Scott's writing is nicely balanced between discussions of style and meaning. .... Stuart Scott writes about Sinaloa and Nayarit, Mexico while Mary Pye, Arthur ...
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The qualityof the illustrations,particularlythe blackand-whitephotographs,is at best mixed:a few areout-offocus, others lack contrast,and some are simply not the best examples available. Coverage also is uneven: for example, althoughmodernurbanplanningand architecture are discussedin the text, only a few images, mostly of twentieth-centuryBrazilian architecture,are reproduced.Scott'sotherwiseinterestingdiscussionof assimilatedPrecolumbiantraditionsin the earlycolonialperiod demands more illustrations,particularlyof unusual art formssuch as mosaicfeatherwork.Additionally,the nonspecialistmay find suchesoterictermsas alfiz(a Moorish architectural featureintroducedto theNew Worldby Spanish builders)difficultto visualize withoutan illustration. Particularlyconsideringthe small numberof the illustrations andtheirquality,the priceof the book is prohibitive. A paperbackeditionwould at least makeit more accessible to the studentsto whom the book is targeted. Scott'swritingis nicely balancedbetweendiscussions of style and meaning.Difficult issues, such as the relationshipbetweenTulaandChichenItza,arehandledgracefully andsuccinctly.Despitethegeneralnatureof thebook, therearenew factsto be learnedthroughout.Forexample, thisreviewerwasunawarethatsixteenth-century Tainopotters were asked by their Spanishoverlordsto make pottery combining Mixtec-style geometricdecorationwith Spanishvessel formsbecausethelocal stylefeaturedmodeled spiritfaces thatthe Catholicconquerorsfoundoffensive. LutinAmerican Art:Ancientto Modernis the kind of book that all historiansof LatinAmericanartwant to haveathand,butfew wantto write.Sucha projectrequires notonly a broadknowledgeof LatinAmericanart,butalso firaneditorialrestraintand a clear and accessible writing style.Scottis to be commendedforhis successin ffiisambitious undertaking.
[Vol. 11, No. 2, 2000]
turyof datarelevantto the evolutionof complexsocieties. ChaptersaddressMesoamerica(6), CentralAmerica (2), and South America (8). The chronologicalscope is fromabout11,000to 1000 B.C., with specialemphasison the period from about2500 to 1500 B.C. (uncorrected). Blake's introductionemphasizestwo centralthemes:the emergence of agriculture and social complexity. The approachis stronglyecological, concentratingon adaptations in food procurementand production.One example of this is a provocativeanalysisby AlfredSiemens of the earlyuse of wetlandecosystems in southernEcuador. Sedentismbasedon fishing and shellfishcollecting is a pervasivetheme.GeorgeMichaelsandBarbaraVoorhies review data for the preceramic Chantuto culture of Soconusco.RichardCooke andAnthonyRanereinterpret a detailedinventoryof fish in estuarineandoffshoreenvironmentsof centralPanama.Both MichaelMoseley and Karen Wise provide synthetic updates on preceramic coastal adaptationsin the centralAndes, where maritime resourcesunderwrotesignificantsocial complexityprior to widespreadrelianceon agriculture. Threechaptersdiscussearlyplantdomestication.Bruce Benz focuses on phylogeneticdivisions in early races of maize. He drawsparticularattentionto the paucityof evidence for the genetic origins of maize, but suggests that its speciationfromteosintelong predatestheearliestmacrobotanicalspecimens.DeborahPearsalldiscussesmicrobotanicaldatafromLasVegasandValdiviaperiodsites in coastalEcuador,wheremaizeuse datesto 6000 B.C. (some 2,500 years earlierthan the earliest tiny cobs from the TehuacanValley).This raisesquestionsaboutthe mechanisms and motivations for its dispersal southwardby humansfrom a locus of origin in Mexico. However,the "why"of maize'searlyArchaicdispersalremainswithout a satisfactoryexplanation.DoloresPiperno'supdateon the origins and developmentof horticulturein Panamaindicates maize was just one partof a complex spectrumof PacificLatinAmericain Prehistory:TheEvolutionof utilizedplants. Archaicand FormativeCultures.MICHAEL BLAKE, ScottRaymonddescribesarchaeologicalsurveysin the editor.WashingtonStateUniversityPress,Pullman,1999. ValdiviaValleythathave revealedcomplexwebs of interix + 223 pp., figures,maps,tables,bibliographies.$50.00 action among inland and coastal communities.Lautaro (paper). Nunez addressescoastal societies of southernPeru and northernChile, presentinga culturalsequencebased priReviewed byJohnW. Hoopes, Universityof Kansas. marilyupon datafrom coastal shellmoundsand offering a discussionof theremarkablywell-preservedChinchorro The 1980s and l990s witnessedan explosion in research mummies.MarkAldenderferdetails changingsubsistence along the Pacific coast of LatinAmerica,an areawhose strategiesat pre-potterysites along the South American potentialto elucidatetransitionsfrom fishing to farming coast, suggesting increasing diversificationuntil about has been evident since the appearanceof the first radio- 5000 B.P., at which time subsistencespecialization(both carbonchronologiesfor early coastal occupationsin the maritimeandinland)resultedin highly aggregatedsettlelatel950s. The 17 chaptersin this volume, which origi- ments. natedas paperspresentedat the 1989 CentennialCircumSeveral chaptersaddressthe emergenceof rank and Pacific Prehistory Conference at Washington State centralizedauthority.Blake andJohnClarkoffer a model University,providean excellentsummationof a half cen- forinheritedstatusbasedon datafromcoastalChiapasand
REVIEWSAND BOOK NOTES
critique assumptions about the dietary significance of maize. MichaelLove offers persuasiveevidence thatthe Soconuscoregionwas of equal significanceto the Mexican Gulf Coast in the appearanceof rank and status. ThomasPattersonelaborateson the concept of "Formative Civilization,"highlightingthe extreme diversity of social complexityapparentin the Americaspriorto 1000 B.C. Therearewelcome summariesof lesser-knownareas. StuartScott writes about Sinaloa and Nayarit, Mexico whileMaryPye,ArthurDemarest,andBarbaraArroyo discuss earlyvillages in coastalGuatemalaandE1Salvador. However,thereare severalareasthatare not represented, largely due to our currentstate of knowledge. We still knowlittleaboutearlyoccupationsalongthePacificcoasts of BajaCalifornia,Nicaragua,CostaRica, andColombia. Also, despite the focus on the easternPacific rim, a significantomission from the generaldiscussionis the relationshipbetweenpatternsin coastalLatinAmericaandthe Pacific coast of North America. Some of the same processesthatcontributedto theemergenceof complexof non- or semi-horticultural societies in Centraland South Americawere at work in the emergenceof the complex societiesof theNorthwestCoast,althoughatmarkedlydifferenttimes. One of theissues thisvolumehighlightsis theneedfor a criticalassessmentof the terms"Archaic"and "Formative."At present,Archaicis used to referto all post-Pleistocene occupationsin Peru until 2500 B.C., when they include large, aggregatedsettlementssuch as HuacaPrieta and Aspero, and in Chile to 1000 B.C., prior to the appearanceof potteryandagriculturein smallcoastalcommunities.PattersonimpliesthatFormativerefersto "atruly agrarianeconomy.. .in whichthecultivationof food plants ratherthanfishingplayedthe determinantrole in shaping the economic structure," but appliesit to sites such as La Florida,whosemassivepyramidalconstructionstooksome 6-7 million person-daysto construct.Eachof these terms refersto suchanenormousrangeof lifewaysthattheirutility is questionable.Serious critiqueshave made us wary of the term "chiefdom."It is time for similarlypenetrating critiquesof the notions of both Archaicand Formative. To what do they still refer in a broad New World context?Forexample,wouldwe identifythehistoricTlingit, Kwakiutl,or Haidaas "Archaic"or "Formative"? Thereis a moreseriousproblemin the use of chronology: Some authorsuse "B.C.",otheruse "B.P.,"andsome switchbetweenthe two. Withfew exceptions,it is impossible to determinewhether dates are given in calendar years or uncalibratedradiocarbonyears. This is not trivial, especially for the periodsunderdiscussion.A date of 3500 + 50 B.P., which may be presentedas roundedto "1500B .C.",calibratesto a 95.4-percentconfidencerange of 1939-1724 B.C. A date of 6000 + 50 B.P., which may
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be roundedto "4000BC",calibratesto 5600 5364 BC. Is a time span of "6000 to 3500 B.P."actually2500 years long or closer to fourmillennia?If authorsdo not makeit clear what time scale they are using, seriouschronological errorsareunavoidable. Althougha bit priceyfor a softboundpublication,this volumeoffersmanykey referencesfor futureresearch.Its syntheticnaturewill makeit especiallyappropriate in graduateseminars.Thisbookwill be particularlyusefulto specialists seeking an accessible summary of the latest thinkingon the origins of agricultureand complex society in the New World.
CodexChimalpahin, Volume1. Societyand Politicsin MexicoTenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Culhuacan, and OtherNahuaAltepetlinCentralMexico. TheNahuatland SpanishAnnalsandAccountsCollectedandRecorded by don Domingo de San Anton Muno'nChimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin. ARTHUR J. O. ANDERSON and SUSAN SCHROEDER,editors.Universityof Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1997. viii + 248 pp., figures, indices. $45.00 (cloth).
CodexChimalpahin, Volume2. Societyand Politicsin MexicoTenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Culhuacan, and OtherNahuaAltepetlin CentralMexico(continued). The NahuatlandSpanishAnnalsandAccountsCollectedand Recordedby Don Domingode SanAnto'nMuno'nChimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin. TheExercicio Quotidiano by frayBernardino deSahagu'n, donDomingode SanAnto'n Munon ChimalpahinQuauhtlehuanitzin,copyist. Unsigned NahuatlMaterialsanda LetterbyJuande San Antonioof Texcoco.ARTHURJ. O. ANDERSON and SUSAN SCHROEDER,editors.Universityof Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1997. viii + 248 pp., figures, indices. $45.00 (cloth).
Reviewed byRobertHaskett,Universityof Oregon. Overthe pastfew decadesthe scholarlycommunityinterestedin Mesoamerica'sindigenouspasthasbenefitedfrom the increasing volume and sophisticationof published nativelanguagetexts, the majorityof them postconquest alphabeticrecordswrittenin Nahuatl.Oncemutedindigenous voices have begun to speak more clearly,although not in unison.A rich diversityof expressionis emerging, from the humbletestatorof an obscureruralhamletlost in the folds of the Mexican landscapeto the high flown poetic prose of FrayBernardinode Sahagun'scelebrated
Florentine Codex. The encyclopedicFlorentine Codex,the Nahuatltext of which was writtenat least in some formwith the aid of Sahagun's Nahua assistants, is certainly not the only
