Product Description

Using a broad comparitive approach this volume employs case studies from across the Americas to address the importance of the community in understanding ancient societies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1026411 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
These 13 essays are about the concept of community and how it can be used to explain patterns of material culture found in archaeology sites. Each essay is written by a different author or set of authors. The editors begin with an introductory chapter providing an overview of how archaeologists have used the term community. The next ten chapters are studies that apply the term to archaeology cases. While the New World is the area of focus, the case studies are fairly comprehensive in coverage..

From the Back Cover
Although archaeology consistently refers to communities in its interpretations, concepts of community still remain undeveloped. The Archaeology of Communities develops a critical evaluation of community through a series of theoretically explicit discussions of specific archaeological case studies contributed by leading scholars of the field.
This collection bridges the gap between studies of ancient societies and ancient households. The community is taken to represent more than a mere aggregation of households; it exists in part through shared identities, as well as frequent interaction and inter-household integration.
Drawing on case studies which range in location from the Mississippi Valley to New Mexico, from the Southern Andes to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Madison County, Virginia, the contributors to this volume explore and discuss communities from a wide range of periods, from the Early Formative to the early twentieth century. Discussions of actual communities are reinforced by stro