Performances in the premodern communities shaped identities, created meanings, generated and main... more Performances in the premodern communities shaped identities, created meanings, generated and maintained political control. But unlike other social scientists, archaeologists have not worked much with these concepts. Archaeology of Performance shows how the notions of theatricality and spectacle are as important economics and politics in understanding how ancient communities work. Without sacrificing conceptual rigor, the contributors draw on the wide-ranging literature on performance. Without sacrificing ...
Archaeologists, historians, and others have offered numerous interpretations of the monumental In... more Archaeologists, historians, and others have offered numerous interpretations of the monumental Inca site of Incallajta in Bolivia, including a fortaleza, ciudadela, political, administrative or ceremonial center, a replica of Cuzco or some combination of all of these. While numerous pre-modern roads have been located in this region, no such road has been associated with access or entrance to the site. This paper describes a double road that runs east from the provincial capital of Vacas to Incallajta's northern entrance. Various ...
Archaeology of Performance: Theaters of Power, Community, And Politics, 2006
Writing and editing a volume such as this one is akin to mounting a theatrical production. What t... more Writing and editing a volume such as this one is akin to mounting a theatrical production. What the audience eventually reads or witnesses is the result of a long negotiated process, filled with choices and compromises that reflect the power relations among producers/editors, actors/contributors, theater owners/press, critics/reviewers, and of course the marketplace. These interactions continually modify the production's form and often its original artistic visions until opening night/publication.
Military and police power has proven time and again to be necessary but not sufficient to create ... more Military and police power has proven time and again to be necessary but not sufficient to create and maintain an empire. Empires must employ a multitude of strategies to expand and survive, one of the most important of which is state-sanctioned public spectacles, ceremonies, and rituals. This dissertation examines the roles of these large-scale non-quotidian performances that are organized and directed by political agents, occur generally at specified times and locations, and include elements of the spectacular, ...
Archaeology of Performance. Theaters of Power, Community, and Politics, 2006
This chapter examines the roles of ritual theater in constituting, extending, and manipulating po... more This chapter examines the roles of ritual theater in constituting, extending, and manipulating political power in premodern complex societies, particularly states. By ritual theater, I refer to larger-scale nonquotidian performances that are organized and directed by political agents, occur generally at specified times and locations, and include elements of theatricality, cosmological invocation, and feasting. Drawing on data from my own research at such locations, my focus in this chapter will be the Inka empire of the central Andes in the ...
Archaeology of Performance: Theatres of Power, Community and Politics, 2006
The traditional focus among archaeologists on the development of administrative and economic syst... more The traditional focus among archaeologists on the development of administrative and economic systems diverted their attention from the roles of public ceremonies, rituals, and performances, which have often been considered epiphenomenal in terms of political organization. The effects and implications of such gatherings in the past deserve more earnest inquiries. Just think about the importance of dances in Puebloan societies and of carnivals in Brazil. The sense of a community, cultural values, and moral order in those ...
Archaeological sites are disappearing at a rapidly accelerating rate. While destruction by ISIS a... more Archaeological sites are disappearing at a rapidly accelerating rate. While destruction by ISIS and looting get all the press, the primary causes of cultural heritage loss are economic: commercial and residential development and encroachment, mining, energy, agriculture and looting to name a few. If the source of the problem is economic, so must the solutions be. In this talk, I discuss what types of economic solutions are most likely to succeed and which are destined to fail. I will describe why smaller scale projects incorporating women’s empowerment and sustainable community development actually work, and why large scale projects divorced from business reality rarely do. Successful programs allow communities to build their futures and save their pasts.
Writing and editing a volume such as this one is akin to mounting a theatrical production. What t... more Writing and editing a volume such as this one is akin to mounting a theatrical production. What the audience eventually reads or witnesses is the result of a long negotiated process, filled with choices and compromises that reflect the power relations among producers/editors, actors/contributors, theater owners/press, critics/reviewers, and of course the marketplace. These interactions continually modify the production's form and often its original artistic visions until opening night/publication.
This chapter examines the roles of ritual theater in constituting, extending, and manipulating po... more This chapter examines the roles of ritual theater in constituting, extending, and manipulating political power in premodern complex societies, particularly states. By ritual theater, I refer to larger-scale nonquotidian performances that are organized and directed by political agents, occur generally at specified times and locations, and include elements of theatricality, cosmological invocation, and feasting.
Ian Hodder f* atalhoyuk (Mellaart 1967) presents a number of challenges to^^. archaeological theo... more Ian Hodder f* atalhoyuk (Mellaart 1967) presents a number of challenges to^^. archaeological theorizing about spectacle. The Neolithic east^^ mound, dated from 7400 to 6000 BC, contained densely packed houses and a population of around 5,000 people at the height of occupation. There are about eighteen layers of occupation. Between groups of houses in any one layer there are midden areas that were primarily used for discard—there is little of the trampling that would suggest public gatherings.
The traditional focus among archaeologists on the development of administrative and economic syst... more The traditional focus among archaeologists on the development of administrative and economic systems diverted their attention from the roles of public ceremonies, rituals, and performances, which have often been considered epiphenomenal in terms of political organization. The effects and implications of such gatherings in the past deserve more earnest inquiries. Just think about the importance of dances in Puebloan societies and of carnivals in Brazil.
Archaeologists, historians, and others have offered numerous interpretations of the monumental In... more Archaeologists, historians, and others have offered numerous interpretations of the monumental Inca site of Incallajta in Bolivia, including a fortaleza, ciudadela, political, administrative or ceremonial center, a replica of Cuzco or some combination of all of these. While numerous pre-modern roads have been located in this region, no such road has been associated with access or entrance to the site. This paper describes a double road that runs east from the provincial capital of Vacas to Incallajta's northern entrance.
Carved into an exposed piece of windswept bedrock, approximately 7 kilometers northeast of the mo... more Carved into an exposed piece of windswept bedrock, approximately 7 kilometers northeast of the modern city of Van and the ancient Urartian capital of Tushpa, is an open-air monument known as Meher Kapisi (Fig. 4.1).
Performances in the premodern communities shaped identities, created meanings, generated and main... more Performances in the premodern communities shaped identities, created meanings, generated and maintained political control. But unlike other social scientists, archaeologists have not worked much with these concepts. Archaeology of Performance shows how the notions of theatricality and spectacle are as important economics and politics in understanding how ancient communities work. Without sacrificing conceptual rigor, the contributors draw on the wide-ranging literature on performance. Without sacrificing ...
Archaeologists, historians, and others have offered numerous interpretations of the monumental In... more Archaeologists, historians, and others have offered numerous interpretations of the monumental Inca site of Incallajta in Bolivia, including a fortaleza, ciudadela, political, administrative or ceremonial center, a replica of Cuzco or some combination of all of these. While numerous pre-modern roads have been located in this region, no such road has been associated with access or entrance to the site. This paper describes a double road that runs east from the provincial capital of Vacas to Incallajta's northern entrance. Various ...
Archaeology of Performance: Theaters of Power, Community, And Politics, 2006
Writing and editing a volume such as this one is akin to mounting a theatrical production. What t... more Writing and editing a volume such as this one is akin to mounting a theatrical production. What the audience eventually reads or witnesses is the result of a long negotiated process, filled with choices and compromises that reflect the power relations among producers/editors, actors/contributors, theater owners/press, critics/reviewers, and of course the marketplace. These interactions continually modify the production's form and often its original artistic visions until opening night/publication.
Military and police power has proven time and again to be necessary but not sufficient to create ... more Military and police power has proven time and again to be necessary but not sufficient to create and maintain an empire. Empires must employ a multitude of strategies to expand and survive, one of the most important of which is state-sanctioned public spectacles, ceremonies, and rituals. This dissertation examines the roles of these large-scale non-quotidian performances that are organized and directed by political agents, occur generally at specified times and locations, and include elements of the spectacular, ...
Archaeology of Performance. Theaters of Power, Community, and Politics, 2006
This chapter examines the roles of ritual theater in constituting, extending, and manipulating po... more This chapter examines the roles of ritual theater in constituting, extending, and manipulating political power in premodern complex societies, particularly states. By ritual theater, I refer to larger-scale nonquotidian performances that are organized and directed by political agents, occur generally at specified times and locations, and include elements of theatricality, cosmological invocation, and feasting. Drawing on data from my own research at such locations, my focus in this chapter will be the Inka empire of the central Andes in the ...
Archaeology of Performance: Theatres of Power, Community and Politics, 2006
The traditional focus among archaeologists on the development of administrative and economic syst... more The traditional focus among archaeologists on the development of administrative and economic systems diverted their attention from the roles of public ceremonies, rituals, and performances, which have often been considered epiphenomenal in terms of political organization. The effects and implications of such gatherings in the past deserve more earnest inquiries. Just think about the importance of dances in Puebloan societies and of carnivals in Brazil. The sense of a community, cultural values, and moral order in those ...
Archaeological sites are disappearing at a rapidly accelerating rate. While destruction by ISIS a... more Archaeological sites are disappearing at a rapidly accelerating rate. While destruction by ISIS and looting get all the press, the primary causes of cultural heritage loss are economic: commercial and residential development and encroachment, mining, energy, agriculture and looting to name a few. If the source of the problem is economic, so must the solutions be. In this talk, I discuss what types of economic solutions are most likely to succeed and which are destined to fail. I will describe why smaller scale projects incorporating women’s empowerment and sustainable community development actually work, and why large scale projects divorced from business reality rarely do. Successful programs allow communities to build their futures and save their pasts.
Writing and editing a volume such as this one is akin to mounting a theatrical production. What t... more Writing and editing a volume such as this one is akin to mounting a theatrical production. What the audience eventually reads or witnesses is the result of a long negotiated process, filled with choices and compromises that reflect the power relations among producers/editors, actors/contributors, theater owners/press, critics/reviewers, and of course the marketplace. These interactions continually modify the production's form and often its original artistic visions until opening night/publication.
This chapter examines the roles of ritual theater in constituting, extending, and manipulating po... more This chapter examines the roles of ritual theater in constituting, extending, and manipulating political power in premodern complex societies, particularly states. By ritual theater, I refer to larger-scale nonquotidian performances that are organized and directed by political agents, occur generally at specified times and locations, and include elements of theatricality, cosmological invocation, and feasting.
Ian Hodder f* atalhoyuk (Mellaart 1967) presents a number of challenges to^^. archaeological theo... more Ian Hodder f* atalhoyuk (Mellaart 1967) presents a number of challenges to^^. archaeological theorizing about spectacle. The Neolithic east^^ mound, dated from 7400 to 6000 BC, contained densely packed houses and a population of around 5,000 people at the height of occupation. There are about eighteen layers of occupation. Between groups of houses in any one layer there are midden areas that were primarily used for discard—there is little of the trampling that would suggest public gatherings.
The traditional focus among archaeologists on the development of administrative and economic syst... more The traditional focus among archaeologists on the development of administrative and economic systems diverted their attention from the roles of public ceremonies, rituals, and performances, which have often been considered epiphenomenal in terms of political organization. The effects and implications of such gatherings in the past deserve more earnest inquiries. Just think about the importance of dances in Puebloan societies and of carnivals in Brazil.
Archaeologists, historians, and others have offered numerous interpretations of the monumental In... more Archaeologists, historians, and others have offered numerous interpretations of the monumental Inca site of Incallajta in Bolivia, including a fortaleza, ciudadela, political, administrative or ceremonial center, a replica of Cuzco or some combination of all of these. While numerous pre-modern roads have been located in this region, no such road has been associated with access or entrance to the site. This paper describes a double road that runs east from the provincial capital of Vacas to Incallajta's northern entrance.
Carved into an exposed piece of windswept bedrock, approximately 7 kilometers northeast of the mo... more Carved into an exposed piece of windswept bedrock, approximately 7 kilometers northeast of the modern city of Van and the ancient Urartian capital of Tushpa, is an open-air monument known as Meher Kapisi (Fig. 4.1).
Performances in the premodern communities shaped identities, created meanings, generated and main... more Performances in the premodern communities shaped identities, created meanings, generated and maintained political control. But unlike other social scientists, archaeologists have not worked much with these concepts. Archaeology of Performance shows how the notions of theatricality and spectacle are as important economics and politics in understanding how ancient communities work. Without sacrificing conceptual rigor, the contributors draw on the wide-ranging literature on performance.
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