Sacred Geographies Of Ancient Amazonia

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.

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.

In this exciting new volume several leading researchers use settlement ecology, an emerging approach to the study of archaeological settlements, to examine the spatial arrangement of prehistoric settlement patterns across the Americas. Positioned at the intersection of geography, human ecology, anthropology, economics and archaeology, this diverse collection showcases successful applications of the settlement ecology approach in archaeological studies and also discusses associated techniques such as GIS, remote sensing and statistical and modeling applications. Using these methodological advancements the contributors investigate the specific social, cultural and environmental factors which mediated the placement and arrangement of different sites. Of particular relevance to scholars of landscape and settlement archaeology, Settlement Ecology of the Ancient Americas provides fresh insights not only into past societies, but also present and future populations in a rapidly changing world.

This volume expands perspectives on infrastructure that are rooted in archaeological discourse and material evidence. The compiled chapters represent new and emerging ideas within archaeology about what infrastructure is, how it can materialize, and how it impacts and reflects human behavior, social organization, and identity in the past as well as the present. Three goals central to the work include: (1) expand the definition of infrastructure using archaeological frameworks and evidence from a wide range of social, historical, and geographic contexts; (2) explore how new archaeological perspectives on infrastructure can help answer anthropological questions pertaining to social organization, group collaboration, and community consensus and negotiation; and (3) examine the broader implications of an archaeological engagement with infrastructure and contributions to contemporary infrastructural studies. Chapters explore important aspects of infrastructure, including its relationality, scale, history, and relevance, and provide archaeological case studies that examine the social repercussions of infrastructure and the various ways it has materialized in the past. This compilation ultimately expands the discourse of infrastructure in archaeology and social sciences more broadly. Social scientists can turn to this volume for insights into an archaeologically informed perspective on infrastructure relevant to the study of past and current human behavior.

Ancient South America, 2nd edition is completely revised and updated to reflect archaeological discoveries and insights made in the past three decades. It features the full panorama of the South American past from the first inhabitants to the European invasions.

As water availability, management and conservation become global challenges, there is now wide consensus that historical knowledge can provide crucial information to address present crises, offering unique opportunities to appreciate the solutions and mechanisms societies have developed over time to deal with water in all its forms, from rainfall to groundwater. This unique collection explores how ancient water systems relate to present ideas of resilience and sustainability and can inform future strategy. Through an investigation of historic water management systems, along with the responses to, and impact of, various water-driven catastrophes, contributors to this volume present tenable solutions for the long-term use of water resources in different parts of the world. The discussion is not limited to issues of the past, seeking instead to address the resonance and legacy of water histories in the present and future. Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present speaks to an archaeological and non-archaeological scholarly audience and will be a useful primary reference text for researchers and graduate students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds including archaeology, anthropology, history, ecology, geography, geology, architecture and development studies.

This exciting collection explores the interplay of religion and politics in the precolumbian Americas. Each thought-provoking contribution positions religion as a primary factor influencing political innovations in this period, reinterpreting major changes through an examination of how religion both facilitated and constrained transformations in political organization and status relations. Offering unparalleled geographic and temporal coverage of this subject, Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americas spans the entire precolumbian period, from Preceramic Peru to the Contact period in eastern North America, with case studies from North, Middle, and South America. Religion and Politics in the Ancient Americas considers the ways in which religion itself generated political innovation and thus enabled political centralization to occur. It moves beyond a "Great Tradition" focus on elite religion to understand how local political authority was negotiated, contested, bolstered, and undermined within diverse constituencies, demonstrating how religion has transformed non-Western societies. As well as offering readers fresh perspectives on specific archaeological cases, this book breaks new ground in the archaeological examination of religion and society.

Nowadays we in the church hear much of the task given to us to be good stewards over God’s creation. We are to treat the creation as a fragile, vulnerable artifact given us by God, to be cherished and taken special care of. The animal and plant kingdoms are precious treasures to be maintained in unspoiled beauty, preserved from the corrupting hand of civilization. But how much of this is derived from Scripture, and how much from romantic secular philosophy? To what extent does the Bible speak of man as steward of the planet? And to what extent does it validate the view of nature as unspoiled perfection marred by humankind’s intervention? This view of nature is based on a philosophical presupposition: the balance of nature. Nature is considered to be poised in a delicate and fragile equilibrium, the slightest disturbance of which will have the direst consequences. But how valid is this presupposition? It is of the utmost consequence that we recognize this presumption. It is what motivates the approach to the environmental crises that we confront. Climate change is one of the major themes viewed – indeed, prejudged – through the spectacles of nature in balance. The Amazon rain forest is another. Global megafire, another allegedly unprecedented phenomenon, is a third. All of these are here weighed in the balance. This book adopts a critical stance to received notions. Its method for doing so, sad to say, is fairly unique in our day and age. For it uses both Scripture and modern science to derive a view of nature. And these two are brought into fruitful cooperation, engendering a synergy that once was the hallmark of the Christian scientific endeavor. What does the science of ecology have to tell us about nature in balance? What does climate history tell us about climate change? What is the age of the earth, and how is it important to these questions? What is the role of carbon dioxide? How important is biodiversity? How serious is the threat of mass extinction? What does the apostle Paul say about the original condition of the creation? What was the Garden of Eden really, and what role did Adam play in it? What kind of steward was he, and how did this change after the fall? What does the tower of Babel tell us about stewardship? What is the place of globalization versus nationhood in carrying out the divine command to exercise dominion? What is the role of the church? What is natural law? And the greatest question of all: why did God create things the way He did? These and other questions are answered here, but as important, there is serious discussion of them in terms of both science and Scripture. Those who cherish a “deep dive” into the subject matter will derive the most benefit from it. Those who do not are advised to seek out a more simplistic treatment, although in doing so, they may be depriving themselves of the benefit of serious analysis. In writing this book, the author has brought to bear not only his years of study in history, philosophy, economics, law, and theology, but also his degree work and professional experience in the field of forestry.