About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of Arizona Press

ISBN-100816529760

ISBN-139780816529766

eBay Product ID (ePID)99563655

Product Key Features

Number of Pages272 Pages

Publication NameLiving with the Dead : Mortuary Ritual in Mesoamerica

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2011

SubjectArchaeology, Latin America / Pre-Columbian Era, Indigenous Studies, Native American

TypeTextbook

AuthorJames L. Fitzsimmons

Subject AreaSocial Science, History

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.9 in

Item Weight16.9 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2010-050571

Reviews" Living with the Dead is a seminal contribution that advances our understanding of the very active roles that persons who would be considered 'dead' in Western cosmology played in ancient Mesoamerica. The contributors engage cutting-edge social and anthropological theory in their analyses of Mesoamerican case studies that cross-cut space and time. The contributions showcase the value of a cross-disciplinary approach to understanding Mesoamerica, as the archaeological, art historical, and ethnohistoric interpretive paradigms employed by the authors together yield a fuller and more compelling view of the relationships between the living and the dead in ancient Mesoamerica than any one of them alone could accomplish." -Jason Yaeger, co-editor of Classic Maya Provincial Politics: Xunantunich and Its Hinterlands, " Living with the Dead is a seminal contribution that advances our understanding of the very active roles that persons who would be considered 'dead' in Western cosmology played in ancient Mesoamerica. The contributors engage cutting-edge social and anthropological theory in their analyses of Mesoamerican case studies that cross-cut space and time. The contributions showcase the value of a cross-disciplinary approach to understanding Mesoamerica, as the archaeological, art historical, and ethnohistoric interpretive paradigms employed by the authors together yield a fuller and more compelling view of the relationships between the living and the dead in ancient Mesoamerica than any one of them alone could accomplish." -Jason Yaeger, co-editor of Classic Maya Provincial Politics: Xunantunich and Its Hinterlands, " Living with the Dead is a seminal contribution that advances our understanding of the very active roles that persons who would be considered 'dead' in Western cosmology played in ancient Mesoamerica. The contributors engage cutting-edge social and anthropological theory in their analyses of Mesoamerican case studies that cross-cut space and time. The contributions showcase the value of a cross-disciplinary approach to understanding Mesoamerica, as the archaeological, art historical, and ethnohistoric interpretive paradigms employed by the authors together yield a fuller and more compelling view of the relationships between the living and the dead in ancient Mesoamerica than any one of them alone could accomplish."--Jason Yaeger, co-editor of Classic Maya Provincial Politics: Xunantunich and Its Hinterlands

Dewey Edition22

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal972/.01

Table Of Content1 Introduction James L. Fitzsimmons and Izumi Shimada 2 The Role of Dead Bodies in Late Classic Maya Politics: Cross-Cultural Reflections on the Meaning of Tikal Altar 5 Estella Weiss-Krejci 3 Perspectives on Death and Transformation in Ancient Maya Society: Human Remains as a Means to an End James L. Fitzsimmons 4 Ghosts Amid the Ruins: Analyzing Relationships between the Living and the Dead among the Ancient Maya at Caracol, Belize Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase 5 Bodies, Bones, and Burials: Corporeal Constructs and Enduring Relationships in Oaxaca, Mexico Jeffrey P. Blomster 6 Interactions between the Living and the Dead at Major Monuments in Teotihuacan Saburo Sugiyama 7 Concepts of Death and the Afterlife in Central Mexico Elizabeth Baquedano 8 Toward a Hermeneutics of Death: Commentary on Seven Essays Written for Living with the Dead Patricia A. McAnany About the Editors About the Contributors Index

SynopsisThis useful volume offers new insights into the many ways in which the dead and the living interacted in prehistoric and historic Mesoamerica. Here well-known scholars offer synergistic insights by employing historical sources, comparative art history, anthropology, and sociology, as well as archeology and anthropology. Together they uncover surprising commonalities across Mesoamerican cultures., Scholars have recently achieved new insights into the many ways in which the dead and the living interacted from the Late Preclassic to the Conquest in Mesoamerica. The eight essays in this useful volume were written by well-known scholars who offer cross-disciplinary and synergistic insights into the varied articulations between the dead and those who survived them. From physically opening the tomb of their ancestors and carrying out ancestral heirlooms to periodic feasts, sacrifices, and other lavish ceremonies, heirs revisited death on a regular basis. The activities attributable to the dead, moreover, range from passively defining territorial boundaries to more active exploits, such as "dancing" at weddings and "witnessing" royal accessions. The dead were--and continued to be--a vital part of everyday life in Mesoamerican cultures. This book results from a symposium organized by the editors for an annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The contributors employ historical sources, comparative art history, anthropology, and sociology, as well as archaeology and anthropology, to uncover surprising commonalities across cultures, including the manner in which the dead were politicized, the perceptions of reciprocity between the dead and the living, and the ways that the dead were used by the living to create, define, and renew social as well as family ties. In exploring larger issues of a "good death" and the transition from death to ancestry, the contributors demonstrate that across Mesoamerica death was almost never accompanied by the extinction of a persona; it was more often the beginning of a social process than a conclusion.

LC Classification NumberF1435.3.M6L58 2011