Power (Other Keyword)
1-25 (37 Records)
Throughout its occupation, Homol’ovi I, a Pueblo IV site in northeastern Arizona, underwent continuous alteration reflecting the movement of groups both internally and externally. The constant attention to rebuilding, redirecting, and resurfacing rooms and the meticulous patterning of depositional material within structures indicate a continued endeavor to reform the built environment to better reflect the identities, needs, and memories of the current residents. In order to analyze the...
After Monte Albán (2008)
After Monte Albán reveals the richness and interregional relevance of Postclassic transformations in the area now known as Oaxaca, which lies between Central Mexico and the Maya area and, as contributors to this volume demonstrate, achieved cultural centrality in pan-Mesoamerican networks. Large nucleated states throughout Oaxaca collapsed after 700 C.E., including the great Zapotec state centered in the Valley of Oaxaca, Monte Albán. Elite culture changed in fundamental ways as small...
ALIMENTACIÓN Y SOCIEDAD. PALEODIETA DE UNA POBLACIÓN MUISCA DE LA SABANA DE BOGOTÁ, EL CASO DE TIBANICA – SOACHA (2015)
El presente estudio fue llevado a cabo combinando información arqueológica, bioantropológica y análisis químico de hueso, específicamente de isótopos estables en una muestra muisca del sur de la sabana de Bogotá. Como objetivo principal se buscó la reconstrucción de la dieta antigua de la sociedad muisca tardía asentada en Tibanica y su relación con aspectos sociales. Específicamente, la investigación estuvo orientada a comparar la relación isotópica de una muestra de 200 individuos con el fin...
Architecture and human sacrifice: political and ideological significance of the ritual deposits in monumental earthen architecture in South-Central Veracruz (2016)
Investigations at several of the thousands of pre-Columbian mounded sites along the southern Gulf coast of Mexico revealed the existence of monumental earthen architecture. These supposedly "simple mounds" resulted to be sunken plazas, pyramids, palaces, ball-courts, tombs and altars that were part of an urban layout. In high-ranking sites, buildings are recurrently associated with deposits reflecting several distinct rituals involving human sacrifice. Such findings bring added evidence for the...
Authority via Mobility: Interpreting Yamasee Ceramics (2018)
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...
British Period Archaeology and Heritage in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The north-western region of Pakistan was a late addition to British India when it was annexed by the British after the Second Sikh War (1848-9). Standing between Imperial Russia and British India the region was of primary importance to the British as an area of strategic control. As part of a new project exploring the archaeology...
Butterfly Imagery among the Classic Period Zapotecs of the Valley of Oaxaca (2017)
This paper explores the meaning of butterfly imagery among Classic period Zapotecs of the Valley of Oaxaca. Images of butterflies, or parts of their anatomy, sometimes appear on effigy vessels found in tombs. The effigy vessels represent rulers, or other individuals of high social-standing, as jaguars, owls or the Fire Serpent. I argue that rulers of Zapotec urban centers were perceived to have a number of specific naguales or alter-egos that constitute the moral basis of political power. The...
By Whose Authority? A Settler Archaeologist’s Approach to Relinquishing Control in Indigenous and Collaborative Archaeologies. (2024)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Research that purposefully redistributes authority can have more ethical and innovative results than standard hierarchical research models. This paper summarizes the results of projects “with, by, and for” (sensu Atalay 2012) Native American communities who had more authority in decision making than standard projects typically do. First, the...
Classic Maya Politics and the Spirit of Place: Controlling Architectural Discourse at Uxul, Campeche, Mexico (2017)
Settlements are both product and site of innumerable, multi-layered, and constantly changing interactions between humans and the material world. At any given moment, the quintessence of a place reflects the prevailing meanings that are associated with it. In this sense, quintessence is inextricably linked to power—over discourse, material, and space. This talk explores the role played by political power in defining the character of the Classic Maya settlement of Uxul, Campeche, Mexico. After...
Cosmology in the New World
This project consists of articles written by members of Santa Fe Institute’s cosmology research group. Overall, the goal of this group is to understand the larger relationships between cosmology and society through a theoretically open-ended, comparative examination of the ancient American Southwest, Southeast, and Mesoamerica.
Cultural Settlement and Water Management Strategies at Holtun, Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Holtun: Investigations at a Preclassic Maya Center" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Water management is intrinsically associated with the development and support of complex societies. Water was a significant source of power among the ancient Maya. Although traditional research characterizes water management as homogeneous and monolithic, recent studies show that it was highly variable and adapted accordingly. The case...
De-Centering Expertise in Public Archaeology: Promises and Perils from the Great Bay Archaeological Survey (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Public Archaeology in New Hampshire: Museum and University Research" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Great Bay Archaeological Survey (GBAS) explores early colonial settlements in the Great Bay Estuary (1620-1750 AD). Public and community are buzzwords in conversations around the future of archaeology because there is a sense we must have real buy-in from the broader public to remain relevant. However,...
Developing Perspectives on Tonto Basin Prehistory (1992)
This monograph is a collection of papers presented at the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans. These papers present preliminary results after two years of work on the eight year mitigation program investigating Salado Platform Mound Villages in the Tonto Basin, Arizona. Each paper constitutes an individual chapter. They include: 1. Introduction 2. Pursuing Southwestern Social Complexity in the 1990s 3. Modeling the Development of Complexity in the...
Expressions of Power in Public Architecture in the Lurín Valley (2015)
This paper examines public architecture and expressions of power in the Lurín Valley of central-coast Peru. During the Late Intermediate and Late Horizon Periods, adobe pyramids with ramps characterize the public architecture of sites in the valley. Analysis of the architectural configuration of pyramids with ramps in relation to domestic compounds within the public sectors of the settlement indicates a hierarchical arrangement. The conspicuous design and placement of the pyramids suggest a...
Farm Tools Through the Ages (1973)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Hierarchies and Heterarchies in Iron Age Europe (2016)
Traditionally, Iron Age communities have been depicted as hierarchical, triangular societies, with elites at the top of the social pyramid and a strong warrior tradition. However, archaeological evidence reveals very varied patterns of societies during the First Millennium BC in Europe, from those that display marked signs of social hierarchy, to others where social differentiation was much less pronounced. This paper aims to contribute to the task of rethinking Iron Age communities from the...
Household and Political Economy in Ancient Hohokam Society (2017)
Examining household-level economic behaviors has long been a means for archaeologists to explore social and political organization in ancient Hohokam society. In this presentation, I reflect on the training and influence of Katherine Spielmann in my thinking about the economic roots of inequality in small- scale societies and begin to outline an explicitly political-economic framework to explore the structure and bases of power among the Hohokam of southern Arizona. The Hohokam household was the...
An Intersectional Archaeology of Colonial White Male Privilege? (2017)
I suggest that it is worth pursuing an archaeology of white male privilege through the contextual study of white privileged males. Among many outcomes, this project can de-naturalize "maleness" and "whiteness" as nomothetic and unmarked—thereby advantaged—social categories and reveal systematized advantage/oppression. Historical gendering was a nuanced process. Masculinity had multiple practiced and experienced forms. They persisted even within a tightly controlled environment, such as colonial...
An Intersectional Archaeology of Women's Reproductive Rights (2017)
Black feminist activists working in reproductive rights have long pointed out that access to abortion must be part of a larger project that also addresses poverty, racism, and other vectors of oppression that impact on women's ability to exercise free choice over their reproduction. Family planning decisions sit at the intersection of these power structures. This is illustrated at an early 20th-century tenement in Easton, Maryland, where gender ideals, racial segregation, slumlord renting,...
Mana and Tapu (1989)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Microhistories of the "Funnel Effect": Tracing the banal materialities of U.S. border enforcement, 2000-present (2017)
Nearly two decades have passed since the strategic border security paradigm known as "prevention through deterrence" took root in the landscape of Southern Arizona. The aim is to deter illicit migration by strategically amassing border security forces to funnel migrants into a treacherous landscape of increased risk. Thousands of undocumented migrants have died when confronting those risks in an outcome known as the "funnel effect." This paper draws upon dissertation research that studied the...
A Modern World Archaeology: Two Decades Later (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Transformation of Historical Archaeology: Papers in Honor of Charles E Orser, Jr" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Few have shaped the field of historical archaeology like Chuck Orser. His dedication to the discipline, contributions to archaeological theory and practice, and prolific and growing list of publications are foundations for scholarship in the field. Despite his evolving interests, Orser remains...
Monumental Architecture and Power in Polynesian Chiefdoms: a Comparison of Tonga and Hawai`i (1990)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
More Carved Monuments from Rio Viejo and their Historical Implications (2017)
The analysis of a dozen recently documented inscribed monuments from the ancient urban center of Rio Viejo, in the Pacific littoral of Oaxaca, provides new insights regarding the historical and political development of the regional capital in the lower drainage of the Rio Verde.
Mundane material culture and political identity in Long Kesh / Maze prison (2013)
Studies of the material culture of political imprisonment during the Northern Irish Troubles have hitherto concentrated on prisoner self-expression – especially through the creation of contraband and handicrafts - or the presencing of prison protests in external communities through wall murals. Of less aesthetic value, but highly significant as a both a signifier of compliance / dissent and criminal / political status, are the relationships between prisoners and prison-issue artefacts. From...