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  1. Home
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  3. Sculpture and Social Dynamics in Preclassic Mesoamerica
  • Cited by 15
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
August 2012
Print publication year:
2012
Online ISBN:
9780511998256
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511998256
Subjects:
Archaeology of The Americas, Area Studies, Latin American Studies, American Studies, Asian Studies, Archaeology
Information

Book description

This book examines the functions of sculpture during the Preclassic period in Mesoamerica and its significance in statements of social identity. Julia Guernsey situates the origins and evolution of monumental stone sculpture within a broader social and political context and demonstrates the role that such sculpture played in creating and institutionalizing social hierarchies. This book focuses specifically on an enigmatic type of public, monumental sculpture known as the 'potbelly' that traces its antecedents to earlier, small domestic ritual objects and ceramic figurines. The cessation of domestic rituals involving ceramic figurines along the Pacific slope coincided not only with the creation of the first monumental potbelly sculptures, but with the rise of the first state-level societies in Mesoamerica by the advent of the Late Preclassic period. The potbellies became central to the physical representation of new forms of social identity and expressions of political authority during this time of dramatic change.

Awards

Grand Prize Winner of the 2013 University Co-op Robert W. Hamilton Book Awards

Reviews

'This nook provides a great deal of insight into the potbelly sculptural forms in Preclassic Mesoamerica … I would recommend the book as a valuable resource to anyone interested in Mesoamerica.'

Source: Canadian Journal of Archaeology

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