Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes
Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes
Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes explores archaeological approaches to temporalities, social memory, and constructions of history in the pre-Columbian Andes. The authors examine a range of indigenous temporal experiences and ideologies, including astronomical, cyclical, generational, eschatological, and mythical time.
This nuanced, interdisciplinary volume challenges outmoded anthropological theories while building on an emic perspective to gain greater understanding of pre-Columbian Andean cultures. Contributors to the volume rethink the dichotomy of past and present by understanding history as indigenous Andeans perceived it—recognizing the past as a palpable and living presence. We live in history, not apart from it. Within this framework time can be understood as a current rather than as distinct points, moments, periods, or horizons.
The Andes offer a rich context by which to evaluate recent philosophical explorations of space and time. Using the varied materializations and ritual emplacements of time in a diverse sampling of landscapes, Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes serves as a critique of archaeology’s continued and exclusive dependence on linear chronologies that obscure historically specific temporal practices and beliefs.
Contributors: Tamara L. Bray, Zachary J. Chase, María José Culquichicón-Venegas, Terence D’Altroy, Giles Spence Morrow, Matthew Sayre, Francisco Seoane, Darryl Wilkinson
‘A most welcome addition to the field and will be greeted enthusiastically by Andeanists across several disciplines, Americanist archaeologists, and scholars interested in issues of time and memory in general.’
—Carolyn Dean, University of California, Santa Cruz
‘Both a challenge and a corrective to long-held methodology in archaeological practice. . . . it is worth an encounter.’
—Journal for the History of Astronomy‘Swenson and Roddick emphasize the importance of perceiving the multiplicity of indigenous Andean understandings of time and history, and the instrumental effects that these concepts held for the differential ordering of society.’
—Anthropos
Edward Swenson is associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. He holds a BA from Cornell University and an MA and PhD from the University of Chicago. He has served as acting director of the Archaeology Centre at the University of Toronto.
Andrew P. Roddick is associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and director of the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research of Archaeological Ceramics at McMaster University. He has a BA and MA from the University of British Columbia and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
