Interpreting Ancient Figurines: Context, Comparison, and Prehistoric Art - Softcover

Lesure, Richard G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1107691176 ISBN 13: 9781107691179

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2014

Synopsis

This book examines ancient figurines from several world areas to address recurring challenges in the interpretation of prehistoric art. Sometimes figurines from one context are perceived to resemble those from another. Richard G. Lesure asks whether such resemblances play a role in our interpretations. Early interpreters seized on the idea that figurines were recurringly female and constructed the fanciful myth of a primordial Neolithic Goddess. Contemporary practice instead rejects interpretive leaps across contexts. Dr. Lesure offers a middle path: a new framework for assessing the relevance of particular comparisons. He develops the argument in case studies that consider figurines from Paleolithic Europe, the Neolithic Near East, and Formative Mesoamerica.

About this title

Book Description:

This book examines ancient figurines from several world areas to address recurring challenges in the interpretation of prehistoric art. Should comparison between contexts play a role in interpretation? Early interpreters seized fancifully on resemblances between figurines from different places, but contemporary practice rejects such interpretive leaps. Richard G. Lesure argues for the necessity of comparison and offers a new analytical framework.

About the Author:

Richard G. Lesure is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He conducts archaeological fieldwork in Mexico and has authored papers on prehistoric figurines in Current Anthropology and the Cambridge Archaeological Journal. His most recent book is Settlement and Subsistence in Early Formative Soconusco.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1107691176
• ISBN 13: 9781107691179
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272