Caravans in Socio-Cultural Perspective

Ranging across space and time, this book brings together up-to-date research on the socio-cultural phenomenon of caravans. It shows that caravans for long-distance trade in arid lands are present in both the Old and New Worlds. Alongside historical and archival records, ethnographic analyses of modern caravans provide theoretical frameworks for reconstructing aspects of ancient caravans such as behaviour, ritual and material culture. The volume reflects on the changing foci of caravan research and the future of caravans, when memories of living caravaners are fading, and the fragile and remote nature of caravan-related sites means that they are at risk. It will be relevant to scholars from anthropology, archaeology and history and others with an interest in trade, travel and nomadism.

Persis B. Clarkson’s archaeological research spans the western deserts of the Americas, the tropical forests of Mesoamerica, and the boreal forests of Canada. She teaches anthropology at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, and is a temporary but keenly observant inhabitant of the Atacama Desert.

Calogero M. Santoro is based at the Instituto de Alta Investigación at the Universidad de Tarapacá in Arica, Chile, where multidisciplinary research ranges through socialcultural changes and climate variability from the Pleistocene to the present in hyperarid environments.