Ideology and pre-Columbian civilizations
By: edited by Arthur A. Demarest and Geoffrey W. Conrad.
Contributors: Demarest, Arthur Andrew.; Conrad, Geoffrey W.
Series: School of American Research advanced seminar series
Publisher: School of American Research Press; Distributed by University of Washington Press
Published: 1992
Place of publication: Santa Fe, N.M; [Seattle]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 261
Subjects: Indian philosophy -- Congresses.; Indians -- Politics and government -- Congresses.; Indians -- Economic conditions -- Congresses.; Ideology -- Congresses.; Ethnoarchaeology -- Latin America -- Congresses.; Marxian archaeology -- Latin America -- Congresses.; Latin America -- Antiquities -- Congresses.
Other titles: Ideology.
Description: "The role played by ideology in the evolution of civilizations is being energetically debated by archaeologists, but until now the theoretical debates have had little impact on the actual interpretation of field data from Mesoamerica or South America. Studies on pre-Columbian ideology have generally used historical, ethnohistorical, and iconographic data to look synchronically at specific ancient religions. Little progress has been made in applying archaeological information to address the broader problem of the role of ideology in prehistoric culture change... The authors of these papers take a variety of theoretical approaches, seeking to understand how ideology interacts with the ecological, economic, and political factors involved in culture change. They are concerned not with ideologies or cosmologies per se but with the effect of ideology on power relations, since the expansions and collapses of civilizations are, in the end, the successes and failures of political systems"--Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-255) and index.
Cover title: Ideology.