Actes


Book Description










The Conquest of History


Book Description

As Spain rebuilt its colonial regime in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines after the Spanish American revolutions, it turned to history to justify continued dominance. The metropolitan vision of history, however, always met with opposition in the colonies.The Conquest of History examines how historians, officials, and civic groups in Spain and its colonies forged national histories out of the ruins and relics of the imperial past. By exploring controversies over the veracity of the Black Legend, the location of Christopher Columbus's mortal remains, and the survival of indigenous cultures, Christopher Schmidt-Nowara's richly documented study shows how history became implicated in the struggles over empire. It also considers how these approaches to the past, whether intended to defend or to criticize colonial rule, called into being new postcolonial histories of empire and of nations.




Religion in the Prehispanic Southwest


Book Description

Religion mattered to the prehistoric Southwestern people, just as it matters to their descendents today. Examining the role of religion can help to explain architecture, pottery, agriculture, even commerce. But archaeologists have only recently developed the theoretical and methodological tools with which to study this topic. Religion in the Prehispanic Southwest marks the first book-length study of prehistoric religion in the region. Drawing on a rich array of empirical approaches, the contributors show the importance of understanding beliefs and ritual for a range of time periods and southwestern societies. For professional and avocational archaeologists, for religion scholars and students, Religion in the Prehispanic Southwest represents an important contribution.




Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics


Book Description

The Middle Holocene epoch (8,000 to 3,000 years ago) was a time of dramatic changes in the physical world and in human cultures. Across this span, climatic conditions changed rapidly, with cooling in the high to mid-latitudes and drying in the tropics. In many parts of the world, human groups became more complex, with early horticultural systems replaced by intensive agriculture and small-scale societies being replaced by larger, more hierarchial organizations. Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics explores the cause and effect relationship between climatic change and cultural transformations across the mid-Holocene (c. 4000 B.C.). - Explores the role of climatic change on the development of society around the world - Chapters detail diverse geographical regions - Co-written by noted archaeologists and paleoclimatologists for non-specialists




Early Scholars' Visits to Central America


Book Description

This volume presents translations of essays by three German scholars who were preeminent in the social and natural science study of Central America in the early part of the twentieth century. Their research areas included ethnology, archaeology, geography, linguistics, and epigraphy. Their detailed observations of traditional cultures and archaeological remains provide important primary data. Because their writings have been available only in the original German-language journals, the work of these scholars is unfamiliar to many researchers. The chapters report on specific visits to parts of Central America but also include more synthetic coverage of topics such as the influence of Bartolome de las Casas on Indian life in Guatemala and food and drink as well as religion of the Q'eqchi' in Guatemala. The visited places include Pacific coastal and highland Guatemala, the Pech area of Honduras, and zones of Costa Rica inhabited by the Guatuso, Chirripo, and Talamanca Indians.







Archaeology in Latin America


Book Description

The first overview of current themes in Latin American archaeology written solely by archaeologists native to the region, making their collected expertise available to an English-speaking audience for the first time.