Making Value, Making Meaning: Techné in the Pre-Columbian World (Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Symposia and Colloquia) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0884024156 ISBN 13: 9780884024156

Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2016

Synopsis

Making Value, Making Meaning: Techné in the Pre-Columbian World adopts the concept of techné as an analytic tool useful for understanding how the production process created value and meaning for social valuables and public monuments in complex societies in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the Andes. In doing so, the archaeologists and art historians contributing to this volume add to the study of ancient artisans and craftsmanship through the exploration of how technology, the organization of production, artisan identity, and the deployment of esoteric knowledge factored into the creation of symbolically and politically charged material culture.

The wide-ranging case studies in this volume demonstrate that the concept of techné―thorough and masterful knowledge of a specific field deployed to create things with social utility―is a powerful one for understanding the political economy of craft production and the role of objects in social life and how their creation and use helps to generate their social, political, and spiritual power.

About this title

About the Author

Cathy Lynne Costin is Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, California State University, Northridge.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0884024156
• ISBN 13: 9780884024156
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 496
• Editor: Costin Cathy Lynne