Ancient Households of the Americas : conceptualizing what households do / edited by John G. Douglass, Nancy Gonlin.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Douglass, John G., editor.

Gonlin, Nancy, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians--Antiquities--Congresses.

Land settlement patterns.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 448 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

Ancient Households of the Americas

Place of Publication:

Boulder : University Press of Colorado, 2012.

Summary:

In Ancient Households of the Americas archaeologists investigate the fundamental role of household production in ancient, colonial, and contemporary households. Several different cultures-Iroquois, Coosa, Anasazi, Hohokam, San Agustín, Wankarani, Formative Gulf Coast Mexico, and Formative, Classic, Colonial, and contemporary Maya-are analyzed through the lens of household archaeology in concrete, data-driven case studies. The text is divided into three sections: Section I examines the spatial and social organization and context of household production; Section II looks at the role and results of households as primary producers; and Section III investigates the role of, and interplay among, households in their greater political and socioeconomic communities. In the past few decades, household archaeology has made substantial contributions to our understanding and explanation of the past through the documentation of the household as a social unit-whether small or large, rural or urban, commoner or elite. These case studies from a broad swath of the Americas make Ancient Households of the Americas extremely valuable for continuing the comparative interdisciplinary study of households.

Contents:

The household as analytical unit : case studies from the Americas / John G. Douglass and Nancy Gonlin

Occupation span and the organization of residential activities : a cross-cultural model and case study from the Mesa Verde region / Mark D. Varien

Production and consumption in the countryside : a case study from the late classic Maya rural commoner households at Copán, Honduras / Nancy Gonlin

Iroquoian households : a Mohawk longhouse at Otstungo, New York / Dean R. Snow

Activity areas and households in the late Mississippian southeast United States : who did what where? / Ramie A. Gougeon

The social evolution of potters' households in Ticul, Yucatán, Mexico, 1965-1997 / Dean E. Arnold

Pots and agriculture : Anasazi rural household production, Long House Valley, northern Arizona / John G. Douglass and Robert A. Heckman

Hohokam household organization, sedentism, and irrigation in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona / Richard Ciolek-Torrello

Understanding households on their own terms : investigations on household sizes, production, and longevity at K'axob, Belize / H. Hope Henderson

Late classic period terrace agriculture in the lowland Maya area : modeling the organization of terrace agricultural activity / L. Theodore Neff

Fluctuating community organization : formation and dissolution of multifamily corporate groups at La Joya, Veracruz, Mexico / Valerie J. McCormack

Relationships among households in the prehispanic community of Mesitas in San Agustín, Colombia / Víctor González Fernández

Interhousehold versus intracommunity comparisons : incipient socioeconomic complexity at Jachakala, Bolivia / Christine Beaule

Arrobas, fanegas, and mantas : identifying continuity and change in early colonial Maya household production / Darcy Lynn Wiewall.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Includes bibliographical references and index.