Ancient Households of the Americas: Conceptualizing What Households Do - Softcover

9781607325383: Ancient Households of the Americas: Conceptualizing What Households Do

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1607325381 ISBN 13: 9781607325383

Publisher: University Press of Colorado, 2016

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 Agust�n, 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.

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About the Author:

John G. Douglass is the director of research and standards at Statistical Research, Inc. and is also a visiting scholar at the University of Arizona’s School of Anthropology. He has undertaken archaeological research in California, the American Southwest and Midwest, Honduras, and Belize over the past twenty-five years. Over the past decade, he has focused his research interests on colonial/indigenous interaction in the American Southwest and California from both archaeological and ethnohistoric perspectives.

Nancy Gonlin is a senior associate professor of Anthropology at Bellevue College, Washington, where she was awarded the Margin of Excellence Award in 2012. She is also co-editor of Commoner Ritual and Ideology in Ancient Mesoamerica and Human Adaptation in Ancient Mesoamerica and co-author of Cop�n: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Maya Kingdom. Watch her TEDx talk "Life After Dark in the Ancient World" here.

Review:

"There are a number of excellent studies that scholars interested in household archaeology will find highly useful."
―Charles R. Riggs, Journal of Anthropological Research

"This collection underscores the importance of household archaeology to the study of social dynamics."
―J.A. Hendon, Choice

"This excellent book should be heavily used by anyone with an interest in household archaeology."
―Kenneth M. Ames, North American Archaeologist

"This volume is an impressive one . . . . In an era in which household archaeology has become essential to archaeological praxis, this volume is indeed essential reading."―Bradley Parker, Cambridge Archaeological Journal

"In an era in which household archaeology has become essential to archaeological praxis, this volume is indeed essential reading."
-Bradley J. Parker, Cambridge Archaeological Journal

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