees on the Big Cypress Indian Reservation, illustrating how the multipurpose structure has developed over time to meet the changing needs of the Seminole Tribe.
eBook
The Archaeology of Houses and Households in the Native Southeast
Explores the evolution of houses and households in the
southeastern United States from the Woodland to the Historic
Indian period (ca. 200 BC to 1800 AD)
The Archaeology of Houses and Households in the Native
Southeast contributes enormously to the study of household
archaeology and domestic architecture in the region. This
significant volume combines both previously published and
unpublished data on communities from the Southeast and is the
first systematic attempt to understand the development of houses
and households as interpreted through a theoretical framework
developed from broad-ranging studies in cultural anthropology and
archaeology. Steere’s major achievement is the compilation
of one of the largest and most detailed architectural datasets
for the Southeast, including data for 1,258 domestic and public
structures from 65 archaeological sites in North Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and the southern parts of
Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. Rare data from hard-to-find
cultural resource management reports is also incorporated,
creating a broad temporal and geographic scope and serving as one
of many remarkable features of the book, which is sure to be of
considerable value to archaeologists and anthropologists
interested in comparative studies of architecture. Similar to
other analyses, Steere’s research uses multiple theoretical
angles and lines of evidence to answer archaeological questions
about houses and the people who built them. However, unlike other
examinations of household archaeology, this project spans
multiple time periods (Woodland, Mississippian, and Historic); is
focused squarely on the Southeast; features a more unified
approach, using data from a single, uniform database; and
privileges domestic architecture as a line of evidence for
reconstructing daily life at major archaeological sites on a much
broader scale than other investigations.
eBook
Body, history, and myth : early modern murals in South India
\"The first major scholarly history of the important South Indian mural tradition in the early modern period, and a reconception of their role in negotiating the relationship between art and devotion\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Circular villages of the Monongahela tradition
Between A.D. 1000 and 1635, the inhabitants of southwestern Pennsylvania and portions of adjacent states—known to archaeologists as the Monongahela Culture or Tradition—began to reside regularly in ring-shaped village settlements. These circular settlements consisted of dwellings around a central plaza. A cross-cultural and cross-temporal review of archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic cases demonstrates that this settlement form appeared repeatedly and independently worldwide, including throughout portions of the Eastern Woodlands, among the Plains Indians, and in Central and South America. Specific archaeological cases are drawn from Somerset County, Pennsylvania, that has the largest number of completely excavated Monongahela villages. Most of these villages, excavated in the 1930s as federal relief projects, were recently dated. Full analysis of the extensive excavations reveals not only the geometric architectural patterning of the villages, but enables an analysis of the social groupings, population estimates, and economic status of residents who inhabited the circular villages. Circular patterning can be revealed at less fully excavated archaeological sites. Focused test excavations can help confirm circular village plans without extensive and destructive excavations.
eBook