Download or read book Archaeology in Latin America written by Benjamin Alberti and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-16 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pioneering and comprehensive survey is the first overview of current themes in Latin American archaeology written solely by academics native to the region, and it makes their collected expertise available to an English-speaking audience for the first time. The contributors cover the most significant issues in the archaeology of Latin America, such as the domestication of camelids, the emergence of urban society in Mesoamerica, the frontier of the Inca empire, and the relatively little known archaeology of the Amazon basin. This book draws together key areas of research in Latin American archaeological thought into a coherent whole; no other volume on this area has ever dealt with such a diverse range of subjects, and some of the countries examined have never before been the subject of a regional study.
Download or read book Balance Y Perspectiva de la Antropolog a de Mesoam rica Y Del Centro de M xico written by Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología. Mesa Redonda and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Access to Origins written by Mary W. Helms and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-07-05 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many non-industrial, non-Western societies, power and prestige are closely linked to the extent of an individual's or group's perceived connection to the supernatural realm, which also explains and validates tangible activities such as economic success, victories in war, or control over lucrative trade. Affines (in-laws), ancestors, and aristocrats, in particular, are connected to the realm of creative cosmological origins (i.e., to Genesis), which accords them distinctive, supernatural powers and gives them a natural and legitimate right to worldly authority. This is the hypothesis that Mary W. Helms pursues in this broadly cross-cultural study of aristocracy in chiefly societies. She begins with basic ideas about the dead, ancestors, affines, and concepts of cosmological origins. This leads her to a discussion of cosmologically defined hierarchies, the qualities that characterize aristocracy, and the political and ideological roles of aristocrats as wife-givers and wife-takers (that is, as in-laws). She concludes by considering various models that explain how societies may develop or define aristocracies.
Download or read book Craft and the Kingly Ideal written by Mary W. Helms and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In ancient Mediterranean cultures, diamonds were thought to endow their owners with invincibility. In contemporary United States culture, a foreign-made luxury car is believed to give its owner status and prestige. Where do these beliefs come from? In this study of craft production and long-distance trade in traditional, nonindustrial societies, Mary W. Helms explores the power attributed to objects that either are produced by skilled artisans and/or come from "afar." She argues that fine artisanship and long-distance trade, both of which are more available to powerful elites than to ordinary people, are means of creating or acquiring tangible objects that embody intangible powers and energies from the cosmological realms of gods, ancestors, or heroes. Through the objects, these qualities become available to human society and confer honor and power on their possessors. Helms’ novel approach equates trade with artistry and emphasizes acquisition rather than distribution. She rejects the classic Western separation between economics and aesthetics and offers a new paradigm for understanding traditional societies that will be of interest to all anthropologists and archaeologists.
Download or read book Balance y perspectiva de la antropolog a de Mesoam rica y del centro de M xico Arqueolog a II written by Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología. Mesa Redonda and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Lake Chilwa written by M. Kalk and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leonard C. Beadle In contrast to the more sta bie oceans, inland waters are, on the geological time scale, short-lived and are subject to great fluctuations in chemical composition and physical features. Very few lakes and rivers have existed continuously for more than a million years, and the life of the majority is to be measured in thousands or less. Earth movements, erosion and long-term climatic changes in the past have caused many of them to appear and disappear. No wonder then that most freshwater organism are especially adapted to great changes and many even to temporary extinction of their environment. Recent studies of residual sediments from existing and extinct lakes in tropical Africa have told us much about their age and the past history of their faunas and floras, from which we may deduce something about the climate and the conditions in the water in the past. The forces that have formed and moulded the African Great Lakes have been catastrophic in their violence and effects. They are not yet finished, but the present rate of change is, in human terms, too slow for direct observation of the ecological effects. The large man-made lakes are providing very good opportunities for studying the chemi cal and biological consequences of the initial filling but, once filled, they are artificially protected against major fluctuations.
Download or read book Genealogies for the Present in Cultural Anthropology written by Bruce M. Knauft and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of tensions between modern and postmodern sensibilities, what larger directions now emerge in cultural anthropology? In this major work, Bruce Knauft takes stock of important recent initiatives in cultural and critical theory. By combining critical reviews and ethnographic engagements with fresh readings of major figures and approaches, the work develops a larger vantage point for considering the dispersing influence of practice theories, postmodernism, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, modern/post-positive feminism, and multicultural criticisms.
Download or read book Watunna written by Marc de Civrieux and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in Spanish in 1970, Watunna is the epic history and creation stories of the Makiritare, or Yekuana, people living along the northern bank of the Upper Orinoco River of Venezuela, a region of mountains and virgin forest virtually unexplored even to the present. The first English edition of this book was published in 1980 to rave reviews. This edition contains a new foreword by David Guss, as well as Mediata, a detailed myth that recounts the origins of shamanism.
Download or read book From Primitive to Postcolonial in Melanesia and Anthropology written by Bruce M. Knauft and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A prominent scholar surveys the special place of Melanesia in our understanding of human cultural variation
Download or read book Investigating Archaeological Cultures written by Benjamin W. Roberts and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-06-04 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Defining "culture" is an important step in undertaking archaeological research. Any thorough study of a particular culture first has to determine what that culture contains-- what particular time period, geographic region, and group of people make up that culture. The study of archaeology has many accepted definitions of particular cultures, but recently these accepted definitions have come into question. As archaeologists struggle to define cultures, they also seek to define the components of culture. This volume brings together 21 international case studies to explore the meaning of "culture" for regions around the globe and periods from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age and beyond. Taking lessons and overarching themes from these studies, the contributors draw important conclusions about cultural transmission, technology development, and cultural development. The result is a comprehensive model for approaching the study of culture, broken down into regions (Russia, Continental Europe, North America, Britain, and Africa), materials (Lithics, Ceramics, Metals) and time periods. This work will be valuable to all archaeologists and cultural anthropologists, particularly those studying material culture.
Download or read book Shamanism History and the State written by Nicholas Thomas and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nine case studies of shamanic practice in widely different cultures
Download or read book The Land without Evil written by Hélène Clastres and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fr Cary Elwes S J and the Alleluia Indians written by Audrey Butt Colson and published by Amerindian Research Unit University of Guyana. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book La antropolog a social en perspectiva written by Héctor Díaz Polanco and published by UNAM. This book was released on 1999 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tarascan Pottery Production in Michoac n Mexico written by Eduardo Williams and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2017-08-31 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines a contemporary pottery tradition in Mesoamerica, but also looks back to the earliest examples of cultural development in this area. By means of ethnographic analogy and ceramic ecology, this study seeks to shed light on a modern indigenous community and on the theory, method and practice of ethnoarchaeology.
Download or read book Keepers of the Sacred Chants written by Jonathan David Hill and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wakuenai of the upper Rio Negro region in southern Venezuela a form of singing called malikai for ceremonies of childbirth, initiation, and healing. This ritual chanting, a rich amalgam of myth and music, serves as a means of integrating individuals into a vertical hierarchy of powers relations between mythic ancestors and human descendants. In Keepers of the Sacred Chants, Jonathan Hill shows how the musical and semantic transformations of everyday discourse in malikai integrate the everyday world into a poetic process of empowerment. He interprets malikai through mythic narratives that explain the cosmos as an ongoing process of musically naming-into-being the species, objects, and activities that define individual humanness and society, and he further shows how semantic and musical meanings are joined to construct each chant and how these chants are manipulated in different contexts. Hill explains how the musical elements of malikai contribute to the success of performance, comparing different genres for which different musical criteria are appropriate. He considers the integration of speech and song through a close analysis of such elements as microtonal pitch rise, rhythm, and timbre, showing how these features are linked to poetic speech and imbued with social power. Hill's penetrating study of malikai is made within the context of Wakuenai history and cosmology and considers influences resulting from contact with the outside world. Because Northern Arawakan-speaking peoples have received less attention than others of the region, his book thus makes a significant contribution to Amazonian ethnography. It is the author's focus on malikai, however, that commends keepers of theSacred Chants to all interested in the multitextured uses of song and story by peoples of the world.
Download or read book Shamanism Colonialism and the Wild Man written by Michael Taussig and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-06-20 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Working with the image of the Indian shaman as Wild Man, Taussig reveals not the magic of the shaman but that of the politicizing fictions creating the effect of the real. "This extraordinary book . . . will encourage ever more critical and creative explorations."—Fernando Coronil, [I]American Journal of Sociology[/I] "Taussig has brought a formidable collection of data from arcane literary, journalistic, and biographical sources to bear on . . . questions of evil, torture, and politically institutionalized hatred and terror. His intent is laudable, and much of the book is brilliant, both in its discovery of how particular people perpetrated evil and others interpreted it."—Stehen G. Bunker, Social Science Quarterly
