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The aim of this research is to reconstruct the landscape evolution in the lower Rio Grande drainage basin during the Late Holocene and to detect interrelations between landscape evolution, cultural development, climatic changes and extreme events. Central to this is to identify and, if possible, quantify factors of landscape change. In doing so, the author differentiates natural from anthropogenic factors, i.e. to determine both the natural and the human impacts on the landscape. An important question is whether climatic changes and extreme events have had an in?uence on past societies. To answer these questions, this work goes beyond physical geography approaches to paleoenvironmental reconstruction and includes the wealth of archaeological evidence and interpretations available for the research area. The volume consists of a main section and an extensive appendix containing sketches and detailed interpretations of the investigated sediment pro?les as well as graphs showing the results of the laboratory analyses. ... Read more

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This work, a virtually unique opportunity for those wishing to learn about pre-Hispanic America and its art, is divided into two parts and includes an essay by the Nobel Prize Winner for Literature Octavio Paz. The first part of the book is historical and, essentially, examines the brutal shock suffered by two worlds between 1492, the year of the discovery of America, and 1532, when Pizarro subdued and conquered the Inca empire in Peru, eleven years after Hernando Cortés had destroyed the Aztecs in Mexico.

The connection between what took place in those dramatic years is illustrated with maps, old engravings and color photographs of various pre-Columbian archeological sites, as well as some of the background scenarios linked to the exploits of the European navigators. The second part looks at the major civilisations (Maya, Aztec, Inca, etc.), and some little-known although equally fascinating cultures, attributed with the production of the approximately one hundred and fifty works of art from Mesoamerica, Central America, and the Andean Cordillera and the Amazon Basin, shown in full page color illustrations. The authors-- historians and specialists-- provide in these pages a clear vision of what has often been drawn out in long-winded explanations. Most importantly, they pause on the aesthetic value of peoples that have, on many occasions, been called "primitive," without however omitting to place the sculptures, pottery and fabrics selected by the authors themselves in a precise anthropological context.

The result is an exemplary work of interest and delight that neither experts nor the inquisitive will be able to resist.
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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Travel Narratives.
As a fanatic of travel narratives, I loved this book, and would recommend it highly. For those who felt the same way - I urge you to read A Tent Life in Siberia: An Incredible Account of Siberian Adventure, Travel, and Survival by George Kennan, which follows an expedition through Siberia in the 1860s. A similar concept, but moved to the unforgiving land of Siberia.

Great travel writing.
A young naturalist sets out to single-handedly explore the Amazon basin in the mid-19th century, his only help being Indian guides and interpreters.
This book is so refreshing after reading other travelogues that are either too introspective or full of overblown hyperbole. Mr.Wallace is, I admit, a favourite author of mine, but there is nothing partisan in my praise for his writing ability; in another, later, book he says he is no writer, but his minute descriptions of people, places and environs conjures up mental pictures almost as good as a video. He doesn't over-elaborate points, but describes them so well that any more words would be superfluous. Having read Humboldt's descriptions of the same areas, I know whose I prefer - one can almost smell the soil and foliage.
Reading the book today, there is something a little disturbing in the casual way he shoots everything that crosses his path to add to his collection, but when we consider the alternative of drawing and measuring each item on the spot (no cameras then) and the hyper-abundance of animal life in the forest at that time, it is no wonder he takes the easy option. There was no environmental crisis nor any need for species protection in those days - an area the size of Europe was governed from a town of 15.000 people!

He poses some questions that underpin the theory of evolution by natural selection, and it is interesting to observe first-hand the mental process of trying to understand why and how different species became adapted to a particular shape and lifestyle. Wallace and Darwin corresponded and independently arrived at the same result, which culminated in 'The Origin of Species' (also recommended); although Wallace had doubts about the completeness of the theory, believing in a higher authority which lent a helping hand now and again - reminding us a little of the modern-day clash between Gould & Dawkins.

A great example of good travel writing *****
This review refers to the original 1889 copy. ... Read more

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The people of Taquile Island on the Peruvian side of beautiful Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the Americas, are renowned for the hand-woven textiles that they both wear and sell to outsiders. One thousand seven hundred Quechua-speaking peasant farmers, who depend on potatoes and the fish from the lake, host the forty thousand tourists who visit their island each year. Yet only twenty-five years ago, few tourists had even heard of Taquile. In Weaving a Future: Tourism, Cloth, and Culture on an Andean Island, Elayne Zorn documents the remarkable transformation of the isolated rocky island into a community-controlled enterprise that now provides a model for indigenous communities worldwide.

Over the course of three decades and nearly two years living on Taquile Island, Zorn, who is trained in both the arts and anthropology, learned to weave from Taquilean women. She also learned how gender structures both the traditional lifestyles and the changes that tourism and transnationalism have brought. In her comprehensive and accessible study, she reveals how Taquileans used their isolation, landownership, and communal organizations to negotiate the pitfalls of globalization and modernization and even to benefit from tourism. This multi-sited ethnography set in Peru, Washington, D.C., and New York City shows why and how cloth remains central to Andean society and how the marketing of textiles provided the experience and money for Taquilean initiatives in controlling tourism.

The first book about tourism in South America that centers on traditional arts as well as community control, Weaving a Future will be of great interest to anthropologists and scholars and practitioners of tourism, grassroots development, and the fiber arts. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of Religion, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 3275 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The second edition of this highly regarded encyclopedia, preserving the best of the first edition's cross-cultural approach, while emphasizing religion's role within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture, this new edition is the definitive work in the field for the 21st century. An international team of scholars and contributors have reviewed, revised and added to every word of the classic work, making it relevant to the questions and interests of all researchers. ... Read more

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First published in 1891, this book was the earliest attempt to construct a systematic classification of all the indigenous languages of the Americas, focusing particularly on the relationship between culture and grammar and vocabulary. It addresses the various theories of the origins of the American race, and the archaeological evidence for the presence of humans in the Americas. It discusses geologists' opinions and the physical geography of the Americas in relation to Europe, and considers the physical characteristics of the Native Americans, their culture, religion, domestic habits and family organisation, providing a comprehensive anthropological and historical context for the linguistic work. Special attention is paid to the parts of the continent, mostly south of Mexico, whose ethnography was little known at the time of writing. Each chapter covers a particular region, and there is a detailed linguistic appendix. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Those Who Remain
Those Who Remain: A Photographer's Memoir of South Carolina Indians (Contemporary American Indians)

Finally a book about SC Indians who have been ignored and worst thought to be no longer "remaining" in their own state. Twenty-five years of picture taking and personal interviews by the photographer/author retired professor U of South Carolina, Gene Crediford. A CD with more pictures not in the book is included in the price also. ... Read more