Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia
Reconstructing Past Identities from Archaeology, Linguistics, and Ethnohistory
Alf Hornborg editor Jonathan D Hill editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University Press of Colorado
Published:15th Jan '13
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- Hardback£65.00(9781607320944)
A transdisciplinary collaboration among ethnologists, linguists, and archaeologists, Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia traces the emergence, expansion, and decline of cultural identities in indigenous Amazonia. Hornborg and Hill argue that the tendency to link language, culture, and biology--essentialist notions of ethnic identities--is a Eurocentric bias that has characterized largely inaccurate explanations of the distribution of ethnic groups and languages in Amazonia. The evidence, however, suggests a much more fluid relationship among geography, language use, ethnic identity, and genetics. In Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia, leading linguists, ethnographers, ethnohistorians, and archaeologists interpret their research from a unique nonessentialist perspective to form a more accurate picture of the ethnolinguistic diversity in this area. Revealing how ethnic identity construction is constantly in flux, contributors show how such processes can be traced through different ethnic markers such as pottery styles and languages. Scholars and students studying lowland South America will be especially interested, as will anthropologists intrigued by its cutting-edge, interdisciplinary approach.
"A major contribution to Amazonian anthropology, and possibly a direction changer." —J. Scott Raymond, University of Calgary
"An original, even brave, effort to demonstrate what various subdisciplines of anthropology can contribute to the examination of a complex problem. The cultural history and ethnogenesis of the Amazon--or any other part of the world--is not a question for archaeology or linguistics or ethnohistory alone." —David Eller, Anthropology Review Database
ISBN: 9781607321965
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 555g
408 pages