This study represents the culmination of some 15 years of research in the field of Amazonian archeology. Ilha de Marajo, as the Brazilians call it, has been described as resting in the mouth of the Amazon like an egg in that of a serpent. In reality, Marajo is part of an archipelago. Contents of this study of the pottery of Marajo Island, Brazil: (1) Introduction; (2) The Island: Notes on geography and climate; Historical notes; Archeological sites; (3) The Pottery: Stylistic Analysis: Outline of Classification; Wares; Miscellaneous studies of parts of the pottery; Correlations: Elements of form and decoration; Correlation chart; Summary; Catalog numbers for specimens illustrated; and Bibliography. Illustrations. This is a print on demand publication.

This book offers a new anthropological understanding of the socio-cosmological and ontological characteristics of the Isthmo–Colombian Area, beyond established theories for Amazonia, the Andes and Mesoamerica. It focuses on a core region that has been largely neglected by comparative anthropology in recent decades. Centering on relations between Chibchan groups and their neighbors, the contributions consider prevailing socio-cosmological principles and their relationship to Amazonian animism and Mesoamerican and Andean analogism. Classical notions of area homogeneity are reconsidered and the book formulates an overarching proposal for how to make sense of the heterogeneity of the region’s indigenous groups. Drawing on original fieldwork and comparative analysis, the volume provides a valuable anthropological addition to archaeological and linguistic knowledge of the Isthmo・Colombian Area.

This volume looks at the history of colonial Latin America.

This meticulously researched reference work documents the role of women who contributed to the development of Americanist archaeology from 1865 to 1940. Between the Civil War and World War II, many women went into anthropology and archaeology, fields that, at the beginning of this period, welcomed and made room for amateurs of both genders. But over time, the increasingly professional structure of these fields diminished or even obscured the contributions of women due to their lack of access to prestigious academic employment and publishing opportunities. As a result, a woman archaeologist during this period often published her research under her husband's name or as a junior author with her husband. In Cultural Negotiations archaeologist David L. Browman has scoured the archaeological literature and archival records of several institutions to bring the stories of more than two hundred women in Americanist archaeology to light through detailed biographies that discuss their contributions and publications. This work highlights how the social and cultural construction of archaeology as a field marginalized women and will serve as an invaluable reference to those researchers who continue to uncover the history of women in the sciences.

Perhaps the contributions of South American archaeology to the larger field of world archaeology have been inadequately recognized. If so, this is probably because there have been relatively few archaeologists working in South America outside of Peru and recent advances in knowledge in other parts of the continent are only beginning to enter larger archaeological discourse. Many ideas of and about South American archaeology held by scholars from outside the area are going to change irrevocably with the appearance of the present volume. Not only does the Handbook of South American Archaeology (HSAA) provide immense and broad information about ancient South America, the volume also showcases the contributions made by South Americans to social theory. Moreover, one of the merits of this volume is that about half the authors (30) are South Americans, and the bibliographies in their chapters will be especially useful guides to Spanish and Portuguese literature as well as to the latest research. It is inevitable that the HSAA will be compared with the multi-volume Handbook of South American Indians (HSAI), with its detailed descriptions of indigenous peoples of South America, that was organized and edited by Julian Steward. Although there are heroic archaeological essays in the HSAI, by the likes of Junius Bird, Gordon Willey, John Rowe, and John Murra, Steward states frankly in his introduction to Volume Two that “arch- ology is included by way of background” to the ethnographic chapters.

Covers the area between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, the Cassiquiare Canal, and the Atlantic Ocean (Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, parts of Brazil, parts of Venezuela).

The legendary El Dorado—the city of gold—remains a mere legend, but astonishing new discoveries are revealing a major civilization in ancient Amazonia that was more complex than anyone previously dreamed. Scholars have long insisted that the Amazonian ecosystem placed severe limits on the size and complexity of its ancient cultures, but leading researcher Denise Schaan reverses that view, synthesizing exciting new evidence of large-scale land and resource management to tell a new history of indigenous Amazonia. Schaan also engages fundamental debates about the development of social complexity and the importance of ancient Amazonia from a global perspective. This innovative, interdisciplinary book is a major contribution to the study of human-environment relations, social complexity, and past and present indigenous societies.