Andean Ontologies - by María Cecilia Lozada & Henry Tantaleán (Hardcover)

About the Book

This volume explores the Pre-Columbian Andean concepts of time, space, and the human body through objects, skeletal remains, and language. This interdisciplinary approach to conceptualizing what the Andean concepts of being may have been brings contemporary approaches to past notions of the sacred, with each discipline adding its own unique perspective to the Andean ontology. A particular strength of this volume is that most of the contributors are South American researchers, offering North American scholars entry into scholarship that has been confined to Spanish language publications.

Book Synopsis

Andean Ontologies is a fascinating interdisciplinary investigation of how ancient Andean people understood their world and the nature of being. Exploring pre-Hispanic ideas of time, space, and the human body, these essays highlight a range of beliefs across the region's different cultures, emphasizing the relational aspects of identity in Andean worldviews. Studies included here show that Andeans physically interacted with their pasts through recurring ceremonies in their ritual calendar and that Andean bodies were believed to be changeable entities with the ability to interact with nonhuman and spiritual worlds. A survey of rock art describes Andeans' changing relationships with places and things over time. Archaeological and ethnographic evidence reveals head hair was believed to be a conduit for the flow of spiritual power, and bioarchaeological remains offer evidence of Andean perceptions of age and wellness. This volume breaks new ground by bringing together an array of renowned specialists including anthropologists, bioarchaeologists, historians, linguists, ethnohistorians, and art historians to evaluate ancient Amerindian ideologies through different interpretive lenses. Many are local researchers from South American countries such as Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, and this volume makes their work available to North American readers for the first time. Their essays are highly contextualized according to the territories and time periods studied. Instead of taking an external, outside-in approach, they prioritize internal and localized views that incorporate insights from today's indigenous societies. This cutting-edge collection demonstrates the value of a multifaceted, holistic, inside-out approach to studying the pre-Columbian world. Contributors: Catherine J. Allen Richard Lunniss Matthew Sayre Nicco La Mattina Luis Muro Luis Jaime Castillo Elsa Tomasto Giles Spence-Morrow Edward Swenson Mary Glowacki Andres Laguens Bruce Mannheim Juan Villanueva Andrés Troncoso

About the Author

María Cecilia Lozada, research associate in anthropology at the University of Chicago, is coeditor of Archaeological Human Remains: Legacies of Imperialism, Communism and Colonialism. Henry Tantaleán, professor in archaeology at Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and associate director of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment at the University of South Florida, is the author of Peruvian Archaeology: A Critical History.