Blood and Beauty: Organized Violence in the Art and Archaeology of Mesoamerica and Central America

Edited by Heather Orr, and Rex Koontz

ISBN 10: 1931745803 / ISBN 13: 9781931745802

Published by The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press

About this Item

BRAND NEW Hardcover A Brand New Quality Book from a Full-Time Bookshop in business since 1992!. Bookseller Inventory # 1282781

Bibliographic Details

Title: Blood and Beauty: Organized Violence in the ...

Publisher: The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press

Binding: Hardcover

Book Condition:BRAND NEW

About this title

Synopsis:

Warfare, ritual human sacrifice, and the rubber ballgame have been the traditional categories through which scholars have examined organized violence in the artistic and material records of ancient Mesoamerica and Central America. This volume expands those traditional categories to include such concerns as gladiatorial-like boxing combats, investiture rites, trophy-head taking and display, dark shamanism, and the subjective pain inherent in acts of violence. Each author examines organized violence as a set of practices grounded in cultural understandings, even when the violence threatens the limits of those understandings. The authors scrutinize the representation of, and relationships between, different types of organized violence, as well as the implications of those activities, which can include the unexpected, such as violence as a means of determining and curing illness, and the use of violence in negotiation strategies.

From the Inside Flap:

Authors specializing in the anthropology, archaeology, art history, and linguistics of Mesoamerica and Central America bring new data and interpretive strategies to bear on the nature of institutional violence in these ancient societies.