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Books by J. Heath Anderson
by J. Heath Anderson, Ronald "Sonny" Faulseit, Gary Feinman, Tristram Kidder, Nicola Sharratt, Julie A Hoggarth, Christina Conlee, Jakob Sedig, Andrea Torvinen, Scott Hutson, Kari A. Zobler, Thomas E Emerson, Kristin Hedman, Maureen E Meyers, Chris Rodning, Jayur Mehta, Rebecca Storey, Matthew Peeples, Christopher Pool, Victor Thompson, and Richard Sutter
The last several decades have seen the publication of a considerable amount of scholarly and popu... more The last several decades have seen the publication of a considerable amount of scholarly and popular literature concerning the collapse of complex societies, yielding a fair amount of comparative data and hypotheses regarding this phenomenon. More recently, scholars have begun to challenge these works, rejecting the notion of collapse altogether in favor of focusing on concepts such as resilience and transformation. Driven by these developments, archaeologists have turned their attention to what occurs in the aftermath of sociopolitical decline, attempting to identify factors that contribute to the regeneration, transformation, or reorganization of complex sociopolitical institutions. Subsequent research has provided important data shedding light on political environments that were once characterized as “dark ages.” In that time, general theoretical approaches have transformed as well, and recent frameworks reconsider collapse and reorganization not as unrelated or sequential phenomena but as integral components in a cyclical understanding of the evolution of complex societies. The most recent of these approaches incorporates the tenets of Resilience Theory, as developed by environmental scientists.
In March 2013, an international conference held at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale brought together scholars with diverse theoretical perspectives to present and synthesize new data and approaches to understanding the collapse and reorganization of complex societies. No restrictions were imposed regarding chronological periods, geographical regions or material specialties, resulting in a wide-ranging potential for comparative analysis. This publication is the outcome of that meeting. It is not organized merely as a collection of diverse case studies, but rather a collaborative effort incorporating various data sets to evaluate and expand on theoretical approaches to this important subject. The works contained within this volume are organized into five sections: the first sets the stage with introductory papers by the editor and distinguished contributor, Joseph Tainter; the second contains works by distinguished scholars approaching collapse and reorganization from new theoretical perspectives; the third presents critical archaeological analyses of the effectiveness of Resilience Theory as a heuristic tool for modeling these phenomena; the fourth section presents long-term adaptive strategies employed by prehistoric societies to cope with stresses and avoid collapse; the final section highlights new research on post-decline contexts in a variety of temporal and geographic ranges and relates these data to the more comprehensive works on the subject.
Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association , 2015
Papers by J. Heath Anderson
Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 2015
Tula is well known in the archaeological community and in popular consciousness as the capital of... more Tula is well known in the archaeological community and in popular consciousness as the capital of the Toltecs. Less well known are the three generations of local residents who have devoted their labor to archaeological projects in the Tula region over the past 70+ years. Since Acosta's foundational work in the 1940s to the present day, archaeologists working at Tula have enjoyed the local population's solid support. This chapter uses interviews with the inhabitants of Tula de Allende to illustrate the seldom-acknowledged backbone of local support that makes all archaeology at Tula possible and suggests directions for future ethnographic research.
Economic Botany, 2002
This is a book with broad relevance to students of ethnobotany, ethnohistory, and archaeology in ... more This is a book with broad relevance to students of ethnobotany, ethnohistory, and archaeology in pre-Columbian New Spain. It deals with the geographic distribution of traditional alcoholic beverages, from the American southwest to Central America. Bruman's original areal explorations in the 1930s echo those of Eduard Seler, William LeBarre, and Alexander von Humboldt, whose documenting of indigenous pathways have informed generations of ethnohistorians and archaeologists. The book is the largely unedited ...
Until the mid-1990s, the only information available about Tepeaca came from ethnohistoric sources... more Until the mid-1990s, the only information available about Tepeaca came from ethnohistoric sources. From 1994 to 1997, Penn State archaeologists Ken Hirth and James Sheehy undertook an ambitious program of surface survey, test excavation, and cave exploration within a ...
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2009
The interpretation of craft activity in Mesoamerica has been hindered by difficulties in recogniz... more The interpretation of craft activity in Mesoamerica has been hindered by difficulties in recognizing and defining the archaeological signatures associated with obsidian blade production and consumption. Theoretical advances and experimental approaches have improved our understanding, but few studies have investigated the role of obsidian blade production in craft activity using empirical data from archaeological assemblages. The present study addresses this problem by presenting an analysis of obsidian flakes and blades recovered from a workshop refuse context at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. Technological and use wear analyses suggest that core-shaping by-products in the form of irregular percussion and pressure blades were used in craft activity. Fine blades were underrepresented in the assemblage, suggesting that cores or blades left the workshop as finished goods. These analyses demonstrate that the actual behavior of artisans likely did not conform exactly to the dichotomous theoreti...
by J. Heath Anderson, Ronald "Sonny" Faulseit, Gary Feinman, Tristram Kidder, Nicola Sharratt, Julie A Hoggarth, Christina Conlee, Jakob Sedig, Andrea Torvinen, Scott Hutson, Kari A. Zobler, Thomas E Emerson, Kristin Hedman, Maureen E Meyers, Chris Rodning, Jayur Mehta, Rebecca Storey, Matthew Peeples, Christopher Pool, Victor Thompson, and Richard Sutter
The last several decades have seen the publication of a considerable amount of scholarly and popu... more The last several decades have seen the publication of a considerable amount of scholarly and popular literature concerning the collapse of complex societies, yielding a fair amount of comparative data and hypotheses regarding this phenomenon. More recently, scholars have begun to challenge these works, rejecting the notion of collapse altogether in favor of focusing on concepts such as resilience and transformation. Driven by these developments, archaeologists have turned their attention to what occurs in the aftermath of sociopolitical decline, attempting to identify factors that contribute to the regeneration, transformation, or reorganization of complex sociopolitical institutions. Subsequent research has provided important data shedding light on political environments that were once characterized as “dark ages.” In that time, general theoretical approaches have transformed as well, and recent frameworks reconsider collapse and reorganization not as unrelated or sequential phenomena but as integral components in a cyclical understanding of the evolution of complex societies. The most recent of these approaches incorporates the tenets of Resilience Theory, as developed by environmental scientists.
In March 2013, an international conference held at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale brought together scholars with diverse theoretical perspectives to present and synthesize new data and approaches to understanding the collapse and reorganization of complex societies. No restrictions were imposed regarding chronological periods, geographical regions or material specialties, resulting in a wide-ranging potential for comparative analysis. This publication is the outcome of that meeting. It is not organized merely as a collection of diverse case studies, but rather a collaborative effort incorporating various data sets to evaluate and expand on theoretical approaches to this important subject. The works contained within this volume are organized into five sections: the first sets the stage with introductory papers by the editor and distinguished contributor, Joseph Tainter; the second contains works by distinguished scholars approaching collapse and reorganization from new theoretical perspectives; the third presents critical archaeological analyses of the effectiveness of Resilience Theory as a heuristic tool for modeling these phenomena; the fourth section presents long-term adaptive strategies employed by prehistoric societies to cope with stresses and avoid collapse; the final section highlights new research on post-decline contexts in a variety of temporal and geographic ranges and relates these data to the more comprehensive works on the subject.
Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association , 2015
Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 2015
Tula is well known in the archaeological community and in popular consciousness as the capital of... more Tula is well known in the archaeological community and in popular consciousness as the capital of the Toltecs. Less well known are the three generations of local residents who have devoted their labor to archaeological projects in the Tula region over the past 70+ years. Since Acosta's foundational work in the 1940s to the present day, archaeologists working at Tula have enjoyed the local population's solid support. This chapter uses interviews with the inhabitants of Tula de Allende to illustrate the seldom-acknowledged backbone of local support that makes all archaeology at Tula possible and suggests directions for future ethnographic research.
Economic Botany, 2002
This is a book with broad relevance to students of ethnobotany, ethnohistory, and archaeology in ... more This is a book with broad relevance to students of ethnobotany, ethnohistory, and archaeology in pre-Columbian New Spain. It deals with the geographic distribution of traditional alcoholic beverages, from the American southwest to Central America. Bruman's original areal explorations in the 1930s echo those of Eduard Seler, William LeBarre, and Alexander von Humboldt, whose documenting of indigenous pathways have informed generations of ethnohistorians and archaeologists. The book is the largely unedited ...
Until the mid-1990s, the only information available about Tepeaca came from ethnohistoric sources... more Until the mid-1990s, the only information available about Tepeaca came from ethnohistoric sources. From 1994 to 1997, Penn State archaeologists Ken Hirth and James Sheehy undertook an ambitious program of surface survey, test excavation, and cave exploration within a ...
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2009
The interpretation of craft activity in Mesoamerica has been hindered by difficulties in recogniz... more The interpretation of craft activity in Mesoamerica has been hindered by difficulties in recognizing and defining the archaeological signatures associated with obsidian blade production and consumption. Theoretical advances and experimental approaches have improved our understanding, but few studies have investigated the role of obsidian blade production in craft activity using empirical data from archaeological assemblages. The present study addresses this problem by presenting an analysis of obsidian flakes and blades recovered from a workshop refuse context at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. Technological and use wear analyses suggest that core-shaping by-products in the form of irregular percussion and pressure blades were used in craft activity. Fine blades were underrepresented in the assemblage, suggesting that cores or blades left the workshop as finished goods. These analyses demonstrate that the actual behavior of artisans likely did not conform exactly to the dichotomous theoreti...