Archaeologies of Cosmoscapes in the Americas [Paperback]

This volume examines how pre-Columbian societies in the Americas envisioned their cosmos and iteratively modeled it through the creation of particular objects and places. It emphasizes that American societies did this to materialize overarching models and templates for the shape and scope of the cosmos, the working definition of cosmoscape. Noting a tendency to gloss over the ways in which ancestral Americans envisioned the cosmos as intertwined and animated, the authors examine how cosmoscapes are manifested archaeologically, in the forms of objects and physically altered landscapes. This books chapters, therefore, offer case studies of cosmoscapes that present themselves as forms of architecture, portable artifacts, and transformed aspects of the natural world. In doing so, it emphasizes that the creation of cosmoscapes offered a means of reconciling peoples experiences of the world with their understandings of them.An examination of how Pre-Columbian societies in the Americas envisioned their cosmos and iteratively modeled it through the creation of particular objects and places.Case studies examine iconographic, artifactual, and contextual data through the lens of cosmoscapes to decode the meaning of ancient imagery and to understand cultural significance across the AmericasExplores the notion that the combination of artful compositions on artifacts, their iconography and their association with specific places in the landscape comprise an open writing system that translates complex ideas about how the world works to a targeted audienceDemonstrates how iconographic and archaeological interpretations in Native American cosmology make it possible to understand what Native Americans thought was important to live for, and not merely how they made their livingAn exceptionally well presented collection of scholarly research, Archaeologies of Cosmoscapes in the Americas is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, college, and univlc3