Reinterpreting Prehistory of Central America

Reinterpreting Prehistory of Central America provides reassessments of the paradigms that have guided - sometimes unconsciously and uncritically - interpretations of ancient Central American society, culture, and art. This volume challenges prevailing notions of Mesoamerica and other intellectual constructs of Central American prehistory, drawing on deconstruction, structuralism, diffusionism, and postprocessual archaeology.
Nine chapters by distinguished art historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists from the United States, Costa Rica, and Panama illuminate diverse perspectives on common themes in Central American prehistory, such as the definition of center and periphery, the relation between ethnicity and polychrome ceramic traditions, the cultural meanings of color, and the social reality in mortuary art. A common focus among the authors is the relationship between the so-called high cultures, especially the Maya and their supposedly less-developed neighbors in southern Central America.
This volume has more than 150 illustrations. The contributors include Mark Miller Graham, Terence Grieder, Rosemary Joyce, Oscar Fonseca Zamora, Peter S. Briggs, Mary W. Helms, Richard Cooke, Whitney Davis, and Frederick W. Lange.