The good, the great and the ugly? Identity, palaces and more in the Americas.

The good, the great and the ugly? Identity, palaces and more in the Americas. RICHARD MARTIN REYCRAFT (ed.). Us and them: archaeology andethnicity in the Andes (Cotsen Institute of Archaeology The Institute of Archaeology is an academic department of University College London (UCL), in the United Kingdom. The Institute is located in a separate building at the north end of Gordon Square, Bloomsbury. Monograph 33).vi+242 pages, numerous illustrations & tables. 2005. Los Angeles Los Angeles(lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. (CA): Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). ;1-931745-17-X paperback 24 [pounds sterling]. JESSICA JOYCE CHRISTIE & PATRICIA PATRICIA Practical Algorithm To Retrieve Information Coded In AlphanumericPATRICIA Proving and Testability for Reliability Improvement of Complex Integrated ArchitecturesPATRICIA PApilloma TRIal Cervical cancer In young Adults JOAN SARRO (ed). Palaces andpower in the Americas: from Peru to the Northwest Coast. xiv+414 pages,126 illustrations, 4 tables. 2006. Austin (TX): University of TexasPress; 978-0-292-70984-3 hardback 29 [pounds sterling]. WILLIAM H. ISBELL & HELAINE SILVERMAN. Andean archaeology III:North and South. xii+523 pages, 155 illustrations, 16 colour plates, 14tables. 2006. New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of (NY): Springer; 0-387-28939-9 hardback $159. Thisreview deals with three very different edited books: two of them stemfrom symposia whilst the third is a follow-on in Isbell andSilverman's Andean Archaeology series which began with volumes Iand II back in 2002. They each have their strengths and weaknesses but,for various reasons discussed below, the symposia volumes worksignificantly better than Isbell and Silverman's collection. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Identity in the Andes The book edited by Reycraft examines the perennially interestingsubject of ethnicity and more specifically identity across the centralAndes. Arising from a symposium held at the Society for AmericanArchaeology The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) is the largest organization of professional archaeologists of the Americas in the world. The Society was founded in 1934 and today has over 7000 members. (SAA (Systems Application Architecture) A set of interfaces designed to cross all IBM platforms from PC to mainframe. Introduced by IBM in 1987, SAA includes the Common User Access (CUA), the Common Programming Interface for Communications (CPI-C) and Common Communications ) conference in Chicago in 1999, Us and them suffers,like many recent books as we shall see, from a definite south to northimbalance with only three out of eleven case-studies approaching theproblem from a northern angle. Furthermore, the few articles on thenorth are coastal in nature, with almost the whole of the northernhighlands left bereft of treatment. Granted, this is probably aconsequence of the vast amount of work presently undertaken in thesouthern cone, such as the Contisuyu Programme in southern Peru led byMichael E. Moseley. This state of affairs does, however, mean that avast amount of scholarship dedicated, for example, to the highlandregions of Piura, Cajamarca and Ancash in the northern Andes is beingneglected. Throughout recent Andean literature, excepting the coastalMoche, there appears to be a general dearth in treatment of materialfrom the north. This aside, the premise of the volume is a good one. Reycraft setsthe tone in the introduction to what is a very data-heavy volume. Themajority of the authors try to grapple with to enter into contest with, resolutely and courageously.See also: Grapple the thorny issue of identityand how to relate it to archaeological material correlates, be theyartefacts or bioarchaeological evidence. Rather than steer theproceedings, Reycraft allows the different authors to forge their owninterpretation of what identity is; this laudable approach iscomplemented by two concise and well argued concluding discussion piecesby Charles Stanish and Jane Buikstra. The anthropologically grounded pieces, such as the articles byBawden, Reycraft and Vaughn, adhere to adhere toverb 1. follow, keep, maintain, respect, observe, be true, fulfil, obey, heed, keep to, abide by, be loyal, mind, be constant, be faithful2. definitions of ethnicity given byBarth and Cohen cohenor kohen(Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. in the 1960s and 70s respectively. This in itself isfine, although there is too little consideration (a point made byBuikstra herself in the conclusion) of modern work on ethnicity andidentity from scholars such as Sian Jones's 1997 Archaeology ofethnicity. The fact that these more recent texts are given such shortshrift short shriftn.1. Summary, careless treatment; scant attention: These annoying memos will get short shrift from the boss.2. Quick work.3. a. within the US, and especially in South American scholarship,speaks volumes about the state of archaeological theory Archaeological theory covers the debates over the practice of archaeology and the interpretation of archaeological results. There is no single theory of archaeology, and even definitions are disputed. on both sides ofthe Atlantic and the lack of effective discourse between our respectiveacademic institutions. In the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified"meantime, meanwhile , the bioarchaeologists (Williams, Blom, Sutter,Lozada and Buikstra) flag up the limitations inherent in theirdiscipline. This is a surprising, though timely, observation whichdeflates the flurry of optimism that accompanied the arrival ofbioarchaeological, and especially genetic, studies in the early 1990s.Although able to add greatly to our understanding of the past,bioarchaeology constantly serves up as many problems as it is supposedto solve. In the end, as Jane Buikstra reminds us, 'No singleattribute is necessarily an ethnic marker ...' (p. 234). Two articles by Heckman, Oakland Rodman and Fernandez Lopez ontextiles as vehicles for conveying identity and belonging are a noveland welcome inclusion. Andeanists have long been aware of the importanceof textiles in the Andean past as well as present. The juxtaposition ofthese two articles serves to bridge the conceptual gap betweenethnography and archaeology, and demonstrates how weaving inpre-literate societies can be an important medium for the transmissionof codes and meaning. Although Janusek's article on the material correlates ofidentity in Tiwanaku is well structured, I have problems following hisethnohistorically observed existence of the ayllu in the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries back to the Middle Horizon (AD 600-1100). I fearthat the theoretical and archaeological underpinnings of such anassumption have not been convincingly elucidated either here or in hisrecent volume (Identity and power in the ancient Andes, 2004). I havesimilar misgivings about an article by Lozada and Buikstra, in whichthey take an ethnohistorically observed model of coastal exploitationbetween farmers and fishermen and transpose trans��posev.To transfer one tissue, organ, or part to the place of another. it to the other end of thecentral Andes to gain an understanding of the organisation of LateIntermediate Period Chiribaya society. Other than critiquing thepossible limitations of Murra's vertical archipelago model (infavour of a more horizontal model), I do not see how the authors cansubstantiate the transferral of this model to the south coast on socialor economic grounds as these two societies where so very different. Following from this it is refreshing to read Stanish's briefcriticism of the concept of 'lo Andino' and the uniqueness ofAndean social development. Of importance too is his reiteration of threedifferent cultural trajectories in the Andes, one on the north andcentral coast, another in the north and central highlands Central Highlands is the name for several mountainous regions located in the center of the nations or geographical regions. Central Highlands (Central America) Central Highland (France) Central Highlands (Iceland) and one in thesouth. I believe that this is on the right track, although I am yet tobe convinced that there is a major difference between the north andsouth central Andean highland cultural trajectories. Finally,Bourget's article ('Who were the priests, the warriors and theprisoners?') starts well but fails to deliver, repeating pointsmade in earlier articles. Nevertheless, overall this volume is a greatintroduction into how to tease out ethnicity and identity from thearchaeological record; it is well served by strong case-studies and anactual attempt to grapple with real archaeological material in manydifferent forms. American palaces Christie and Sarro present a volume based on a SAA symposiumconvened in Philadelphia in 2000 concerning palaces across the Americas;it is a natural development of the more narrowly focused 2003 volume byJessica Christie (one of the editors) entitled Maya palaces and eliteresidences. Given their scholarly preferences in Mesoamericanarchaeology it is hardly surprising that the editors show a certain biastowards case-studies from this area. Indeed only five out of the twelvecase-studies showcased here (without including the comparative piece byChristie on Inca and Maya palaces) are from outside this area. Of thesefive examples, three are from South America and two from the North. Nevertheless, this is a well thought out and presented volume withthree main sections. The first deals with the identification of palaces;palaces as theatres of political action follow; the third section askshow the material correlates of a building create the setting for eitherelite residences or palaces. A final part compares palaces acrosscultures, from a local comparison between Chimu and Inca along the Northcoast of Peru by Carol Mackey to an ambitious piece by Christie betweenMaya and Inca palaces. These two articles are comprehensive andelucidate the different strategies employed by the various cultureswhich on the one hand project their power and on the other--as is thecase of the Chimu at the Farfan complex--integrate earlier palaceswithin the power structure of the new dominant entity, in this instancethe Inca. What is immediately apparent in Christie's article is thatcompletely different strategies are employed by the Maya and the Inca inthe construction of their palaces and the ideologies that they serve toshow. As Christie aptly points out, the Inca were at the centre of alargely unified empire under a paramount ruler with a blanketingideology while the character of the Maya evidence is much moresegmentary in accordance with the scattered nature of their conquestsand imperial holdings. However, it is not the studies of cultures with awell-known predilection for constructing palaces that set the volumeapart (although Chapdelaine's measured consideration of the MocheHuaca de la Luna Huaca de la Luna ("Temple/Shrine of the Moon") is a large adobe brick structure built mainly by the Moche people of northern Peru. It, with the Huaca del Sol, is part of Huacas de Moche as the palace of a paramount ruler is wonderfullyexecuted), bur rather the manner in which the editors expand thedefinition of palaces to encompass elite residences and the socialpractices therein. This is most welcome, as it brings into contentionarchitectures of power that have been relatively ignored until now. Whether considering trans-egalitarian dwellings on the PacificChiapas coast (Blake et al.), elite residences in Oaxaca (Barber &Joyce), North coast Peru (Chapdelaine) and Northwestern coastal NorthAmerica (Grier) or the possibility that palaces existed amongst theGreat House structures of the Puebloans (Lekson), the articles bothconfound and stretch our interpretative powers. They lead to anincreased appreciation of elite structures and help to take the'palace' out of the cultural evolutionary box where it hasbeen intimately associated with state structures. Indeed, thisinteresting theoretical transgression alone could form the basis ofanother conference and volume. Other articles range from Isbell's important treatise on thepossibility of Huari palaces to the inherent variability in expressionsof power, and hence in palace construction, amongst the Mayan politiesof the Pasion Valley (Demarest). Sarro deals with the site of Tajin andstresses the necessity to understand local expressions of power andauthority rooted in both secular and cosmological control through acomplex palace-temple structure set above the city. Finally Sanders andEvans (chapters 9 and 10) sketch out the development of society, elitedwellings and palaces from Classic-period Teotihuacan through tolate-Aztec Tenochtitlan, providing an important overview of developmentswithin the central Mesoamerican culture area. All in all, this solid volume will act as an important point ofreference for future studies into palace or palace-like structures inthe New World. It would be interesting to see further research intocultures located in geographic areas touched only tangentially tan��gen��tial? also tan��gen��taladj.1. Of, relating to, or moving along or in the direction of a tangent.2. Merely touching or slightly connected.3. in thisbook, such as the mound-builders of the Mississippi culture and perhapsother South American cultures, including the Nasca, or even the Chavinand the Norte Chico area. North and South in the Andes Our third book is Isbell and Silverman's third volume in theirAndean archaeology series and it is not unjust to view it with a fairdegree of opprobrium OPPROBRIUM, civil law. Ignominy; shame; infamy. (q.v.) . It ostensibly os��ten��si��ble?adj.Represented or appearing as such; ostensive: His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity. undertakes a revision of thePeruvian Co-tradition as first elaborated in the 1940's by WendellC. Bennett and others. As the premise for a volume it is definitelyimportant and also timely, especially in the light of new models forcultural trajectories in the Andes, such as the article here by Plourdeand Stanish (chapter 9). Nevertheless, the volume fails to achieve itsstated aim. Indeed, consideration of the Peruvian Co-tradition seemsalmost an afterthought flagged up in the final chapter by Isbell andSilverman. Given the exposure that these three volumes have been givenamongst Andean scholars, this is a last remarkably mismatched andill-conceived volume in a series which I feel has ultimately not livedup to its expectations. It is not that the articles themselves are poor (although one isincredibly so, more on this later), it is that the thread tying themtogether is weak or even absent. For instance, it is hard to reconcilean article on Inca suspension bridges by Brian Bauer (no matter howgood; and this one is a particularly well argued and presented piece)with arguments for and against the Co-tradition model. This isimplicitly acknowledged by the authors' reflection on only fourarticles in their conclusion. Rather, the volume comes across merely asa haphazard compendium of articles which could just as easily haveappeared across various issues of Latin American Antiquity. The problems start early with a, by now familiar, variance in thenumber of articles across the north-south divide: only six in the formerand ten in the latter. Of these last ten articles, four deal with thecircum-Tiwanaku area which introduces yet another substantial bias. Thenwithin the volume there are good articles on a variety of topics andissues such as religious warfare (Ghezzi), plant use (Whitehead),iconography (Doyon; Isbell & Knoblauch), and other more generalisedsocio-political topics including feasting, burial, craft specialisation,warfare and early village formation (Swenson, Tschauner; Bandy bandy/ban��dy/ (band��e) bowed or bent in an outward curve. ; Leoni;Johny Isla & Reindel; Tung & Owen). Unfortunately, this doesmean that only a few authors remain on topic; of these the everredoubtable re��doubt��a��ble?adj.1. Arousing fear or awe; formidable.2. Worthy of respect or honor.[Middle English redoubtabel, from Old French redoutable, from George Lau examining Recuay-Cajamarca relations is aparticularly good example, as are Kaulicke's article on Vicus andMochica interactions and Haeberli's piece on the origins of theNasca proliferous style. My reservations so far have been that the volume appears'off-message'. But I would reserve the greatest criticism forthe first article, by Ruth Shady on Caral. I whole-heartedly agree withIsbell and Silverman (chapter 18) that this is probably one of the mostimportant sites to emerge in recent Andean scholarship. In combinationwith other work being undertaken in the area of the Norte Chico, RuthShady and her group are pushing the boundaries of complex socialformations within Andean archaeology back into the Preceramic. Yet, this article does not do justice to Caral: ethnohistoricalcomparisons substantiating the pachaca across millennia (from thesixteenth and seventeenth century AD back to the Preceramic) fail toconvince, as do the pseudo-phenomenological musings to which we aresubjected in the first few pages. It is a pity that such an importantsite is not better served by this, the first substantial article inEnglish on the topic. Compared to her pioneering articles arguingagainst Huari hegemony back in the 1980s, this offering is unconvincing.I find her arguments here, which develop themes from her 2003 volume Laciudad sagrada de Caral-Supe edited by her and her colleague CarlosLeyva, often without substance or justification. To wit, I have seriousproblems with claims for an early state or city at Caral whose onlyjustification is Andean exceptionality. Such assertions have to beargued and validated. Caral is an exceptional site and it may yet proveto be the earliest Andean city or state. But saying so does not make itso: it deserves greater rigour rig��our?n. Chiefly BritishVariant of rigor.rigouror US rigorNoun1. in argument. Kevin Lane, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University ofManchester The University of Manchester is a university located in Manchester, England. With over 40,000 students studying 500 academic programmes, more than 10,000 staff and an annual income of nearly ��600 million it is the largest single-site University in the United Kingdom and receives , Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK (Email:kevin.lane@manchester.ac.uk)