Sex Death And Sacrifice In Moche Religion And Visual Culture

Author : Steve Bourget
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 0292783183
Total Pages : 335 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sex, Death, and Sacrifice in Moche Religion and Visual Culture written by Steve Bourget and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-06-28 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Moche people who inhabited the north coast of Peru between approximately 100 and 800 AD were perhaps the first ancient Andean society to attain state-level social complexity. Although they had no written language, the Moche created the most elaborate system of iconographic representation of any ancient Peruvian culture. Amazingly realistic figures of humans, animals, and beings with supernatural attributes adorn Moche pottery, metal and wooden objects, textiles, and murals. These actors, which may have represented both living individuals and mythological beings, appear in scenes depicting ritual warfare, human sacrifice, the partaking of human blood, funerary rites, and explicit sexual activities. In this pathfinding book, Steve Bourget raises the analysis of Moche iconography to a new level through an in-depth study of visual representations of rituals involving sex, death, and sacrifice. He begins by drawing connections between the scenes and individuals depicted on Moche pottery and other objects and the archaeological remains of human sacrifice and burial rituals. He then builds a convincing case for Moche iconography recording both actual ritual activities and Moche religious beliefs regarding the worlds of the living, the dead, and the afterlife. Offering a pioneering interpretation of the Moche worldview, Bourget argues that the use of symbolic dualities linking life and death, humans and beings with supernatural attributes, and fertility and social reproduction allowed the Moche to create a complex system of reciprocity between the world of the living and the afterworld. He concludes with an innovative model of how Moche cosmological beliefs played out in the realms of rulership and political authority.

Author : Steve Bourget
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477310495
Total Pages : 463 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sacrifice, Violence, and Ideology Among the Moche written by Steve Bourget and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a special precinct dedicated to ritual sacrifice at Huaca de la Luna on the north coast of Peru, about seventy-five men were killed and dismembered, their remains and body parts then carefully rearranged and left on the ground with numerous offerings. The discovery of this large sacrificial site—one of the most important sites of this type in the Americas—raises fundamental questions. Why was human sacrifice so central to Moche ideology and religion? And why is sacrifice so intimately related to the notions of warfare and capture? In this pioneering book, Steve Bourget marshals all the currently available information from the archaeology and visual culture of Huaca de la Luna as he seeks to understand the centrality of human sacrifice in Moche ideology and, more broadly, the role(s) of violence in the development of social complexity. He begins by providing a fully documented account of the archaeological contexts, demonstrating how closely interrelated these contexts are to the rest of Moche material culture, including its iconography, the regalia of its elite, and its monumental architecture. Bourget then probes the possible meanings of ritual violence and human sacrifice and their intimate connections with concepts of divinity, ancestry, and foreignness. He builds a convincing case that the iconography of ritual violence and the practice of human sacrifice at all the principal Moche ceremonial centers were the main devices used in the establishment and development of the Moche state.

Author : Margaret Ann Jackson
Publisher : UNM Press
ISBN 13 : 0826343651
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Moche Art and Visual Culture in Ancient Peru written by Margaret Ann Jackson and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This multidisciplinary study analyzes the visual, linguistic, and cultural significance of the imagery used by the Moche in their ceramics and murals.

Author : Steve Bourget
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477308733
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sacrifice, Violence, and Ideology Among the Moche written by Steve Bourget and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a special precinct dedicated to ritual sacrifice at Huaca de la Luna on the north coast of Peru, about seventy-five men were killed and dismembered, their remains and body parts then carefully rearranged and left on the ground with numerous offerings. The discovery of this large sacrificial site—one of the most important sites of this type in the Americas—raises fundamental questions. Why was human sacrifice so central to Moche ideology and religion? And why is sacrifice so intimately related to the notions of warfare and capture? In this pioneering book, Steve Bourget marshals all the currently available information from the archaeology and visual culture of Huaca de la Luna as he seeks to understand the centrality of human sacrifice in Moche ideology and, more broadly, the role(s) of violence in the development of social complexity. He begins by providing a fully documented account of the archaeological contexts, demonstrating how closely interrelated these contexts are to the rest of Moche material culture, including its iconography, the regalia of its elite, and its monumental architecture. Bourget then probes the possible meanings of ritual violence and human sacrifice and their intimate connections with concepts of divinity, ancestry, and foreignness. He builds a convincing case that the iconography of ritual violence and the practice of human sacrifice at all the principal Moche ceremonial centers were the main devices used in the establishment and development of the Moche state.

Author : D. Baca
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230102115
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rhetorics of the Americas written by D. Baca and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-12-07 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first work to begin to fill a gap: an understanding of discourse aimed to persuade within the Pre-Columbian Americas. The contributors in this collection offer glimpses of what those indigenous rhetorics might have looked like and how their influences remain. The reader is invivted to recognize "the invention of the Americas," providing other ways to contemplate material life prior to contemporary capitalism, telling us about the global from long ago to current global capitalism. This book is the drop that will ripple, creating new lines of inquiry into language use within the Americas and the legacies of genocide, conquest, and cultural survival.

Author : Roderick Campbell
Publisher : Oxbow Books
ISBN 13 : 1782976213
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Violence and Civilization written by Roderick Campbell and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2013-12-31 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays begins with the premise that violence, in its relationship to order, is a central element of history. Taking a broad definition of violence, including structural and symbolic violence, the contributions move beyond the problematic of civilizationÕs mitigating or foundational role, instead seeing violence as inherently social, and, perhaps, socially inherent (if variable). The question then becomes what forms of harm are authorized or banned in which social orders and how they change over time. Beginning with a theoretical introduction, this interdisciplinary volume includes seven papers representing cultural anthropology, history, archaeology and international relations. The papers range from China to the Americas and from the 2nd millennium BCE to the 21st century CE. Some deal with long-term developments while others focus on a single time and place. Many treat the issue of the visibility/invisibility of violence, while all in one way or another deal with the role of violence in the re-production of community. Together, the volume aims to paint, with a few strokes, the outlines of a deep historical anthropology of social violence. The volume is based on the proceedings of a symposium hosted at Brown University.

Author : Timothy Insoll
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019923244X
Total Pages : 1135 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion written by Timothy Insoll and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-27 with total page 1135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive overview, by period and region, of the archaeology of ritual and religion. The coverage is global, and extends from the earliest prehistory to modern times. Written by over sixty renowned specialists, the Handbook presents the very best in current scholarship, and will also stimulate further research.

Author : Christopher Knüsel
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134677979
Total Pages : 753 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict written by Christopher Knüsel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 753 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If human burials were our only window onto the past, what story would they tell? Skeletal injuries constitute the most direct and unambiguous evidence for violence in the past. Whereas weapons or defenses may simply be statements of prestige or status and written sources are characteristically biased and incomplete, human remains offer clear and unequivocal evidence of physical aggression reaching as far back as we have burials to examine. Warfare is often described as ‘senseless’ and as having no place in society. Consequently, its place in social relations and societal change remains obscure. The studies in The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict present an overview of the nature and development of human conflict from prehistory to recent times as evidenced by the remains of past people themselves in order to explore the social contexts in which such injuries were inflicted. A broadly chronological approach is taken from prehistory through to recent conflicts, however this book is not simply a catalogue of injuries illustrating weapon development or a narrative detailing ‘progress’ in warfare but rather provides a framework in which to explore both continuity and change based on a range of important themes which hold continuing relevance throughout human development.

Author : Jeffrey Quilter
Publisher : Peabody Museum Press
ISBN 13 : 0873654064
Total Pages : 171 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Moche of Ancient Peru written by Jeffrey Quilter and published by Peabody Museum Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quilter utilizes the Peabody's collection as a means to investigate how the Moche used various media, particularly ceramics, to convey messages about their lives and beliefs. His presentation provides a critical examination and rethinking of many of the commonly held interpretations of Moche artifacts and their imagery. It also raises important questions about art production and its role in this and other ancient and modern cultures. --

Author : Mary Weismantel
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477323236
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Playing with Things written by Mary Weismantel and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2021-08-17 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, Association for Latin American Art-Arvey Foundation Book Award, 2022 More than a thousand years ago on the north coast of Peru, Indigenous Moche artists created a large and significant corpus of sexually explicit ceramic works of art. They depicted a diversity of sex organs and sex acts, and an array of solitary and interconnected human and nonhuman bodies. To the modern eye, these Moche “sex pots,” as Mary Weismantel calls them, are lively and provocative but also enigmatic creations whose import to their original owners seems impossible to grasp. In Playing with Things, Weismantel shows that there is much to be learned from these ancient artifacts, not merely as inert objects from a long-dead past but as vibrant Indigenous things, alive in their own inhuman temporality. From a new materialist perspective, she fills the gaps left by other analyses of the sex pots in pre-Columbian studies, where sexuality remains marginalized, and in sexuality studies, where non-Western art is largely absent. Taking a decolonial approach toward an archaeology of sexuality and breaking with long-dominant iconographic traditions, this book explores how the pots "play jokes," "make babies," "give power," and "hold water,” considering the sex pots as actual ceramic bodies that interact with fleshly bodies, now and in the ancient past. A beautifully written study that will be welcomed by students as well as specialists, Playing with Things is a model for archaeological and art historical engagement with the liberating power of queer theory and Indigenous studies.