This book is a study of the ways places are created and how they attain meaning. Smith presents archaeological data from Khonkho Wankane in the southern Lake Titicaca basin of Bolivia to explore how landscapes were imagined and constructed during processes of political centralization in this region. In particular he examines landscapes of movement and the development of powerful political and religious centers during the Late Formative period (200 BC AD 500), just before the emergence of the urban state centered at Tiwanaku (AD 500 1100).
Late Formative politico-religious centers,...
This book is a study of the ways places are created and how they attain meaning. Smith presents archaeological data from Khonkho Wankane in the sou...
Pilgrimage to ritually significant places is a part of daily life in the Maya world. These journeys involve important social and practical concerns, such as the maintenance of food sources and world order. Frequent pilgrimages to ceremonial hills to pay offerings to spiritual forces for good harvests, for instance, are just as necessary for farming as planting fields. Why has Maya pilgrimage to ritual landscapes prevailed from the distant past and why are journeys to ritual landscapes important in Maya religion? How can archaeologists recognize Maya pilgrimage, and how does it compare to...
Pilgrimage to ritually significant places is a part of daily life in the Maya world. These journeys involve important social and practical concerns, s...
Archaeologists have long associated the development of agriculture with the rise of the state. But the archaeology of the Amazon Basin, revealing traces of agriculture but lacking evidence of statehood, confounds their assumptions. This study of the Bolivian Amazon addresses this contradiction, examining the agricultural landscape and analysing the earthworks from an archaeological perspective.
Archaeologists have long associated the development of agriculture with the rise of the state. But the archaeology of the Amazon Basin, revealing trac...
Andean peoples recognize places as neither sacred nor profane, but rather in terms of the power they emanate and the identities they materialize and reproduce. This book argues that a careful consideration of Andean conceptions of powerful places is critical not only to understanding Andean political and religious history but to rethinking sociological theories on landscapes more generally.
Andean peoples recognize places as neither sacred nor profane, but rather in terms of the power they emanate and the identities they materialize and r...
