Maya Ceremonial Specialization

Maya Ceremonial Specialization

Author: April Kay Sievert

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13:

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Highly visible architecture, sculpture and painting meant Maya religion was the focus for much early research and speculation on Mayan civilization. Subtitled Lithic Tools from the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza, Yucatan' this study evaluates postclassic Maya ceremonialism and addresses three problems in Maya archaeology: assumptions concerning Maya ritual assemblages; the characteristics denoting ceremonial artifacts; the linking of potential indicators of ceremonial functions for stone tools to the purposes for which ceremonies were enacted. Results from this analysis are used to broaden our conception of ritual performance beyond what is seen in Mayan art and architecture.


Stone Tools

Stone Tools

Author: George H. Odell

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-11-11

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 1489901736

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Lithic analysts have been criticized for being atheoretical in their approach, or at least for not contributing to building archaeological theory. This volume redresses that balance. In Stone Tools, renowned lithic analysts employ explicitly theoretical constructs to explore the archaeological record and use the lithic database to establish its points. Chapters discuss curation, design theory, replacement of stone with metal, piece refitting, and projectile point style.


Handbook of Latin American Studies

Handbook of Latin American Studies

Author: Dolores Moyano Martin

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 1997-12-01

Total Pages: 956

ISBN-13: 9780292752115

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Beginning with volume 41 (1979), the University of Texas Press became the publisher of the Handbook of Latin American Stuides, the most comprehensive annual bibliography in the field. Compiled by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress and annotated by a corps of more than 130 specialists in various disciplines, the Handbook alternates from year to year between social sciences and humanities. The Handbook annotates works on Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and the Guianas, Spanish South America, and Brazil, as well as materials covering Latin America as a whole. Most of the subsections are preceded by introductory essays that serve as biannual evaluations of the literature and research underway in specialized areas. The Handbook of Latin American Studies is the oldest continuing reference work in the field. Dolores Moyano Martin, of the Library of Congress Hispanic Division, has been the editor since 1977, and P. Sue Mundell has been assistant editor since 1994. The subject categories for Volume 55 are as follows: Anthropology (including Archaeology and Ethnology) Economics Electronic Resources for the Social Sciences Geography Government and Politics International Relations Sociology


The Birth of a Universe: The Maya Science of Pregnancy

The Birth of a Universe: The Maya Science of Pregnancy

Author: Apab'yan Tew

Publisher: Jade Publishing

Published: 2019-04

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 9781949299090

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So begins The Birth of a Universe, a profound exegesis by Apabyan Tew, a K'iche Maya midwife and daykeeper. We are bound to the ancient 260-day Maya calendar just as we are bound to the planets that gave birth to that divinatory calendar, our conception, growth, and destiny guided by nawales, the spirits of the days. This system, where everything in intertwined and shapes the nature of the soul and consciousness, is the essence of Maya science. Westerners may divide indigenous science into various disciplines such as physics and astronomy. The vital details of the parents' circumstances and emotions at the moment of conception some would call psychology, a psychology that takes into account every intense mood and feeling-the very atmosphere-from the sexual act to the miraculous birth of the child. Others would call the daykeeper's acute analysis of consciousness, spirit, gender, and material status a new (though age-old) philosophy. Like all well-wrought philosophies, this one is intricate and complex. In fact, it reflects a rational world grounded in earth and sky, basic human emotions and urges, as well as invisible forces.This wise, sometimes esoteric volume is an antidote to chaos, presenting a Unified Theory of Birth that opens a pathway to the fates and to the eternal.


Written in Stone

Written in Stone

Author: P. Nick Kardulias

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780739105368

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Written in Stone: The Multiple Dimensions of Lithic Analysis demonstrates the vitality of contemporary lithics analysis by examining material from a variety of geographical locations. This edited collection is primarily concerned with the link between craft production and social complexity, the nature of trade, and the delineation of settlement patterns and manipulation of landscape. While deconstructing the present to reconstruct the past, each chapter incorporates a technological dimension shaped by the type of analysis utilized. Methods include microwear analysis, which adds significant understanding of stone tool function, to the identification of obsidian sources, which illustrates the potential of lithic provenance studies for reconstructing trade. This book verifies and expands on the notion that lithics play an integral role in our understanding of past societies at all levels of complexity, from Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to archaic states.


Specialization, Exchange and Complex Societies

Specialization, Exchange and Complex Societies

Author: Elizabeth M. Brumfiel

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1987-01-22

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9780521321181

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This book, a comparative study of specialised production in prehistoric societies, examines approaches to specialization and exchange.


Maya Postclassic State Formation

Maya Postclassic State Formation

Author: John W. Fox

Publisher: CUP Archive

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 9780521321105

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John Fox here offers a fresh and persuasive view of the crucial Classic-Postclassic transition that determined the shape of the later Maya state. Drawing this data from ethnographic analogy and native chronicles as well as archaeology, he identifies segmentary lineage organisation as the key to understanding both the political organisation and the long-distance migrations observed among the Quiche Maya of Guatemala and Mexico. The first part of the book traces the origins of the Quiche, Itza and Xiu to the homeland on the Mexican Gulf coast where they acquired their potent Toltec mythology and identifies early segmentary lineages that developed as a result of social forces in the frontier zone. Dr Fox then matches the known anthropological characteristics of segmentary lineages against the Mayan kinship relationships described in documents and deduced from the spatial patterning within Quiche towns and cities. His conclusion, that the inherently fissile nature of segmentary lineages caused the leapfrogging migrations of up to 500km observed amongst the Maya, offers a convincing solution to a problem that has long puzzled scholars.


Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology

Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology

Author: Charles Golden

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-03-01

Total Pages: 603

ISBN-13: 113594606X

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This book presents the current state of Maya archaeology by focusing on the history of the field for the last 100 years, present day research, and forward looking prescription for the direction of the field.


Heterarchy, Political Economy, and the Ancient Maya

Heterarchy, Political Economy, and the Ancient Maya

Author: Vernon L. Scarborough

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9780816522736

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"In recent years the Three Rivers region of Belize and Guatemala has been the site of some of the most intensive archaeological research in the Maya Lowlands, providing a wealth of regional data. This volume brings together articles reporting on findings and interpretations of the Programme for Belize Archaeological Project that range over a 10- to 12-year period and that shed new light on how ecology, economy, and political order developed in the ancient past.".


Lithic Analysis

Lithic Analysis

Author: George H. Odell

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1441990097

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This practical volume does not intend to replace a mentor, but acts as a readily accessible guide to the basic tools of lithic analysis. The book was awarded the 2005 SAA Award for Excellence in Archaeological Analysis. Some focuses of the manual include: history of stone tool research; procurement, manufacture and function; assemblage variability. It is an incomparable source for academic archaeologists, cultural resource and heritage management archaeologists, government heritage agencies, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students of archaeology focused on the prehistoric period.