Human Figuration and Fragmentation in Preclassic Mesoamerica
Human Figuration and Fragmentation in Preclassic Mesoamerica
£94.00
GBPIn this book, Julia Guernsey examines the relationship between human figuration, fragmentation, bodily divisibility, personhood, and community in ancient Mesoamerica. Contending that representation of the human body in the pre-classic period gradually became a privileged act, she argues that human figuration as well as the fragmentation of both human representations and human bodies reveals ancient conceptualizations of personhood and the relationship of individual to the community. Considering ceramic figurines and stone sculpture together with archaeological data, Guernsey weaves together evidence and ideas drawn from art history, archaeology, and anthropology to construct a rich, cultural history of Mesoamerican practices of figuration and fragmentation. A methodologically innovative study, her book has ramifications for scholars working in Mesoamerica and, more generally, those interested in the significance of human representation.
- Provides the first study of both figurines and sculpture as key forms of Mesoamerican figuration
- Presents an in-depth and sustained analysis of the deliberate fragmentation of objects and the sociocultural significance of these acts in Mesoamerican culture
- Includes examples of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary analysis of artifacts and their contexts
Product details
February 2020Hardback
9781108478991
278 pages
285 × 222 × 19 mm
1.01kg
203 b/w illus. 1 map
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Preclassic figuration: epistemological premises and problems
- 2. Monumental sculpture and the human form during the Early and Middle Preclassic periods
- 3. Early and Middle Preclassic figuration in clay
- 4. Figurines at Middle Preclassic La Blanca
- 5. Figurines, fragmentation, and social ties
- 6. Changing discourses of human representation in Late Preclassic Mesoamerica
- 7. High culture and human representation in Late preclassic Mesoamerica.
