| The Scioto Hopewell and Their Neighbors: Bioarchaeological Documentation and Cultural Understanding 2008 Edition Contributor(s): Case, Daniel Troy (Author), Johnston, C. a. (Contribution by), Carr, Christopher (Author) |
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ISBN: 038777386X ISBN-13: 9780387773865 Publisher: Springer OUR PRICE: $360.99 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: July 2008 Annotation: The Scioto Hopewell people of North America have been of great interest to prehistoric archaeologists for a number of reasons: ??? their monumental, 80 acre earthworks aligned precisely to events in the day and night skies, ??? masterfully worked glistening metals and semiprecious stones into intricate and elegant symbolic designs, ??? and their community burial houses two-thirds of a football field in size. Along with this unique physical evidence, archaeologists also know about their society and culture. Their world view and rituals inspired the artistic exploration of the principles of three-dimensional perspective a thousand years before Renaissance artists discovered them in the Old World and unlike the artistic norms of any other Native American people. The Scioto Hopewell??'s intricate social order and their religious-based concepts of alliance afforded them three centuries of peace among both individuals and communities. For these reasons, the Hopewell are a unique case in prehistoric North America. This book has two aims. The first is to present in rich detail a coherent holistic synthesis of the culture, lifeways, environment, and history of the Hopewell people - who were one of the most socially complex people in the Americas at the time, and for centuries before and afterward. The second goal of this book is to systematize and present for use by other researchers and students the massive, largely unpublished mortuary-archaeological and physical anthropological information and other supporting data that have made the fullness of our cultural reconstructions of Scioto Hopewell life possible. This is presented in the DVD that comes with the book. The authorsremove the organizational overhead that previously has constrained archaeologists from making in-depth, empirical inquiries into the social and political life, rituals, and religious concepts of Hopewellian peoples generally. And in so doing, they are able to encourage further detailed studies and deeper understandings of these remarkable peoples. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Archaeology - Social Science | Anthropology - General |
| Dewey: 977.101 |
| LCCN: 2008927598 |
| Series: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology |
| Physical Information: 1.6" H x 7.1" W x 10" (3.40 lbs) 774 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Investing in the future of Hopewell archae- adetailedagendaofpressingempiricalissues ology is the spirit in which this book has andintriguinginterpretivequestionsthatremain beenwrittenandisitssubstance. Ourpassion to be addressed in the attempt to understand to do so derives from our admiration of Hopewellpeoples. Hopewell peoples, themselves, and all they The first half of the book provides a achieved. Hopewell peoples of the Scioto synthesisandexpansionofcurrentknowledge valley and their neighbors were remarkable about the anthropology of Scioto Hopewell by any measure. Their graceful and powerful peoples: their natural and symbolically int- artwork, monumentalearthenarchitecture, and preted environments, subsistence, settlement knowledge of geometry and astronomy; their andmobilitypatterns, communityorganization social finesse in choreographing ritual perfor- at several scales, social-political-ritual orga- manceswithmanyhundredsofpersons, local zation, and world view, and the history of and foreign; the long-lasting intercommunity changes of each of these over time. Coming peacetheyachievedthroughtherichandcross- to an understanding of how Scioto Hopewell cuttingsocialandritualtiestheywove;andtheir social-ceremonial life abruptly began and extraordinary sensitivity to and relations with abruptlyended, neitherofwhichweretriggered theanimalpersonsandspiritbeingswithwhom proximally by subsistence or demographic they cohabited-each humble the Western change, isoneofthefruitsbornfromattempting mind. Forus, itseemsonlyrightandworthwhile thebroadsynthesis. Theethnohistorypresented thatanempiricalandconceptualpathbecleared hereismadetangiblewithover195photographs wherebyfuturearchaeologicalworkmighthelp of artistic renderings that Scioto Hopewell Hopewellpeoplestospeakbetterforthemselves peoples made of themselves, of artifacts that oftheirlives, accomplishments, concerns, and marked their social roles and were used in disappointments. theirceremonies, andofviewsoftheirsacred This book shares with you the empirical landscape. toolsandabroadvisionforexploringtheways The reconstruction of Scioto Hopewell of Scioto Hopewell and other Ohio Hopewell life presented in this book is an integration, peoples. |
