This book explores the materiality and sensory dimensions of pre-Columbian art in Mesoamerica and the Andes. Chapters examine the physicochemical study of raw materials, sensory arts like music and cuisine, and the sociocultural meanings of textures, sounds, and scents, linking ancient practices to modern indigenous traditions.
En este libro se presentan los resultados obtenidos durante casi dos décadas de las técnicas de elaboración de objetos lapidarios que se han recuperado de las ofrendas del Templo Mayor.
Cuando se culmina un proyecto de investigación antropológica o histórica, pocas veces se conoce la información sobre su origen y desarrollo, o las circunstancias y experiencias personales y profesionales de sus autores, desde el inicio del proceso de su elaboración hasta la redacción final del libro. Esta obra es un verdadero testimonio de las vivencias de cada uno de los protagonistas.
Los estudios aquí reunidos se fundamentan en planteamientos metodológicos rigurosos y en una base empírica rica y vasta para el escrutinio de aspectos fundamentales: los usos instrumentales del pasado que responden a lógicas, intereses y centros de poder asimétricos y disímiles en las culturas de Mesoamérica y los Andes. En tan amplio espectro, desde luego, se consideran igualmente los “lugares” donde se alojaba la memoria y sus formas de representación entre estos pueblos indígenas. Todo en aras de abrir nuevos horizontes de comprensión y dar continuidad al debate. Así, aunque los textos presentados difieren en sus marcos temporales, se unifican y articulan a partir de ejes o problemas comunes de discusión, que llevan a los autores a abordar los problemas de la veracidad, del registro, de la manipulación, del mito y de la inscripción del pasado.
En el debate actual sobre las reclamaciones de bienes del patrimonio cultural sustraídos de sus países de origen es importante preguntarse: ¿deberían regresar esos objetos al lugar donde se produjeron o permanecer en las colecciones de las instituciones que actualmente los preservan? El retorno del patrimonio cultural a América Latina presenta un análisis de los diferentes factores históricos, jurídicos y políticos que fundamentan las reclamaciones a las instituciones o a los Estados nacionales que resguardan objetos culturales encontrados en otros países. Pierre Losson expone seis estudios de caso de tres diferentes países latinoamericanos: México, Colombia y Perú, que han presentado reclamaciones de retorno a museos y universidades de los Estados Unidos y Europa Occidental, con el fi n de entender y comparar los argumentos de las instituciones tenedoras con los de los países requirentes, y analiza las razones de uno y otro lado para comprender mejor a los actores que participan en esas reclamaciones, así como el contexto en el que se producen.
Since the colonial era, Mexican art has emerged from an ongoing process of negotiation between the local and the global, which frequently involves invention, synthesis, and transformation of diverse discursive and artistic traditions. In this pathfinding book, María Fernández uses the concept of cosmopolitanism to explore this important aspect of Mexican art, in which visual culture and power relations unite the local and the global, the national and the international, the universal and the particular. She argues that in Mexico, as in other colonized regions, colonization constructed power dynamics and forms of violence that persisted in the independent nation-state. Accordingly, Fernández presents not only the visual qualities of objects, but also the discourses, ideas, desires, and practices that are fundamental to the very existence of visual objects. Fernández organizes episodes in the history of Mexican art and architecture, ranging from the seventeenth century to the end of the twentieth century, around the consistent but unacknowledged historical theme of cosmopolitanism, allowing readers to discern relationships among various historical periods and works that are new...
Museum Matters tells the story of Mexico's national collections through the trajectories of its objects. The essays in this book show the many ways in which things matter and affect how Mexico imagines its past, present, and future.
Many ancient and early modern works that are viewed in monochrome today were once painted in vibrant colors. Lost to time until recently, the pigments and other surface treatments that originally adorned these objects offer a deeper appreciation of the cultures from which they originate. This handsome volume features new research by more than thirty international experts in polychromy, including art historians, conservators, scientists, and photographers. Identified through advanced technologies, scientific analyses, and in-depth research, their discoveries of surviving traces of color span the globe and vary in material, including an Archaic Greek marble sphinx, an ancient Phoenician cloisonné furniture plaque, Mexica (Aztec) lime-stone sculptures, and medieval and Renaissance European marbles and bronzes. This wide-ranging publication explores how these works further our understanding of ancient ideas around skin color, race, and gender; summarizes recent advances in the field; and considers polychromy’s controversial rediscovery and modern reception— highlighting the role of reconstructions such as 3D-printed replicas and virtual animations in contemporary museum practice...
Stop looking for the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica and start looking for Mesoamerica in the Book of Mormon! Second Witness, a new six-volume series from Greg Kofford Books, takes a detailed, verse-by-verse look at the Book of Mormon. It marshals the best of modern scholarship and new insights into a consistent picture of the Book of Mormon as a historical document. Taking a faithful but scholarly approach to the text and reading it through the insights of linguistics, anthropology, and ethnohistory, the commentary approaches the text from a variety of perspectives: how it was created, how it relates to history and culture, and what religious insights it provides. The commentary accepts the best modern scholarship, which focuses on a particular region of Mesoamerica as the most plausible location for the Book of Mormon’s setting. For the first time, that location—its peoples, cultures, and historical trends—are used as the backdrop for reading the text. The historical background is not presented as proof, but rather as an explanatory context. The commentary does not forget Mormon’s purpose in writing. It discusses the doctrinal and theological aspects of the text and...
"This publication is issued in conjunction with the exhibition, The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire, on view in the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa in Malibu, from March 24 through July 5, 2010"--T.p. verso.
This volume of proceedings from the fifteenth biennial Southwest Symposium makes the case for engaged archaeology, an approach that considers scientific data and traditional Indigenous knowledge alongside archaeological theories and methodologies. Focusing on the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, the contributors show what can be gained when archaeologists engage with Indigenous communities and natural scientists: improved contemporary archaeological practice through better understandings of heritage and identity, anthropogenic landscapes, and societal potential for resilience. Organized around the theme of interdisciplinary perspectives, the book highlights collaborations with those who have other ways of knowing the past, from the traditional and proprietary knowledge of communities to new scientific methods, and considers the social context of archaeological practice and the modern relationships that inform interpretations of the past. Chapters show how cutting-edge practices lead to new archaeological understandings when archaeologists work in partnership with descendant and stakeholder communities and across international and disciplinary borders. Authors...
Is writing a world art history possible? Does the history of art as such even exist outside the Western tradition? Is it possible to consider the history of art in a way that is not fundamentally Eurocentric? In this highly readable and provocative book, David Carrier, a philosopher and art historian, does not attempt to write a world art history himself. Rather, he asks the question of how an art history of all cultures could be written—or whether it is even possible to do so. He also engages the political and moral issues raised by the idea of a multicultural art history. Focusing on a consideration of intersecting artistic traditions, Carrier negotiates the way meaning and understanding shift or are altered when a visual object from one culture, for example, is inserted into the visual tradition of another culture. A World Art History and Its Objects proposes the use of temporal narrative as a way to begin to understand a multicultural art history.
The Return of Cultural Heritage to Latin America takes a new approach to the question of returns and restitutions. It is the first publication to look at the domestic politics of claiming countries in order to understand who supports the claims and why. Drawing on analysis of articles published in national newspapers and archival documents and interviews with individuals involved in return claims, the book demonstrates that such claims are inherently political. Focusing on Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, the book analyses how return claims contribute to the strengthening of state-sponsored discourses on the nation; the policy formation process that leads to the formulation of return claims; and who the main actors of the claims are, including civil society individuals, experts, state authorities, and Indigenous communities. The book proposes explanations for why Latin American countries are interested in specific objects held in Western museums and why these claims have come to light over the past three decades. The Return of Cultural Heritage to Latin America argues that return claims ought to be the object of public debate, allowing contemporary societies to address the legacy of...
Until recently, Guerrero's past has suffered from relative neglect by archaeologists and historians. While a number of excellent studies have expanded our knowledge of certain aspects of the region's history or of particular areas or topics, the absence of a thorough scholarly overview has left Guerrero's significant contributions to the history of Mesoamerica and colonial Mexico greatly underestimated. With Indigenous Culture and Change in Guerrero, Mexico, 7000 BCE to 1600 CE Ian Jacobs at last puts Guerrero's history firmly on the map of Mexican archaeology and history. The book brings together a vast amount of cross-disciplinary information to understand the deep roots of the Indigenous cultures of a complex region of Mexico and the forces that shaped the foundations of colonial Mexico in the sixteenth century and beyond. This book is particularly significant for its exploration of archaeological, Indigenous, and historical sources.
A new volume of the benchmark bibliography of Latin American Studies, compiled by the Library of Congress.
The term antiquarianism refers to engagement with the material heritage of the past—an engagement that preceded the modern academic discipline of archaeology. Antiquarian activities result in the elaboration of particular social behaviors and the production of tools for exploring the collective memory. This book is the first to compare antiquarianism in a global context, examining its roots in the ancient Near East, its flourishing in early modern Europe and East Asia, and its manifestations in nonliterate societies of Melanesia and Polynesia. By establishing wide-reaching geographical and historical perspectives, the essays reveal the universality of antiquarianism as an embodiment of the human mind and open new avenues for understanding the representation of the past, from ancient societies to the present.
The spectacular findings of the historic Templo Mayor Project, which took place in the heart of Mexico City from 1978 to 1997.
En este libro se presenta la localización del traslado de un pindecuario o libro manuscrito con información sobre las costumbres, las fiestas y las obligaciones religiosas de Charapan, una de las repúblicas purépechas más importantes durante el virreinato.
La evidencia arquitectónica y artefactual indica que Mesa Tandhe fue un asentamiento periférico tolteca que fungió como un centro provincial que irradiaba los idearios de la toltequidad hacia los límites norteños de la región de Tula. Esa es la razón por la que la tradición cerámica del sitio sintetiza los estilos epiclásicos de la zona de Tula con la tradición Xajay. En conclusión, se resumen los primeros trabajos arqueológicos en el sitio y se abren futuras líneas de investigación.
Prólogo / Diego Prieto Hernández; Antonio SAboriti -- Presentación / Antonio Saborit -- Xochipilli, el señor de Las Flores / María del Pilar Cuairán Chavarría -- La escultura de Xochipilli, príncipe de las flores / Bertina Olmedo Vera -- Las flores de Xochipilli, un acercamiento taxonómico / Aurora Montúfar López -- La policromía de las esculturas mexica del Dios Xochipilli / Luisa Olga Martínez López y María del Rocío Muiños Barros -- Xochipilli, el universo florido México / María del Pilar Cuairán Chavarría, Bertina Olmedo Vera, Aurora Montúfar López.
En este libro se escogieron los códices de la cuenca de México pintados antes, durante o poco después de la conquista, para analizar las piezas de concha que engalanan a los códices. El estudio de dichos objetos e nlos documentos pictográficos amplía nuestros conocimientos sobre algunos aspectos sobre todo religiosos, de los mexicas.
Partiendo de una aproximación muy personal sobre los motivos por los que se dedicó a la arqueología y al estudio del pasado, el doctor López Luján presenta en su lección inaugural un análisis comparado sobre la manera en la que distintos imperios, en diversos momentos y latitudes, han cultivado la anticomanía, es decir, la afición por las culturas que les precedieron, lo que condujo tanto a la apropiación y emulación de objetos y monumentos producidos por ellas como a la exploración de sus ciudades en ruinas. El autor empieza por señalar la afición del Imperio romano por la cultura egipcia, manifiesta en la copiosa importación y construcción de obeliscos, y rastrea la presencia de este tipo de monumentos hasta la actualidad, en ciudades como Buenos Aires y Washington. Posteriormente describe la afición de los mayas por la civilización olmeca, patente en la gran cantidad de reliquias descubiertas por arqueólogos en sitios mayas. Finalmente, describe cómo en Tenochtitlan se han hallado también reliquias de diversas culturas: olmecas, teotihuacanas, guerrerenses, mayas, xochicalcas y toltecas, muchas de las cuales se reutilizaron en sepulcros y ofrendas a...
Esta obra reúne 18 trabajos de interpretación iconográfica de artes y artesanías que permitirán avanzar en el conocimiento del México antiguo. Arqueólogos historiadores, etnohistoriadores y otros epecialistas en ciencias sociales nos dan sus análisis presentados en el primer congreso del Seminario Permanente de Iconografía.
Anthological edition with diverse studies on the artisan and specialized production, types and styles of stone instruments, objects for personal adornment made with semiprecious stones and marine mollusks, attires, head adornments, fibers, figurines, ceramic and the exploitation of salt from an archaeological and anthropological perspective and based recent excavations.