Communities of Practice (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Larry Steinbrenner.

Despite being the largest country in Central America, Nicaragua’s archaeological record remains the least explored and most ignored. One consequence of this is that reconstructions of Nicaragua’s prehistory have tended to rely overmuch on rather sparse (and not necessarily reliable) ethnohistoric accounts in which migration from Mesoamerican homelands is heavily emphasized, generally to the detriment of other kinds of cultural phenomena, including indigenous developments that are not explicitly...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Flavio Silva De La Mora.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent research in the Maya Lowlands, particularly in Chiapas and Tabasco, has shed new light on the regional patterns and social practices of Late Classic Maya society. This presentation will build upon these findings by delving into the lithic materials unearthed from archaeological work at the site of Chinikihá. The focus will be on the significance of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shadreck Chirikure. Munyaradzi Manyanga. Genius Tevera.

This is an abstract from the "After Dark: The Nocturnal Urban Landscape & Lightscape of Ancient Cities" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. What was night life like at Great Zimbabwe? While this question excites imagination in numerous ways, in fact and myth, not much is known about nocturnal life in this ancient African urban landscape. Most archaeological reconstructions of urban life at Great Zimbabwe create the erroneous impression that the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Matthews. Emma Gilheany. Megan Hicks. Eric Johnson.

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Congress: Multivocal Conversations Furthering the World Archaeological Congress Agenda" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Working with marginalized Black and Indigenous communities shines a light on the use of archaeological research to support struggles for heritage, recognition, and well-being in settler colonial states. We highlight archaeology’s potential to alienate, whether alienating heritage as...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cynthia Hannold. Francisco Estrada-Belli.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geometric, anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and abstract forms comprise the variety of lithic silhouettes of Central America. Commonly called eccentrics, these elaborate, technically remarkable forms are often recovered from ritual offerings and elite burials. This paper addresses more than sixty eccentrics recovered in the Holmul region, primarily from the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shanna Diederichs.

This is an abstract from the "Adopting the Pueblo Fettle: The Breadth and Depth of the Basketmaker III Cultural Horizon" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A range of evidence suggests that the Ancestral Pueblo tradition of the northern Southwest crystallized during the Basketmaker III period in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. As farming was adopted and populations expanded, social problems related to conflict mitigation, land tenure, and private...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Zuzana Chovanec.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over that last 30 years, organic residue analysis has transitioned from the occasional experimental project to a key component of scientific archaeological investigations. Methodologies have advanced, frequencies of studies have increased, and the range of investigated substances and characterized biochemicals expanded. Still, in some circles, the great...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Paola Valentin Irizarry.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1952, Puerto Rico began a new era of self-administration. The establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico inspired the creation of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (1955). The propaganda given to indigenous heritage resulted in the rise of amateur archaeologists. This paper considers the contributions of these groups toward the development of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Linda Manzanilla.

This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the metropolis of Teotihuacan, Central Mexico, the ca. 22 neighborhoods are the most dynamic social units of this multiethnic society. Teopancazco is one of the southeastern neighborhood centers; it was excavated by Linda R. Manzanilla and her students during 13 field seasons (1997-2005), and studied in an interdisciplinary perspective, including...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jay Stephens. David Killick.

Evidence for trade between southern Africa and the Muslim world dates back to the 8th century CE. However, it is not until the 12th and 13th centuries, with the discovery of alluvial gold in southern Africa, that entanglement between the two regions intensified. As a result, state-level societies emerged and began incorporating aspects of the Muslim identity into their own culture. With the intensification of these trade relations, craftsmen began expanding their repertoire of iron and copper...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Douglas Stephens.

This is an abstract from the "Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me: What Have We Learned Over the Past 40 Years and How Do We Address Future Challenges" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Passage of federal environmental laws during the 1960’s forced otherwise autonomous bureaucracies to accept professions into their ranks that previously had no place. Public lands agencies like the Forest Service were required to employ archaeologists once the National Historic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Patrick Johnson.

Yamasees worked as non-missionized laborers in Spanish Florida, raided for Charleston traders, fought to expand Georgia, lived with Creek Indians, and worked as diplomats and traders in Pensacola. Letters, speeches, and testimony demonstrate that this mobility— often leading them to outnumber local occupants— allowed Yamasees to dictate terms to and take vengeance against other Native Americans as well as Europeans. Despite such authority, pottery assemblages demonstrate the frequent adoption of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kevin Wright.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of a study that uses x-ray fluorescence (XRF) to examine European glass trade beads from the Chickasawhay Creek Sites (22KE630 & 22KE718) in Kemper County, Mississippi. Together, these two sites present a unique opportunity to examine Choctaw ethnogenesis. Although a combination of archaeological and ethnohistorical research has...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sean Dolan.

Multiple lines of anthropological evidence demonstrate people moved from the northern San Juan region into the Pajarito Plateau in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries A.D. This Coalition to Classic period transition was a time of immense demographic and social reorganization that shaped the historical and cultural trajectories for future of Ancestral Pueblo people. As a consequence of the influx of diasporic households, how did this transformation affect traditions of obsidian...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelli Barnes.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A quick dive into regional databases can be invaluable in managing local resources. Updating regional contexts tends to be time consuming and expensive. However, obtaining general numbers of different site types, NRHP eligibility assessments, dates of use, and other basic information can be a quick exercise to guide future management. For example, basic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jenna Hurtubise.

This is an abstract from the "Casma State Material Culture and Society: Organizing, Analyzing, and Interpreting Archaeological Evidence of a Re-emergent Ancient Polity" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1968 and 1973, Donald Proulx conducted surface surveys of the Nepeña Valley, registering sites spanning different time periods and cultural occupations. One of these sites, registered as PV31-29, is Pan de Azúcar de Nepeña, a Casma site consisting...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Amy Hirshman.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Color is often a key variable to create and maintain different groupings in ceramic classification schemas. While the classification schema for ceramics for the Lake Pátzcaruo Basin and the cultural formations leading to the Late Postclassic Tarascan (P’urépecha) state and empire (Late Postclassic, ca AD 1350 to 1522) emphasizes paste, color is still an...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emilee Witte. Emily Schach. Donna Nash.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceramic vessels have been produced and in use for thousands of years. Ceramicists are tasked with the duty of creating unique wares and transmitting production knowledge through formal or informal apprentice relationships. In this poster, we compare the vessel forms and functions from the Middle Horizon sites of Cerro Mejia and Cerro Baul to the Late...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Adrien Martinet.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Northeastern Honduras has long been considered an isolated region of Central America, sitting at the peripheral edge of Mesoamerica and the Isthmo-Colombian Area. This preconception was particularly strong against its Late Formative period, since no site had previously been identified between the Cuyamel (ca. 1200 – 400 BCE) and Selin (ca. 300 – 1000 CE)...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maline Werness-Rude.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Chocholá style ceramics were part of a Late Classic northern Maya complex of luxury goods that identified the social status and political affiliation of their owners. Vessels in the style are distinguished by their deeply carved iconographic panels, distinctive formatting, and unique dedicatory formulae. Their recognizability—a necessary component of the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Leon Natker.

Since the beginning of archeological research, style has been used to characterize and define numerous aspects of social interaction and complexity, including communities of practice which structure ways in which elements of material culture are transmitted. The persistent transmission of knowledge through time and space implies a long lived community of practice. Chupadero Black-on-white, produced in central and southeast New Mexico, was possibly the longest lived of all the Black-on-white...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ann Stahl.

This is an abstract from the "Capacity Building or Community Making? Training and Transitions in Digital Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Funded by a Canadian SSHRC-funded partnership development grant, our working group of collaborators is engaged in training and capacity building in digital heritage methods in Ghana. Project aims include fostering a community of practice inclusive of archaeologists, heritage practitioners, students...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Krysta Ryzewski. Tareq Ramadan. Aaron Sims.

This is an abstract from the "Democratizing Heritage Creation: How-To and When" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation reflects upon the process and contributions of collaborative archaeology involved in the Malcolm X House Project in Inkster, Michigan. The 800-square-foot home was where Malcolm Little was living in 1952 when he assumed leadership roles in the Nation of Islam, changed his name to Malcolm X, and rose to international...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brice Obermeyer. Susan Bachor.

This is an abstract from the "Collaborative and Community Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2019, the Delaware Tribal Historic Preservation Office (DTHPO) partnered with East Stroudsburg University (ESU) to conduct noninvasive surveys of seven significant cultural and religious sites in Oklahoma. With support from the National Park Service (NPS), the DTHPO-led survey utilized ESU equipment and training to conduct the survey with...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chandra Reedy.

This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Measuring thermal conductivity of archaeological ceramics is useful because it is an important functional performance characteristic of vessels used for cooking or serving food or preparing or drinking hot beverages. The amount, size, and distribution of particles and pores greatly affect thermal conductivity, so this is a property that can be...