Showing papers in "Latin American Antiquity in 2002"

Spatial Orders in Maya Civic Plans

Abstract: Ancient civic centers materialize ideas of proper spatial organization, among the Maya as in other societies. We argue that the position and arrangement of ancient Maya buildings and arenas emphatically express statements about cosmology and political order. At the same time, the clarity of original spatial expression is often blurred in the sites we observe archaeologically. Factors responsible for such blurring include multiple other influences on planning and spatial order, prominently the political life history of a civic center. Specifically, we argue here that centers with relatively short and simple political histories are relatively easy to interpret spatially. Those with longer development, but relatively little upheaval, manifest more elaborate but relatively robust and internally consistent plans. Sites with longer and more turbulent political histories, however, materialize a more complex cumulative mix of strategies and plausibly, therefore, of varying planning principles invoked by sequent ancient builders. We examine evidence for these assertions by reference to civic layouts at Copan, Xunantunich, Sayil, Seibal, and Tikal.

Irrigation and the origins of the southern moche state on the north coast of peru

Abstract: In this paper, I examine the role that irrigation played in the formation of the Southern Moche state in the Moche Valley, Peru. Specifically, I attempt to test Wittfogel and Steward's hydraulic model, which postulates that in certain arid environments, the managerial requirements of construction and maintenance of irrigation systems played a crucial role in the formation of centralized polities. I formulate and evaluate four hypotheses concerning the role of irrigation systems in the Moche Valley. Those hypotheses are then evaluated using settlement pattern data drawn from two surveys that cover the entire coastal section of the valley and provide information on 910 archaeological sites. Based on those data, I present a sequence of political development for the valley from the formation of the first autonomous village in the Late Preceramic period (2500–1800 B. C.) to the zenith of the Southern Moche state. Evaluation of the four hypotheses indicates that the managerial requirements of irrigation were relatively unimportant; rather, warfare, highland-coastal interaction, and political control of irrigation systems created opportunities for leaders to form a highly centralized, territorially expansive state sometime between A. D. 200 and 700.

Feasting and Ancestor Veneration at Chinchawas, North Highlands of Ancash, Peru

Abstract: The present article considers evidence for ancestor veneration and feasting in the North Highlands (Department of Ancash), Peru between A. D. 500-900. The study draws upon ethnohistorical, iconographic, and archaeological comparisons to better understand different lines of data from the ancient Recuay community of Chinchawas (3,850 masl), including public and mortuary architecture, ceramics, faunal remains, and stone sculpture. Two major programs of religious activity can be discerned: one situated within local Recuay traditions (Kayan and Chinchawasi phases, A. D. 500-800), followed by a suite of intrusive patterns associated with Wari expansion (Warmi phase, after A. D. 800). The study argues that, by A. D. 500, special public ceremonies combined ancestor worship and feasting as part of community politics at the site. Chinchawasi practices included subterranean tombs, special architectural enclosures with monolithic sculptures, and evidence for large-scale consumption. Warmi practices appear smaller in scale, focusing on aboveground mausolea, different stone sculptural forms and iconography, and increasing evidence for interregional interaction. The diachronic patterns reflect: 1) flexible sociopolitical arrangements at Chinchawas that accommodated group and entrepreneurial interests, and 2) local sociocultural transformations associated with Wari expansion (ca. A. D. 750).

Geographic Identities of the Sacrificial Victims from the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, Teotihuacan: Implications for the Nature of State Power

Abstract: This study addresses the political and military structure of early Teotihuacan through the analysis of oxygen-isotope ratios in skeletal phosphate from 41 victims of a sacrifice associated with the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. Oxygen-isotope ratios are markers of geographic identity. A comparison of bone and enamel values, which provides a contrast between environments experienced during growth and those of adulthood, illustrates that at least four different regions are represented in this sample. Those identified as soldiers had either lived locally since childhood or had moved to Teotihuacan from several foreign locations. Most had lived in Teotihuacan for a prolonged period before their death. This pattern suggests foreign “recruitment” or mercenary behavior. The women had either lived all their lives in Teotihuacan or had moved from there to a foreign location. Most of the individuals in the center of the pyramid (burial 14) did not come from Teotihuacan, nor had they lived in the city long before their deaths. We suggest that the choice of victims was meant to demonstrate Teotihuacan's powerful ideology to the rest of the Mesoamerican world. Notably, this isotopic evidence of physical interaction between Teotihuacan and foreign regions considerably predates the currently existing archaeological evidence.

Out of Many, One: Style and Social Boundaries in Tiwanaku

Abstract: Archaic state formation simultaneously involved political integration and socioeconomic differentiation, which many archaeologists consider mutually reinforcing processes. Differentiation is considered to have consisted primarily of status and specialization, forms of heterogeneity that ultimately supported state integration. This paper addresses the role of differentiation in the Andean polity of Tiwanaku (A. D. 500–1150). Specifically, it evaluates expressions of social identity in relation to differences in status and specialized production in the urban settlements of Tiwanaku and Lukurmata. Patterns of ceramic style are compared with other types of material culture and residential activities. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that, in the context of a potent and ubiquitous state culture, significant social boundaries persisted at multiple social scales, ranging from urban corporate groups to more encompassing regional affiliations. At larger scales identity potentially involved some degree of political autonomy, as it did in later sociopolitical organizations in the south-central Andes. For several hundred years, Tiwanaku rulers, facing profound social diversity and enduring local identities, emphasized incorporative strategies of integration, leaving a great deal of productive management and sociopolitical organization in the hands of local groups. Social boundaries played critical roles in state formation and centralization, and ultimately may have precipitated its disintegration.

Domestic and Political Lives of Classic Maya Elites: The Excavation of Rapidly Abandoned Structures at Aguateca, Guatemala

Abstract: The Aguateca Archaeological Project conducted extensive excavations of elite residences at the Maya center of Aguateca, which was attacked by enemies and abandoned rapidly at the end of the Classic period. Burned buildings contained rich floor assemblages, providing extraordinary information on the domestic and political lives of Classic Maya elites. Each elite residence served for a wide range of domestic work, including the storage, preparation, and consumption of food, with a relatively clear division of male and female spaces. These patterns suggest that each of the excavated elite residences was occupied by a relatively small group, which constituted an important economic and social unit. In addition, elite residences were arenas where crucial processes of the operation of the polity and court unfolded through political gatherings, artistic production, and displays of power.

Spouted vessels and cacao use among the Preclassic Maya

Abstract: Spouted vessels are diagnostic forms of Middle Preclassic (1000–400 B. C.) and Late Preclassic (400 B. C.-A. D. 250) Maya ceramic assemblages. Mayanists have traditionally called these vessels “chocolate pots,” but until recently there has been little direct evidence to support this interpretation. In fact, few studies have focused on the role these specialized forms played in the daily social and ritual activities of the ancient Maya. This paper provides a contextual and functional analysis of Preclassic spouted vessels found across the Maya lowlands and highlands. Additionally, the results of chemical analyses on residues collected from spouted vessels found in Middle and Late Preclassic burials at Colha, Belize are provided. Preliminary data reveal that some of the vessels from Colha contained substantial amounts of theobromine, a distinct marker for cacao or chocolate. The significance of the discovery of chocolate in Maya spouted vessels is discussed as well as its implications for the rest of Mesoamerica.

Atalla: A Center on the Periphery of the Chavín Horizon

Abstract: The emergence of public architecture in Peru's central highlands occurred during the mid-first millennium B. C. and is correlated with the expansion of the Chavin sphere of interaction. Atalla, a high-altitude site in Huancavelica, represents one of the first known centers with large-scale masonry constructions. Analysis of the ceramic assemblage reveals many similarities between the local ceramics and the Janabarriu phase pottery from Chavin de Huantar, located 450 km to the north. The inhabitants of Atalla emulated the ceramic style and cut-stone masonry of the much larger northern civic-ceremonial centers, like Chavin de Huantar, while maintaining local traits such as circular dwellings and burials in or adjacent to domestic architecture. Utilizing a core-periphery perspective, the unprecedented formation in the central highlands of a community like Atalla is hypothesized to be an independent response to demands for exotic goods from the more complex societies to the north. The largest mercury deposits in Latin America are located 15 km to the west of Atalla, and the center would have been in an excellent position to procure cinnabar and distribute this bright red vermilion pigment. Production of the pigment itself would have occurred at small villages like Chuncuimarca located in the zone of the mercury deposits.

Soil Chemical Analysis of Ancient Activities in Cerén, El Salvador: A Case Study of a Rapidly Abandoned Site

Abstract: Activities performed over long periods of time tend to leave soil chemical residues as evidence of those activities. Some of the questions studied in this paper deal with the interpretive capabilities provided by chemical patterns. Soil samples from Ceren, El Salvador, a well-preserved site, were analyzed for extractable phosphorus and heavy metals. We compared in situ artifacts collected from the site with chemical signatures that indicate activity areas. We found that elevated concentrations of phosphorus were associated with food preparation, consumption, and disposal. Heavy metals were associated with the interior of the structure where pigments and painted gourds were found. In this case, where well-preserved, in situ artifacts were available for analysis, we found that chemical analysis was effective in locating human activity areas. Our findings indicate that chemical analysis can be used to guide interpretation in areas of poor artifact preservation with reasonable accuracy, and in archaeological sites that underwent gradual abandonment.

Roedores Y Lagartos Como Emergentes De La Diversificacion De La Subsistencia Durante El Holoceno Tardio En Sierras De La Region Pampeana Argentina

Abstract: The record of a lizard (Tupinambis cf. merianae) and Caviidae rodents or “guinea pigs” (Cavia aperea and Galea tixiensis) in the archaeological sites of Cueva Tixi and Cueva El Abra, located in the hills of the Eastern Tandilia Range, Buenos Aires Province, is described. Hunter-gatherer exploitation of these species in the Pampean Region is proposed for the first time on the basis of cultural evidence. The Cueva Tixi sequence (late Pleistocene to late Holocene) has numerous remains of these species in archaeological context. Tupinambis cf. merianae was intensively exploited during the last 1,000 years in Cueva Tixi and Cueva El Abra. Arm and leg bones, vertebrae, and mandibular rami display cutmarks from lithic tools. Two Caviidae rodents were identified to the level of species on the basis of cranial remains. During the latest Holocene these rodents also display cutmarks from lithic tools, detected in mandibular rami, leg, and arm bones in the two sites. The lizard and rodents represent new small animal resources in the subsistence strategies of inhabitants of the Tandilia Range. It is proposed that the exploitation of these species occurred in the context of profound changes in subsistence strategies during the late Holocene.

1111£ POTENTIAL ROLE OF SMALL DEPRESSIONS AS WATER STORiGE FEATURES IN l HIf CENTRAL MAYA LOWLANDS

Abstract: Small depressions are a frequent landscape feature in the northeast Pete'n and northwestern Belize. Although generally considered the remains of seasonal ancient Maya water cisterns, they have not been subject to systematic study. Excavation of 16 depressions in northwestern Belize showed that these features are either natural sinkholes (dolines) or quarried cavities. In three depressions, quarrying for construction materials and mining for clay was evident and two depressions are the remains of collapsed chultuns. Depressions probably also served as areas where household activities were carried out, they may have played a role as gardens, and were used as trash dumps. For one quarter of the sample, a water storage function was established. Water input-output calculations showed that these features could have held water year round and thus theoretically could have played a much more important role in supplying water than commonly assumed. The study indicates that Classic Maya population could have relied on decentralized water sources and suggests that hypotheses of centralized water management in the central Maya lowlands should be critically reviewed. En el noreste del Peten y noroeste de Belice, el paisaje se caracteriza por la abundancia de pequenas depresiones. Aunque gene ralmente se conside ran restos de antiguos estanques de agua estacionales, todavia no han sido estudiadas de modo s istema tico. Excavaciones en 16 depresiones pequenas llevadas a cabo en el noroeste de Belice mostraron que estas estructuras son tanto de origen natural del karst (dolinas) como cavidades excavadas. Cinco depresiones con fondo de roca madre dura y bajas densidades ceramicas y lfticas son interpretadas como naturales. Tres depresiones en las cuales se hallo sascab muyfino, barro y cortes en la roca madre probablemente formaron sascaberas, minas y canteras. Las dos depresiones mas pequenas resultaron ser chultunes derrumbados. Para un cuarto de la muestra se considero que la funcion era el almacenamiento de agua. Esta evaluacion se basa en la presencia de a'rea de recogida de tamano apreciable, sistemas de encauce y un substrato gris, muy duro, sobre la roca madre. Dicho substrato se interpreta como los restos destruidos de un antiguo sello. Algunas depresiones fueron usadas para diferentes actividades secuenciales no relacionadas. Una depresion probablemente sirvio como area de produccion domestica, otra pudiera haber sido usada para cultivo. Dos depresiones probablemente fueron empleadas como basureros. Algunos investigadores han cuestionado la capacidad de depresiones pequenas para funcionar como fuentes abastecedoras permanentes. Se realizaron calculos teoricos de uso y evaporacion de agua, usando una depresion que se considero como antiguo estanque de agua. Esta depresion almacena una capacidad aproximada de 57,000 litros de agua. Los calculos muestran que depresiones pequenas podrian mantener agua durante todo el ano y, por tanto, que su papel en el suministro de agua durante los meses de sequia puede ser mas importante de lo que generalmente se considera. El estudio indica que la poblacion Maya Cla'sica podria haber dependido de fuentes de agua decentralizadas y que la hipbtesis de control central del agua debe ser reconsiderada

Evidence for Early Long-Distance Obsidian Exchange and Watercraft Use from the Southern Lake Titicaca Basin of Bolivia and Peru

Abstract: Excavations at two sites on the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca, called Ch'uxuqullu and Titinhuayani, discovered significant preceramic (ca. 2000 B. C.) through Formative period (up to ca. A. D. 400) occupations. Excavation data indicate that there was a continuous occupation from the first known settlements on the island up to the present day. The early occupations on the island were culturally linked to the populations on the mainland, as indicated by ceramic analysis and the presence of nonlocal obsidian from the Colca Valley source, 275 km to the northwest. Our excavation data also reveal that there was a brisk exchange network between the island and mainland beginning at least during the Formative period, and probably earlier during the end of the Late Archaic period. Furthermore, paleoenvironmental data indicate that the island has been isolated from the mainland during most or all of the human occupation. The Lake Titicaca region of Peru and Bolivia was characterized by a system of exchange that relied, in part, on watercraft beginning at least by 1600 B. C.

Description and Method of Exploitation of the Alca Obsidian Source, Peru

Abstract: Despite three decades of obsidian studies in the Andes, the extraction zones for this raw material remain poorly understood. The extent and geology of the sources, their intra-source chemical compositional variation, and the means by which the sources were exploited prehistorically, have largely escaped study. This report describes the results of a geoarchaeological survey of the Alca obsidian source in the Cotahuasi Valley, Peru. The survey documented 16 discrete outcrops of obsidian across an area of 50 km2. The obsidian in these outcrops can be found both as volcaniclastic flows and nodules in poorly consolidated volcanic tuff. Neutron activation analyses on samples from these outcrops suggest that all obsidian came from the same parent magma. Five small quarries were found during the course of the survey. No evidence of control over the resource zone was found and we suggest that tight control over obsidian extraction in the valley would have been logistically difficult due to the size and nature of the deposits.

Left/Right Symbolism and the Body in Ancient Maya Iconography and Culture

Abstract: Throughout Maya history the left and right sides of the human body, left/right spatial orientation, and handedness have had important cultural and symbolic meanings. This essay examines left/right symbolism in relation to the body, which is generally overlooked in studies of archaeological societies and material culture, and discusses how it relates to ancient Maya ideology and behavior. New information from Classic Maya iconography, plus corroborative information from Maya ethnography and cross-cultural investigations, support the proposition that left/right symbolic differences and hierarchies were present in ancient Maya society. For the Classic Maya, as with contemporary Maya peoples, the right hand or side of the body often signified “pure, powerful, or superordinate,” and the left frequently symbolized “weaker, lame, or subordinate” in particular cultural contexts. Hence, in Classic Maya imagery, kings face to their right and use their right hands, while subordinates are oriented to their left and frequently use their left hands. Following comparative anthropological analyses, consideration of handedness and human body symmetry help explain the left/right dichotomy and the apparent primacy of the right in Classic Maya spatial reference, social order, and worldview. The findings of this study have important implications for the examination of left/right symbolism in material culture, images of the body, and ideology in other societies.

Houses on a Hill: Classic Period Life at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract: The increasing attention devoted to the investigation of prehispanic houses in Mesoamerica owes much theoretically and methodologically to the early household archaeology undertaken decades ago in the Valley of Oaxaca. Yet despite the large sample of Formative period houses excavated in this region, little is known about domestic life during the later Classic and Postclassic periods. In this paper we broaden the database of Classic period houses by reporting on excavations onfive residential terraces at El Palmillo, one of many large hilltop terraced sites in the valley that collectively housed as much as twothirds of the region 's Classic period population. Occupiedfor centuries, the terraces and their associated domestic compounds at El Palmillo underwent a series of coordinated episodes of wall construction, repair, and spatial modification. Craft activities-especially the production of chipped stone tools and magueyfiberfor cordage and cloth-were an important part of domestic life. The relative importance of these different household economic activities varied from terrace to terrace, indicating that domestic production was specialized and operated at the household level. Maguey and other xerophytic plants also provided important subsistence resources. Differences in access to nonlocal goods have been documented between terraces, although the extent of such variation is not marked in the present sample. Although preliminary, the El Palmillofindings provide a new empirical basis from which to examine domestic life and the economic and organizationalfoundations of Classic period hilltop terraced settlements in Oaxaca. These findings reflect on larger issues about the basic economy of later prehispanic Mesoamerica and the articulation of domestic units and household production into larger socioeconomic networks that theoretically extended well beyond ancient Oaxaca.

A Middle Archaic Archaeological Site on the West Coast of Mexico

Abstract: The Cerro de las Conchas shell mound, located on Mexico's south Pacific coast, was formed between 7,500 and 6,000/5,500 years ago, during the Middle Archaic period. Few Mesoamerican coastal sites are as early or have been studied so intensively. Limited diversity in the artifact assemblage and faunal origins, the presence of bedded strata, and the absence of features associated with permanent residency indicate that the site was used intermittently as a processing station for aquatic foods. Seasonality studies on clam shells suggest that this occurred year round. The site likely was situated initially adjacent to a brackish water lagoon near a tropical rainforest because faunal studies indicate a strong focus on lagoonal taxa, whereas a forested environment is indicated by phytoliths. Toward the end of the Middle Archaic, however, an increase in faunal and artifact richness, an emphasis on fauna with a tolerance for marine conditions, and phytolith evidence for more disturbance vegetation compared to earlier times, may be due to marine transgression. Later, pottery-using agricultural peoples used the site for farming and possibly residency. This example of early human adaptation to a coastal environment of Mesoamerica permits a corrective to previous research that is weighted heavily in favor of upland settings.

Power without Bounds? Middle Preclassic Political Developments in the Naco Valley, Honduras

Abstract: Recently completed investigations in the Naco Valley, located within the Rio Chamelecon drainage of northwestern Honduras, suggest that, by 1200 B. C., emergent elites were experiencing variable success in their efforts to construct sociopolitical hierarchies. Though able to harness labor in the construction of large platforms, these scions apparently did not monopolize crucial economic processes nor could they command the exclusive allegiances of their subordinates over protracted periods. Political centralization, social heterogeneity, and boundary formation processes were, therefore, not mutually reinforcing and the polities that resulted were small and ephemeral. Comparison of Naco"s trajectory with contemporary developments in neighboring portions of southeastern Mesoamerica hint at the varied developmental paths that ultimately laid the foundation for the emergence of relatively stable, hierarchically organized polities in the subsequent Classic period (A. D. 200–900).

Imperial and Social Relations in Postclassic South-Central Veracruz, Mexico

Abstract: We explore social and imperial relations in the western lower Papaloapan Basin, especially along the lower Blanco River, using statistical analyses of ceramic rims from recent surveys. This region is sandwiched between two known tributary provincial centers of the Aztec empire, but its relationship to the empire is uncertain in colonial documentary materials. Our analyses illuminate changes in social relations from the Middle (A. D. 1150–1350) to Late Postclassic (A. D. 1350–1520) periods and shed light on the impact of Aztec imperialism. We use a ceramic unmixing procedure to assign collections to the Middle and Late Postclassic periods for assessment of settlement patterns. Next we use cluster analyses to examine vertical wealth and status differentiation. In the Middle Postclassic period, we observe a concentric gradation of wealth and status away from the small center of El Sauce. Late Postclassic changes include the decline of El Sauce and the founding of a new center at Callejon del Horno. The concentric model does not apply to the Late Postclassic period, however, and wealth and status became more highly concentrated at Callejon del Horno compared to its hinterland. We also investigate sparse collections-those with few Postclassic rims-to evaluate whether these collections represent poor residences or, rather, sherd scatter from possible field manuring. The lower Blanco region was likely integrated into the Aztec empire on the basis of changes in vertical social differentiation from Middle to Late Postclassic times and percentages of Aztec-style ceramics compared to known Aztec provincial centers, especially Cotaxtla.

An Early Classic Colonnaded Building at the Maya Site of Blue Creek, Belize

Abstract: Investigations of the civic architecture at the Lowland Maya site of Blue Creek, Belize, have documented an Early Classic building with a colonnaded superstructure. Although one of only six such buildings reported from the Maya Lowlands, this architectural form appears to be a variant of a more common type of colonnaded building. An examination of such structures from a site-planning perspective indicates that columns may have been used by the Maya to create buildings that were conducive to movement, and for the conduct and/or viewing of public activities. The present study refutes the commonly held assumption that the use of columns in Maya architecture was limited in both spatial and temporal distribution, and instead shows them to have been widely distributed throughout the Maya Lowlands by the middle of the Classic Period.

Getting Closer to the Source: Using Ethnoarchaeology to Find Ancient Pottery Making in the Naco Valley, Honduras

Abstract: The problem of finding the locations of ceramic production has limited interpretations of prehispanic Mesoamerican economies. A new method for locating pottery-making is offered that emphasizes ties between the process of clay extraction and the manufacture of ceramic goods at the same clay source. Observations at modern brick and roof tile-making factories (tejeras) in the Naco Valley, Honduras, show that an effective arrangement for intensive production of ceramic goods is to create the finished product at the clay source. The major topographic transformations caused by clay extraction at tejeras, such as borrow pits and escarpments, are also signatures of prehistoric clay removal and, in many cases, can contribute to the identification of ancient pottery-making locations. A potential production locus was identified at the previously unremarkable and peripheral Site 108, where excavations successfully uncovered a prehistoric pottery workshop. By expanding the scope of our research methodologies, in this case actually implementing ethnoarchaeological understandings to the archaeological record, and by gathering more evidence for ancient pottery production, in this case at clay sources in rural areas, we are better positioned to understand the complexities of Mesoamerican economies.

Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History. Susan E. Alcock Terence N. D'Altroy, Kathleen D. Morrison, and Carla M. Sinopoli, editors. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2001. xxii + 523 pp., figures, tables, bibliography, index. $95.00 (cloth).

Abstract: This beautifully produced volume presents a vast quantity of up-to-date information on Old and New World empires, written by a group of scholars who can be counted among the most productive of those currently active in empire research in their respective regions. This distinguished list of contributors is roughly evenly split between those more historically grounded and those more anthropologically grounded, but there is no evident paradigmatic split between the two groups. Although the editors aimed for broad geographical coverage, there are a few missing pieces (for example, no Islamic empire of the Middle East is included), but, still, a strength of the book is its geographical, cultural, and temporal diversity. Representing the early Old World empires, there are chapters on the Achaemenid Persian (Amelie Kuhrt), the Satavahana dynasty of the Deccan of central and southern India, with comments on the prior Mauryan empire (Carla Sinopoli), the New Kingdom Egyptian empire in Nubia and the period of Kushite domination of Egypt (Robert Morkot), the Roman empire (Greg Woolf), the Roman empire in the east (Susan Alcock), the Qin empire of China (Robin Yates), the Vijayanagara empire of southern India (Kathleen Morrison), and the Assyrian empire (Mario Liverani). The precolumbian New World is amply represented, with chapters on the Wari empire of Middle Horizon Peru (Katharina Schreiber), the Aztec empire (in separate chapters by Michael Smith and Elizabeth Brumfiel), and the Inka empire (Terence D'Altroy).

Environmental Disaster and the Archaeology of Human Response. Garth Bawden and Richard Martin Reycraft, editors. Anthropological Papers, Vol. 7. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 2000. x + 228 pp., figures, tables, bibliography, index. $34.95 (paper).

Abstract: editors evidently had proposed an analytical scheme that symposium attendees were expected to follow, but no one did. As a substitute, they imposed a kind of structure on the book after the fact, placing papers in thematic sections titled \"Sources, Approaches, Definitions,\" \"Empires in a Wider World,\" \"Imperial Integration and Imperial Subjects,\" \"Imperial Ideologies,\" and \"The Afterlife of Empires,\" but most chapters strayed well beyond the confines of these rather loose and ad hoc categories. Only Barfield's interesting chapter is explicitly comparative, and, while some individual authors productively engage theory and the history of ideas (especially Michael Smith, Elizabeth Brumfiel, and Susan Alcock), for the most part the book presents a vast quantity of useful but largely unconnected facts. This outcome is odd in light of editors' claims that the book is \"explicitly comparative\" (p. 3, from Morrison's introduction to part I), but I detect at least some evidence of particularist bias, for example in Morrison's chapter on Vijayanagara, where she argues that comparison is an \"exercise that elides process altogether\" (p. 278). As it turns out, the \"explicit\" comparative method of the book consists only of juxtaposing different imperialisms widely separated in space and time (p. 3), but this rather passive technique leaves us with few useful comparative insights, and in fact, not even an agreed upon definition of empires (p. 5).

Island Lives: Historical Archaeologies of the Caribbean. Paul Farnsworth, editor. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 2001. xxiv + 378 pp., figures, tables, bibliography, index. $29.95 (paper).

Abstract: Cardale de Schrimpff classifies roads by whether they are short, medium, or long-distance routes, while Herrera, noting that individual roads are lost in the larger network, cautions against imposing a hierarchy on the roads and classifies them instead by the nature of the information known about them. Still, Herrera observes that the longest roads in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta run parallel to rivers and connect coastal areas to the adjacent highlands. Both Lippi and Cardale de Schrimpff note that ancient roads are often more direct than modern footpaths, which zigzag to accommodate cargo animals, and often also follow ridges rather than valleys. Many of the \"roads\" are actually \"multi-media\" transportation routes that combine foot travel with canoe travel (Cardale de Schrimpff; Erickson; Vidal and Zucchi).

Moqueries et mètamorphoses d'un dieu aztèque: Tezcatlipoca, le “Seigneur au miroir fumant”. Guilhem Olivier. Memoires, Vol. 33. Institut d'Ethnologie, Musée de l'Homme, Paris, 1997. 386 pp., figures, bibliography, index. 290 Francs (paper).

Abstract: of a fertile place, source of all foods and water, has remained well anchored in contemporary myths, even if today its aspect as a netherworld seems secondary" (p. 140). The scarce information concerning Cincalco, "the house of corn," describes a fertile place, akin to Tlalocan, with its marked lunar connotations (its master is none other than Huemac, patron of suicide). A little known netherworld, Chichihualcuauhco was reserved to the children who died young. Ragot quite rightly emphasizes the multiple associations of this place where the children suckle the milk of a nursing tree. This tree evokes Tamoanchan, a place of creation dominated by Ometeotl. Chichihualcuauhco also maintains close links with Tlalocan and Cincalco (the children are buried close to the grain silos) as well as with the solar paradise of the warriors, who are compared to birds just like the dead children. This leads the author to examine the delicate problem of the possible existence of a belief in reincarnation, a notion she refutes even if certain indications might allow us to consider the possibility of reincarnation in the case of children assimilated to "images" (ixiptla) of the ancestors. Following Lopez Austin (Tamoanchan y Tlalocan, 1994), Ragot examines the data relating to Tamoanchan, place of abundance and happiness, in particular the poetic sources.

Shaping Culture: Making Pots and Constructing Households: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Pottery Production, Trade and Use in the Andes. Bill Sillar BAR International Series, Vol. S883. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, 2000. viii + 219 pp., figures, tables, bibliography. $45.00 (paper).

Abstract: This book is a revised version of Bill Sillar's 1994 Ph.D. dissertation for the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. Ceramic (pottery) ethnoarchaeological studies range from ethnographic reports with a brief consideration of arfchaeological implications to largely archaeological reports that draw on ethnographic information as part of the interpretative process. Shaping Culture falls somewhere in the middle of this spectrum, a position consistent with the author's stress on the study of modern material eulture in his definition of ethnoarchaeology (p. 6). Ethnoarchaeology is presented as a vehicle for expanding the \"archaeologist's awareness of alternative explanations for data,\" indicating \"new data that could usefully be collected\" and suggesting \"new approaches to analysis which improve archaeological method.\" This volume is intended to address a noticeable gap in the ethnoarchaeological literature, namely, the role of material culture in the expression of social relations (p. 13). Throughout the volume attention is given to the social significance of pottery, as opposed to the identification of material correlates (signatures) of pottery-related behavior.