Religion and politics in the ancient Americas / edited by Sarah B. Barber and Arthur A. Joyce.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Barber, Sarah B., editor.

Joyce, Arthur A., editor.

Series:

Routledge archaeology of the ancient Americas

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indigenous peoples--Religion.

Indigenous peoples.

Indians--Religion.

Indigenous peoples--Politics and government.

Indians--Politics and government.

Religion and politics--America.

Religion and politics.

Archaeology--America.

Archaeology.

Indigenous peoples--Antiquities.

Indians--Antiquities.

America.

Physical Description:

xvi, 307 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : Routledge, 2018.

Summary:

"This exciting collection explores the interplay of religion and politics in the precolumbian Americas. Each thought-provoking contribution positions religion as a primary factor influencing political innovations in this period, reinterpreting major changes through an examination of how religion both facilitated and constrained transformations in political organization and status relations. Offering unparalleled geographic and temporal coverage of this subject, Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americas spans the entire precolumbian period, from Preceramic Peru to the Contact period in eastern North America, with case studies from North, Middle, and South America. Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americas considers the ways in which religion itself generated political innovation and thus enabled political centralization to occur. It moves beyond a "Great Tradition" focus on elite religion to understand how local political authority was negotiated, contested, bolstered, and undermined within diverse constituencies, demonstrating how religion has transformed non-Western societies. As well as offering readers fresh perspectives on specific archaeological cases, this book breaks new ground in the archaeological examination of religion and society."--Page [4] of cover.

Contents:

1. New directions in the archaeology of religion and politics in the Americas / Arthur A. Joyce

2. The mobile house : religious leadership at Chacoan and Chacoan revival centers / Erina Gruner

3. The elements of Cahokian shrine complexes and basis of Mississippian religion / Susan M. Alt and Timothy R. Pauketat

4. Cherokee religion and European contact in southeastern North America / Christopher B. Rodning

5. Unsettled gods : religion and politics in the Early Formative Soconusco / Sarah B. Barber

6. Religion, urbanism, and inequality in ancient central Mexico / David M. Carballo

7. Religion in a material world / Rosemary A. Joyce

8. Political engagement in household ritual among the Maya of Yucatan / Scott R. Hutson, Céline C. Lamb, and David Medina Arona

9. Ritual is power? : Religion as a possible base of power for early political actors in ancient Peru / Matthew Piscitelli

10. Timing is everything : religion and the regulation of temporalities in precolumbian Peru / Edward Swenson

11. From landscape to ontology in Amazonia : the Llanos de Mojos as a middle ground / John H. Walker

12. The multivalent mollusk : Spondylus, ritual, and politics in the prehispanic Andes / Jerry D. Moore

13. Power at the crossroads of politics and religion : a commentary / María Nieves Zedeño.

Notes:

Book available in 2017.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781138907881

113890788X

9781138907898

1138907898

9781315694856

1315694859

OCLC:

1005140857

Publisher Number:

99974521872