See How We Are: Representing Identity in the Ancient Americas

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

“Identity” is a broad term that can be used in a number of ways, with varying meanings. Focusing on the definition “presentation of a group or individual's perceived qualities to other members of the group or to outsiders,” this session explores the way in which identity has been defined in the Pre-Columbian Americas. Identity types can be political, ethnic, social, gendered, or involve leadership, while strategies of representation may include landscape modification, architecture, body modification, costume, or visual arts. Chief among the questions to be explored is what kinds of identities were important, and what strategies for representing membership in an identity group were used. Issues of alterity, propaganda, and conflict, as well as the creation and maintenance of normative structures, are explored.

Other Keywords
Identity • Ceramics • Dress • Social Identity • Gender • sacrifice • Aztec • mortuary • andes • Maize

Geographic Keywords
South America • Mesoamerica • North America - Southeast

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-15 of 15)

  • Documents (15)
Documents
  1. Community and Ancestors in the Titicaca Basin during the Formative Period (2015)
  2. Cross-dressing to Complement the King: Eco-iconography of the Aztec Cihuacoatl’s Costume (2015)
  3. Evolving Identities in Early Andean Art: Figurative Ceramics from Ancient Ecuador (2015)
  4. The Expression of Human Identity on Wari Faceneck Vessels (2015)
  5. Head Motifs on Cupisnique Style Ceramics: Emblems of Cultural Identity in Early Andean Art (2015)
  6. High and Low: Highland and Coastal Dress in the Andean Region, 100-800 (2015)
  7. IDENTITY, PRESENCE AND POLITICAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE MORTUARY RITUALS OF PARACAS NECRÓPOLIS (2015)
  8. Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Gulf Coast Olmec Sex, Gender, and Dress as Reflected in the San Bartolo Murals (2015)
  9. Intersecting Identities in Southeastern U.S. Prehistory (2015)
  10. Phased Out: The Distinctive Identities of Late Mississippian Communities in Eastern Tennessee (2015)
  11. Ramada Textiles from Southern Peru: Death’s Social Skins (2015)
  12. Representing and Negotiating Moche Identity in Everyday Life (2015)
  13. Sacrifice and Social Identity: Untangling Identity from a Mass Burial at Matrix 101, Huaca Las Ventanas, Peru (2015)
  14. Scaling the Huaca: Constructing Late Moche Identity through Architectonic Re-presentation of Place at Huaca Colorada, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru (2015)
  15. Visual Representations and Entanglements: Photography and Native Identity-Making in the Classroom and Museum (2015)