Manufactured Light

“This book fills a theoretical and analytical gap in our understanding of Mesoamerican lifeways and world views and is necessary for any Mesoamerican archaeologist who wishes to consider the entirety of the archaeological record.” —Zachary Hruby, Northern Kentucky University "​[A]​ satisfying project for the archaeologist and the anthropologist alike​. . . . the question of mirrors is a truly cross-cultural one, and this volume has made it an interdisciplinary one as well." —Anthropology Review Database "​[A] welcome contribution to scholarship​ ​ on the material science and cultural significance of​ ​Mesoamerican mirrors (a topic that receives too little attention​ ​in both archaeological reports and synthetic studies),​ ​providing extensive geographic coverage within the region. These chapters definitively connect the technology required​ ​to produce such objects to their special status as costume​ ​elements, vital ritual tools and cosmological agents among​ ​diverse archaeological and post-conquest cultures." —Cambridge Archaeological Journal "The​ ​book merits careful perusal by those interested in​ ​Mesoamerican cultures, and some chapters deserve to​ ​be read twice." —Latin American Antiquity"[This] volume succeeds in illuminating a class of material culture sadly underrepresented in the archeological literature." —Sixteenth Century Journal  "Manufactured Light is a timely and important collection on the production, use, and symbolism of mirrors in Mesoamerica. . . . an important contribution to the scholarship of experimental archaeology, craft production, and mirrors more specifically." —Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
"Readers will afterward look at the technological world around them with a greater sense of historical appreciation and cross-cultural understanding." —Technology and Culture