Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica

• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Boulder University Press of Colorado 2016
• Subjects: Archaeology by period / region; Prehistory; Anthropology; Mesoamerica; Mesoamerican chronology; Polity; Purépecha; thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3B Prehistory; thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NK Archaeology::NKD Archaeology by period / region; Tutelary deity; Viejo River (Puerto Rico)
• Online Access: Open Access: DOAB: description of the publication; Open Access: DOAB, download the publication
• Physical Description: 1 online resource
• ISBN: 9781607325659
• Access: Open Access

New data from a variety of well-known scholars in Mesoamerican archaeology reveal the creation, perpetuation, and contestation of politically authoritative relationships between rulers and subjects and between nobles and commoners. The contributions span the geographic breadth and temporal extent of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica-from Preclassic Oaxaca to the Classic Petén region of Guatemala to the Postclassic Michoacán-and the contributors weave together archaeological, epigraphic, and ethnohistoric data. Grappling with the questions of how those exercising authority convince others to follow and why individuals often choose to recognize and comply with authority, Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica discusses why the study of political authority is both timely and significant, reviews how scholars have historically understood the operation of political authority, and proposes a new analytical framework to understand how rulers rule.