Precolumbian Water Management
296 pages, 6 x 9
Hardcover
Release Date:30 Nov 2006
ISBN:9780816523146
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Precolumbian Water Management

Ideology, Ritual, and Power

The University of Arizona Press
Among ancient Mesoamerican and Southwestern peoples, water was as essential as maize for sustenance and was a driving force in the development of complex society. Control of water shaped the political, economic, and religious landscape of the ancient Americas, yet it is often overlooked in Precolumbian studies. Now one volume offers the latest thinking on water systems and their place within the ancient physical and mental language of the region.

Precolumbian Water Management examines water management from both economic and symbolic perspectives. Water management facilities, settlement patterns, shrines, and water-related imagery associated with civic-ceremonial and residential architecture provide evidence that water systems pervade all aspects of ancient society. Through analysis of such data, the contributors seek to combine an understanding of imagery and the religious aspects of water with its functional components, thereby presenting a unified perspective of how water was conceived, used, and represented in ancient greater Mesoamerica. The collection boasts broad chronological and geographical coverage—from the irrigation networks of Teotihuacan to the use of ritual water technology at Casas Grandes—that shows how procurement and storage systems were adapted to local conditions.

The articles consider the mechanisms that were used to build upon the sacredness of water to enhance political authority through time and space and show that water was not merely an essential natural resource but an important spiritual one as well, and that its manipulation was socially far more complex than might appear at first glance. As these papers reveal, an understanding of materials associated with water can contribute much to the ways that archaeologists study ancient cultural systems. Precolumbian Water Management underscores the importance of water management research and the need to include it in archaeological projects of all types.
“This excellent volume illuminates the importance of water management to understanding the past...”—Journal of Anthropological Research
Precolumbian water management : an introduction / Lisa J. Lucero and Barbara W. Fash -- Cosmological and sociopolitical synergy in preclassic architectural complexes / Ann Cyphers ... [et al.] -- A land that tastes of water / Ann Cyphers and Judith Zurita-Noguera -- Water management and political economy in formative period central Mexico / Deborah L. Nichols ... [et al.] -- Water management at Kaminaljuyu : the beginnings of power and ideology in the Guatemalan highlands / Juan Antonio Valdés -- Environmental variability among bajos in the southern Maya lowlands and its implications for ancient Maya civilization and archaeology / Nicholas P. Dunning, Timothy Beach, and Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach -- Water management, ritual, and community in tropical complex societies / Julie L. Kunen -- The political and sacred power of water in classic Maya society / Lisa J. Lucero -- Copan water ritual and management : imagery and sacred place / Barbara W. Fash and Karla L. Davis-Salazar -- Archaeological and epigraphic evidence for water management and ritual at Palenque / Kirk D. French, David S. Stuart, and Alfonso Morales -- Hydraulic features of the Mexico-Texcoco lakes during the postclassic period / Margarita Carballal Staedtler and María Flores Hernández -- Water sources at Mayapan, Yucatán, Mexico / Clifford T. Brown -- Animated waters : ritual technology at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua / William H. Walker and Gaea McGahee -- Mirror of the earth : water, landscape, and meaning in the Precolumbian Southwest / James E. Snead -- An overview of Mesoamerican water systems / Vernon Scarborough.
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