Social Skins of the Head

Body Beliefs and Ritual in Ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes

Vera Tiesler editor María Cecilia Lozada editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of New Mexico Press

Published:30th Aug '18

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Social Skins of the Head cover

The meanings of ritualized head treatments among ancient Mesoamerican and Andean peoples is the subject of this book, the first overarching coverage of an important subject. Heads are sources of power that protect, impersonate, emulate sacred forces, distinguish, or acquire identity within the native world. The essays in this book examine these themes in a wide array of indigenous head treatments, including facial cosmetics and hair arrangements, permanent cranial vault and facial modifications, dental decorations, posthumous head processing, and head hunting. They offer new insights into native understandings of beauty, power, age, gender, and ethnicity. The contributors are experts from such diverse fields as skeletal biology, archaeology, aesthetics, forensics, taphonomy, and art history.

Successfully combining ethnography, archaeology, skeletal biology, and art history into a powerful and insightful exploration of ancient culture, this volume provides an essential blueprint for cross-disciplinary research."" - Gabriel D. Wrobel, editor of The Bioarchaeology of Space and Place: Ideology, Power, and Meaning in Maya Mortuary Contexts

ISBN: 9780826359636

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 1090g

288 pages