Las Varas
Regular price
€49.99
Regular price
€52.99
Sale
Sale price
€49.99
14 days return policy
Shipping & Delivery
A01=Howard Tsai
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
American Indians
Andean archaeology
Andean Highlands
archaeology
artifacts
Author_Howard Tsai
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HDD
Category=NK
ceramics
ceremonial complex
ceremonial plazas
Chaupiyunga
climate
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Early Archaic
Eastern United States
ecology
environment
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
ethnic boundaries
ethnic identities
ethnicity
excavations
farming
fauna
fishing
game theory
geology
habitats
hunting
Incas
Indigenous societies
Language_English
Las Varas
marine shells
material culture
Middle Archaic
Middle Jequetepeque Valley
Middle Woodland
migration
mounds
Native Americans
PA=Available
Paleoindians
Peru
plants
Pleistocene
pottery
prehistory
Price_€20 to €50
projectile points
PS=Active
public archaeology
Quechua
rituals
settlement
shell middens
shellfish
softlaunch
southeastern archaeology
subsistence
violence
warfare
water transportation
What is the archaeology of ethnicity?
Woodland period
Product details
- ISBN 9780817320683
- Weight: 390g
- Dimensions: 154 x 231mm
- Publication Date: 04 Aug 2020
- Publisher: The University of Alabama Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Archaeological data from Las Varas, Peru, that establish the importance of ritual in constructing ethnic boundaries.
Recent popular discourse on nationalism and ethnicity assumes that humans by nature prefer 'tribalism,' as though people cannot help but divide themselves along lines of social and ethnic differences. Research from anthropology, history, and archaeology, however, shows that individuals actively construct cultural and social ideologies to fabricate the stereotypes, myths, and beliefs that separate 'us' from 'them.' Archaeologist Howard Tsai and his team uncovered a thousand-year-old village, Las Varas, in northern Peru where the inhabitants performed rituals to recognize and reinforce ethnic identities.
Las Varas is located near the coast in a valley leading into the Andes. Excavations revealed a western entrance to the village for those arriving from the coast and an eastern entry point for those coming from the highlands. Rituals were performed at both of these entrances, indicating that the community was open to exchange and interaction, yet at the same time controlled the flow of people and goods through ceremonial protocols. Using these checkpoints and associated rituals, the villagers of Las Varas were able to maintain ethnic differences between themselves and visitors from foreign lands.
Las Varas: Ritual and Ethnicity in the Ancient Andes reveals a rare case of finding ethnicity by relying solely on archaeological remains. Tsai analyzes data from the excavation of Las Varas within a theoretical framework based on current understandings of ethnicity. He demonstrates the potential for archaeologists to discover how ethnic identities were constructed in the past, which ultimately leads to questioning the supposed naturalness of tribal divisions in human antiquity.
Recent popular discourse on nationalism and ethnicity assumes that humans by nature prefer 'tribalism,' as though people cannot help but divide themselves along lines of social and ethnic differences. Research from anthropology, history, and archaeology, however, shows that individuals actively construct cultural and social ideologies to fabricate the stereotypes, myths, and beliefs that separate 'us' from 'them.' Archaeologist Howard Tsai and his team uncovered a thousand-year-old village, Las Varas, in northern Peru where the inhabitants performed rituals to recognize and reinforce ethnic identities.
Las Varas is located near the coast in a valley leading into the Andes. Excavations revealed a western entrance to the village for those arriving from the coast and an eastern entry point for those coming from the highlands. Rituals were performed at both of these entrances, indicating that the community was open to exchange and interaction, yet at the same time controlled the flow of people and goods through ceremonial protocols. Using these checkpoints and associated rituals, the villagers of Las Varas were able to maintain ethnic differences between themselves and visitors from foreign lands.
Las Varas: Ritual and Ethnicity in the Ancient Andes reveals a rare case of finding ethnicity by relying solely on archaeological remains. Tsai analyzes data from the excavation of Las Varas within a theoretical framework based on current understandings of ethnicity. He demonstrates the potential for archaeologists to discover how ethnic identities were constructed in the past, which ultimately leads to questioning the supposed naturalness of tribal divisions in human antiquity.
Howard Tsai is lecturer at the University of Michigan's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
