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Over the millennia, from stone tools among early foragers to clays
to prized metals and mineral pigments used by later groups, mineral
resources have had a pronounced role in the Andean world.
Archaeologists have used a variety of analytical techniques on the
materials that ancient peoples procured from the earth. What these
materials all have in common is that they originated in a mine or
quarry. Despite their importance, comparative analysis between
these archaeological sites and features has been exceptionally
rare, and even more so for the Andes. Mining and Quarrying in the
Ancient Andes focuses on archaeological research at primary
deposits of minerals extracted through mining or quarrying in the
Andean region. While mining often begins with an economic need, it
has important social, political, and ritual dimensions as well. The
contributions in this volume place evidence of primary extraction
activities within the larger cultural context in which they
occurred. This important contribution to the interdisciplinary
literature presents research and analysis on the mining and
quarrying of various materials throughout the region and through
time. Thus, rather than focusing on one material type or one
specific site, Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes
incorporates a variety of all the aspects of mining, by focusing on
the physical, social, and ritual aspects of procuring materials
from the earth in the Andean past.
Over the millennia, from stone tools among early foragers to clays
to prized metals and mineral pigments used by later groups, mineral
resources have had a pronounced role in the Andean world.
Archaeologists have used a variety of analytical techniques on the
materials that ancient peoples procured from the earth. What these
materials all have in common is that they originated in a mine or
quarry. Despite their importance, comparative analysis between
these archaeological sites and features has been exceptionally
rare, and even more so for the Andes. Mining and Quarrying in the
Ancient Andes focuses on archaeological research at primary
deposits of minerals extracted through mining or quarrying in the
Andean region. While mining often begins with an economic need, it
has important social, political, and ritual dimensions as well. The
contributions in this volume place evidence of primary extraction
activities within the larger cultural context in which they
occurred. This important contribution to the interdisciplinary
literature presents research and analysis on the mining and
quarrying of various materials throughout the region and through
time. Thus, rather than focusing on one material type or one
specific site, Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes
incorporates a variety of all the aspects of mining, by focusing on
the physical, social, and ritual aspects of procuring materials
from the earth in the Andean past.
Although ancient civilizations in the Andes are rich in
history--with expansive empires, skilled artisans, and vast temple
centers--the history of the Andean foothills on the south coast of
present-day Peru is only now being unveiled. Nasca, a prehispanic
society that flourished there from AD 1 to 750, is best known for
its polychrome pottery, its enigmatic geoglyphs (the 'Nasca
Lines'), and its ceremonial center, Cahuachi, which was the seat of
power in early Nasca. However, despite the fact that archaeologists
have studied Nasca civilization for more than a century, until now
they have not pieced together the daily lives of Nasca residents.
With this book, Kevin Vaughn offers the first portrait of village
life in this ancient Andean society. Vaughn is interested in how
societies develop and change, in particular their subsistence and
political economies, interactions between elites and commoners, and
the ritual activities of everyday life. By focusing on one village,
Marcaya, he not only illuminates the lives and relationships of its
people but he also contributes to an understanding of the more
general roles played by villages in the growth of increasingly
complex societies in the Andes. By examining agency in local
affairs, he is able for the first time to explore the nature of
power in Nasca and how it may have changed over time. By studying
village and household activities, Vaughn argues, we can begin to
appreciate from the ground up such essential activities as
production, consumption, and the ideologies revealed by
rituals--and thereby gain fresh insights into ancient
civilizations.
Leaders make decisions that have significant impacts on the lives
of others. They have the ability to influence events and impact the
evolutionary trajectories of societies. Leaders exist in all
societies, ranging from smaller-scale heads of households to
larger-scale elected governing bodies to dictators with vast
coercive powers at their disposal. Today, all of us are familiar
with and see (and feel) the influence of leaders. Given that
leaders and leadership are so influential on human social behavior,
and yet are variably represented among different societies in the
past and present, generations of scholars have examined these
social phenomena from a variety of humanistic and scientific
perspectives. This book, the product of an advanced seminar at the
School for Advanced Research (SAR), brings together the
perspectives of cultural anthropologists and archaeologists to
explore why and how leadership emerges and variously becomes
institutionalized among disparate small-scale and middle-range
human societies." A series of authoritative snapshots describe what
archaeology and ethnography can tell us about leadership in small-
and medium-sized societies. The geographic coverage is broad, the
range of examples impressive. This is an important and timely
contribution to the long-standing ; and often repetitive ; debates
about the nature of leadership in smaller-scale societies." Brian
Fagan, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, University of California
- Santa Barbara
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