Book Description

"Simply put, this is a wonderful—in some respects even an extraordinary—book. From one end to the other, it strikes a series of elegant balances on every level."

—Allan W. Atlas, Distinguished Professor of Music, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York

The music of the peoples of South and Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean has never received a comprehensive treatment in English until this multi-volume work. Taking a sociocultural and human-centered approach, Music in Latin America and the Caribbean gathers the best scholarship from writers all over the world to cover in depth the musical legacies of indigenous peoples, creoles, African descendants, Iberian colonizers, and other immigrant groups that met and mixed in the New World. Within a history marked by cultural encounters and dislocations, music emerges as the powerful tool that negotiates identities, enacts resistance, performs belief, and challenges received aesthetics. This work, more than two decades in the making, was conceived as part of "The Universe of Music: A History" project, initiated by and developed in cooperation with the International Music Council, with the goals of empowering Latin Americans and Caribbeans to shape their own musical history and emphasizing the role that music plays in human life. The four volumes that constitute this work are structured as parts of a single conception and gather 150 contributions by more than 100 distinguished scholars representing 36 countries.

Volume 1, Performing Beliefs: Indigenous Cultures of South America, Central America, and Mexico, focuses on the inextricable relationships between worldviews and musical experience in the current practices of indigenous groups. Worldviews are built into, among other things, how music is organized and performed, how musical instruments are constructed and when they are played, choreographic formations, the structure of songs, the assignment of gender to instruments, and ritual patterns. Two CDs with 44 recorded examples illustrate the contributions to this rich volume.

Book Description
This book is a vivid and comprehensive account of the Aztecs, the best-known people of pre-Columbian America. It examines their origins, civilization, and the distinctive realms of their religion, science and thought. It describes the conquest of their empire by the Spanish, and their present-day survival in Central Mexico. It makes use of the results of the latest excavations, of all available historical documentation, and of the author's first-hand knowledge of Aztec sites and artifacts.

Aztec civilization was forged by the blending of two different cultural traditions: the ancient agricultural civilizations of Central Mexico and the immigrant warrior tribes from the northern deserts. Michael Smith describes the Aztecs' rapid ascent to regional power. He shows how, in order to feed their several million people, they transformed the landscape - digging canals, draining swamps, and terracing hillsides. From the fruits of these labors sprang craft specialists whose technological and design skills supplied goods for the market-places of every city, town, and village.

The author uses new evidence to reconsider the luxurious lifestyles of the nobility and the role of their castles as seats of government for the empire's city-states. He reinterprets the role of religion in imperial rule and daily life and, in explaining the Aztecs' frequent rituals of human sacrifice, shows how central these were to the workings of their society.

The concluding chapters of the book describe the arrival of Cortés in 1519, his conquest of the empire, and the spread of European diseases which decimated the population and brought the Aztec civilization to an end. Yet the Aztec people and language survived, and form, as the author reveals, a vital part of contemporary Mexican culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

This book is keen!!!
I've read a few books on Aztecs and this one is somewhat unique in that in addition to using textual sources, it gives a good deal of focus to the archaeolgical record as well. This perspective gives a fuller view of Aztec society as a whole, and illuminates the lives of commoners as well as those of nobles. This perspective, along with Smith's expertly and well written explanation of the Archaeology behind this perspective is fascinating.That is why this book is so keen.Also the pics are pretty nifty as well.

Excellent Overview
This is an excellent summary book on Aztec civilization.Well organized and written clearly, this book is distinguished from prior overviews by its integration of archaelogical information that has permitted some understanding of the life of the majority of Aztec commoners.Smith covers Aztec history, the physical and ecological basis of their society, agriculture and economy, art and religion, and the organization of Aztec polities.The book is illustrated well.This is definitely the best single book I have read on this topic and has an excellent bibliography for those wishing to pursue the literature in depth.This book is part of the Peoples of America series published by Blackwell.I've read another book in this series, The Incas by D'Altroy, which is first rate.The publishers deserve a pat on the back for producing this highly informative series.

Informative
A most excellent book for the unlearned of this subject and the learned. In depth and precise. It is illustrated to inform. It is objective but it is biased towards the mainstream thinking of of what we are all taught in school of how civilisations 'must' have started. Albeit a thoroughly engrossing book.

A very readable introduction to the Aztecs
I'm an engineer, not a historian or archeologist, yet I very much enjoyed this book.It didn't get boring, and made learning about the life of the Aztecs interesting.It was scholarly yet accessible.

Excellent Well Organized Introduction
This Book is well organized, illustrated and written. The various aspects of Aztec Civilization and History are organized into seperate Chapters, making this Book both, a good Introduction and Reference Book. A look atthe Bibliography reaveals all the right sources. Scholarly, yet accessible. ... Read more

Book Description
Mary Miller vividly takes the reader into the art of one of the world's most enigmatic ancient civilizations. From temple to tomb, she explains how and why the Maya made their greatest works. New archaeological discoveries at Copan, Tikal, and Palenque--to name but a few--are included, and the author draws on recent decipherments in Maya writing to provide fresh interpretations of Maya sculpture and ceramics. For the art historian, student, and traveler, Maya Art and Architecture will prove indispensable. Chapters on Maya architecture and the materials of Maya art set the stage for discussions of the sculpture of different time periods and regions, the famous murals at Bonampak, the dramatic new findings at Cacaxtla, and the painted Maya ceramics of the first millennium a.d. The author has organized the material in new ways, considering the nature of the human form in Maya art, for example, and the role of the hand-held object. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Maya ruins
I just returned from a vacation trip to Quintana Roo, Mexico , where Maya ruins are everywhere so i became interested in learning more about these Central American Indians that create an incredible architecture, a ieroglifica language and an excellent calendar after centuries of observing the skies.
The book is a good primer for those who had an education in Art History (two semesters) but know little about the Maya except the lecture of their sacred book Popol Vuh, and a few photos of their pyramids. I recommend this book as well as a week on the Maya Riviera in Mexico. ... Read more

Book Description
This book deals with the perennial tensions between ethnic groups and the modern nation-state and does so from the perspective of a leading Mexican anthropologist with deep and long experience in these matters. As such, it is both a superb introduction to the basic issues and a presentation of the author's own original contributions. The appearance of this book in English gives North American readers access to these important and political currents in Latin American anthropology and political economy. It is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the current recrudescence of indigenous peoples at this moment in history-when conventional wisdom had predicted its demise. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

amazing scholar achievement
great book on the nahua civilizations in "Central America". this is a must in understanding our Anahuac (Mexican & Central American)history. get this anyway you can. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent choice as a follow up to Rachel Carson's work
From Samiin Scandanavia to Native peoples of Montana and the Amazonian rain forests, the health of indigenous peoples is being compromised in the name of economic development. This book is a series of interviews, casestudies, and stories told by indigenous peoples themselves and offerssolutions to the problems of environmental degradation facing all of us.With a Forward written by Dr. Eberahrd Wenzil, Deputy Director of theSchool of Public Health, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, and aPreface by Hopi educator, Dr. Gregory Cajete, this readable yet academicwork provides a forum for indigenous peoples to speakout and adds an exciting dimension to any environmental health curriculum.

Indians talk back - and quite rightly so
This is another book by an amazing woman: she covers "both sides" and she does it well. This is a book with frightening news, and the unfortunate thing is, the news won't get any better unless we, i.e.White Man, learn to change the way we do business in each and every domain.Looks like Colomeda wants to tell us to change. Looks like we will havesubstantial difficulties to follow her advice. But it's just thatdifference which makes the book a valuable read ... get it now. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

It turns you upside down
Lori A. Colomeda has come up with a book which challenges *oureuro-centred* mind. She's the kind of person you wish to do the studies shedoes: compassionate and scientific at the same time. Environmental andwomen's health have never been brought together as in this book. RachelCarson looked at mainland America, Lori Colomeda's focus goes a bit furtherup North, but nonetheless, she tells us as horrific stories as RachelCarson did way back in 1962. ... Read more

Book Description

"[The book] will undoubtedly prove to be an exceptionally valuable resource for those scholars researching the still poorly udnerstood peoples of Central America's Caribbean shore, and it should attract attention among anthropologists working in similar frontier contexts who might be looking for insightful comparative materials.Finally, it is also a sensitive and rather personal account of an anthropologist feeling his way back into a community that he left behind twenty years previously and which has changed considerably.Students wishing to get a sense of how anthropologists really experience and do fieldwork will, therefore, also find it particularly valuable. "

—The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Book Description
In White Man's Paper Trail, award-winning journalist and author Stan Hoig presents a poignant history of the U.S. government's attempts to peacefully negotiate treaties with the tribes of the Central Plains, from the friendship pacts of the early 1800s through the last formal treaty in 1871, when Congress put an end to treaty-making.

Drawing on records and transcripts of treaty councils in Missouri, Arkansas, the Dakotas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming, Hoig reveals unequivocal testimony that documents countless fallacies and indiscretions by Euro-Americans in the making and enforcement of treaties. He shows how treaty-making, negotiated by peace commissioners and once the most promising method for resolving conflicts without military involvement, degenerated into a deeply flawed system sullied by political deceptions and broken promises.

White Man's Paper Trail illuminates the pivotal role of these negotiations in the buildup to the Plains Indian wars, in American Indians' loss of land and self-determination, and in Euro-American westward expansion. ... Read more

Book Description

In this first book-length treatment of Maya intellectuals in national and community affairs in Guatemala, Kay Warren presents an ethnographic account of Pan-Maya cultural activism through the voices, writings, and actions of its participants. Challenging the belief that indigenous movements emerge as isolated, politically unified fronts, she shows that Pan-Mayanism reflects diverse local, national, and international influences. She explores the movement's attempts to interweave these varied strands into political programs to promote human and cultural rights for Guatemala's indigenous majority and also examines the movement's many domestic and foreign critics.

The book focuses on the years of Guatemala's peace process (1987--1996). After the previous ten years of national war and state repression, the Maya movement reemerged into public view to press for institutional reform in the schools and courts and for the officialization of a "multicultural, ethnically plural, and multilingual" national culture. In particular, Warren examines a group of well-known Mayanist antiracism activists--among them, Demetrio Cojt!, Mart!n Chacach, Enrique Sam Colop, Victor Montejo, members of Oxlajuuj Keej Maya' Ajtz'iib', and grassroots intellectuals in the community of San Andr s--to show what is at stake for them personally and how they have worked to promote the revitalization of Maya language and culture. Pan-Mayanism's critics question its tactics, see it as threatening their own achievements, or even as dangerously polarizing national society. This book highlights the crucial role that Mayanist intellectuals have come to play in charting paths to multicultural democracy in Guatemala and in creating a new parallel middle class.

Customer Reviews (1)

Indigenous Movements
As a graduate studuent who has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Guatemala, I found this book to very insightful.In my view, Kay Warren does a commendable job of addressing and discussing the politics of thePan-Maya movement and its actions and arguments since the signing of thepeace accords.Furthermore, she describes the role of the foreignanthropologist in the Maya culture and the critiques given by Pan-Mayaactivists towards the discipline of anthropology.For example, Warrenrelates the statements of the well-known Pan-Mayanist, Sam Colop (82). Warren concludes that the underlying question is; "What are you doingin Guatemala to benefit the Maya people?"This is particularlyrelevant to any social scientist, let alone those working inGuatemala.

Of particular interest is Warren's discussion on 'transformingselves'; the belief that certain individuals possess the capacity tophysically transform themselves into an animal.She provides an excellentargument on why this belief resurfaced during the civil war, a period ofextreme distrust.The bibliography is extensive and Warren's knowledgeof critical theory, anthropology, history, Guatemalan (and, one might add,Peruvian) ethnography and political studies is considerable.This bookcould serve as a starting point for anyone interested in the currentsituation in Guatemala.

The only shortcoming I found is that the chaptersdo not flow smoothly.This is most likely due to the fact that some of thebook was derived from previously written articles.

Nevertheless, I foundit to be an enjoyable read and strongly recommend it to anyone interestedin Guatemala and the Maya culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Outstanding military and social history title
It's unfortunate that this book is out of print. Based on interpretation of primary sources ( how I was taught to write history papers ), the author covers several hundred years of Mesoamerican military history. The bulk of the book deals with the Mexica alliance in general and the Atzecs in particular. The illustrations and maps are superb. As cited elsewhere, I recommend this book in addition to Aztec, Mixtec, and Zapotec Armies and The Conquistadores by Osprey. The casual reader will gather the main points made by more scholarly and less readable works. ... Read more

Book Description
"At midnight on Tuesday, some desconocidos [unknown men] arrived in a [yellow] pickup.They went to the house of Mario Puzul, jefe of the group [of commissioners].They broke into his house and took him by force of arms to the car.His wife says that he recognized the jefe of the group and said, 'Buenas noches, my lieutenant,' but the lieutenant didn't answer.Mario said good-bye to his wife and his brother, Francisco.The car left and the uproar began, ringing the bells and the people gathering.But there was nothing they could do.

"On 16 November 1985, a military commissioner was killed.They say that many people saw it.They took the military commissioner out of his house and then to the corredor [porch] of the municipality, where they hacked him into pieces with a machete and left him."

This is the story of Ignacio Bizarro Ujpan, a Maya Indian who resides on the shores of beautiful Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.The story narrates Ignacio's life, town, and country during the 1980s, a period when many campesinos found themselves caught between two fires--the insurgency of the guerrillas and the counterinsurgency of the army. Meanwhile Ignacio and his fellow townspeople attempted to maintain as much normalcy in their lives as possible.They cultivated their bean and corn fields, educated their children, and practiced either folk Catholicism (a blend of Catholic and Mayan beliefs and practices) or evangelical Protestantism. ... Read more

Book Description
Beyond Black and Red is the first book to deal primarily and specifically with relations between Africans and native peoples in colonial Latin America. Matthew Restall has collected nine essays that represent contributions to the larger fields of colonial Latin American history, African diaspora studies, and ethnohistory. Among the subjects addressed are marriage and miscegenation, identity and nomenclature, cultural exchanges, labor, and cooperation in resisting colonialism versus collaboration.

The authors examine core areas such as Mesoamerica, the Andes, and Brazil, and peripheral ones such as Florida, Colombia, and the Orinoco basin. The contributors find that relations between black and native peoples were sometimes harmonious, sometimes hostile, depending on local dynamics and individual agendas. Native and black soldiers fought sometimes as comrades, sometimes as adversaries, and couples in mixed marriages might identify as Indian or as black depending on where the advantage lay in a given society.

Contributors to Beyond Black and Red

Patrick J. Carroll, professor of history, Texas A & M University, Corpus Christi
Susan Kellogg, professor of history, University of Houston
Kris Lane, Wakefield Distinguished Associate Professor of History, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
Hal Langfur, assistant professor of history, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Jane Landers, associate professor of history, Vanderbilt University, Nashville
Christopher Lutz, director of Plumsock Mesoamerican Studies/CIRMA
Norma Angélica Castillo Palma, profesora investigadora of comparative and regional history, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa
Stuart B. Schwartz, George Burton Adams Professor of History, Yale University
Renée Soulodre-La France, assistant professor of history, King’s University College, University of Western Ontario, London
Ben Vinson III, associate professor of Latin American history, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Neil Whitehead, professor of anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison

The first study of the complex relationships among the races in Latin America after Spanish colonization. ... Read more