Mesoamerican Ritual Economy
Archaeological and Ethnological Perspectives
Will be published approx. on 30. May 2007
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-0-87081-871-4 (ISBN)
Description
Scholars examine the extent to which economic processes were driven by and integrated with religious ritual in ancient Mesoamerica. The contributors explore how traditional rituals -- human blood sacrifice and self-mutilation, 'flowery wars' and battling butterfly warriors, sumptuous feasting with chocolate and tamales, and fantastic funerary rites -- intertwined with all sectors of the economy. Examining the interplay between well-established religious rites and market forces of raw material acquisition, production, circulation, and consumption, this volume effectively questions the idea that materialism alone motivates the production, exchange, and use of objects. Exploring the intersection of spirituality and materiality, MESOAMERICAN RITUAL ECONOMY will be of interest to all scholars studying how worldview and belief motivate economic behaviour. The authors consider a diverse set of Mesoamerican cultural patterns in order to investigate the ways in which ritual and economic practices influenced each other in the operation of communities, small-scale societies, and state-level polities.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Colorado
United States
Product notice
Laminated cover
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
608 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-87081-871-4 (9780870818714)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
E. Christian Wells and Karla L. Davis-Salazar are assistant professors of anthropology at the University of South Florida.
Content
Contents; List of Figures; List of Tables; Contributors; Preface; 1: Mesoamerican Ritual Economy: Materialization as Ritual and Economic Process; E. Christian Wells and Karla L. Davis-Salazar; Part I: Acquisition; 2: Faenas, Ferias, and Fiestas: Ritual Finance in Ancient and Modern Honduras; E. Christian Wells; 3: Ritual, Crafting, and Agency at the Classic Maya Kingdom of Cancuen; Brigitte Kovacevich; 4: Addicted to Rituals of Contested Meanings in Colonial Mexico; Enrique Rodriguez-Alegria; 5: Ritual Pilgrimage and Material Transfers in Prehispanic Northwest Mexico; E. Christian Wells and Ben A. Nelson; 6: Ritual, Politics, and Pottery Economies in the Classic Maya Southern Lowlands; Antonia E. Foias; Part II: Consumption; 7: Ritual Consumption and the Origins of Social Inequality in Early Formative Cop n, Honduras; Karla L. Davis-Salazar; 8: Polity Produced and Community Consumed: Negotiating Political Centralization through Ritual in the Lower Rio Verde Valley, Oaxaca; Sarah B. Barber and Arthur A. Joyce; 9: Material Dimensions of Aztec Religion and Ritual; Frances F. Berdan; 10: The Roles of the Ballgames in Mesoamerican Ritual Economy; Barbara W. Fash and William L. Fash; Part III: Reflection; 11: Ritual and Political Economies; Katherine A. Spielmann; 12: Ritual Economy and the Negotiation of Autarky and Interdependence in a Ritual Mode of Production; John M. Watanabe; Index