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Books : reviews

Michael E. Smith, Marilyn A. Masson.
The Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica: a reader.
Blackwell. 2000

Twenty-three of the most influential essays by leading scholars are brought together in this reader, revealing the rich variety of cultures and societies that existed in ancient Mesoamerica. Expert editorial introductions explain the context and significance of the contributions, and extensive bibliographies facilitate further research.

This illustrated volume includes the results of the most up-to-date research on a wide range of social practices, cultures, and time periods. Among the subjects addressed are social, economic, and political organization, as well as religion and ideology. The readings are arranged thematically rather than by region in order to compare the main characteristics of Mesoamerican city and rural life, and to bring out both the unity and diversity of these ancient peoples.

Michael E. Smith.
The Aztecs: 2nd edn.
Blackwell. 2003

This book is a vivid and comprehensive account of the Aztecs, the best-known people of pre-Columbian America. It examines their origins, civilization, and the distinctive realms of Aztec religion, science, and thought. It describes the conquest of their empire by the Spanish, and the fate of their descendants to the present day in Central Mexico, making use of the results of the latest excavations, historical documentation, and the author’s first-hand knowledge. There is also a fascinating and detailed account of the daily life of the Aztec people, including their economy, family life, class system, and food.

This second edition updates the original text with new descriptions of major archaeological sites such as Malinalco and Tlatelolco and expanded coverage of codices, religion, and areas distant from the capital. Dozens of photographs and illustrations have been added for this edition, making this the most informative and up-to-date treatment of Aztec civilization.

Michael E. Smith, Frances F. Berdan.
The Postclassic Mesoamerican World.
University of Utah Press. 2003

The past two decades have seen an explosion of research on Postclassic Mesoamerican societies. In this ambitious voiume, the editors and contributors seek to present a complete picture of the middle and late Postclassic period (ca. AD 1100–1500) by employing a new theoretical framework.

Mesoamerican societies after the collapse of the great city-states of Tula and Chichen Itza stand out from earlier societies in a number of ways. They had larger regional populations, smaller polities, a higher volume of long-distance trade, greater diversity of trade goods, a more commercialized economy, and new standardized forms of pictorial writing and iconography. The emerging archaeological record reveals larger quantities of imported goods in Postclassic contexts, and ethnohistoric accounts describe marketplaces, professional merchants, and the use of money throughout Mesoamerica by the time of the Spanish conquest. The integration of this commercial economy with new forms of visual communication produced a dynamic world system that reached every corner of Mesoamerica.

Thirty-six focused articles by twelve authors describe and analyze the complexity of Postclassic Mesoamerica. After an initial theoretical section, chapters are organized by key themes: polities, economic networks, information networks, case studies, and comparisons. Covering a region from western Mexico to Yucatan and the southwestern Maya highlands, this volume should be in the library of anyone with a serious interest in ancient Mexico.

Michael E. Smith.
Aztec City-State Capitals.
University Press of Florida. 2008

Aztec City-State Capitals advances Mesoamerican scholarship by focusing attention on the urban centers outside the empire’s capital of Tenochtitlan. Dozens of smaller cities were central hubs of political, economic, and religious life, integral to the grand infrastructure of the Aztec empire. Through this detailed examination, Michael E. Smith demonstrates the synchronicity of politics and urban design within the Aztec realm.

Michael E. Smith.
The Comparitive Archaeology of Complex Societies.
CUP. 2012

Part of a resurgence in the comparative study of ancient societies, this book presents a variety of methods and approaches to comparative analysis through the examination of wide-ranging case studies. Each chapter is a comparative study, and the diverse topics and regions covered in the book contribute to the growing understanding of variation and change in ancient complex societies. The authors explore themes ranging from urbanization and settlement patterns, to the political strategies of kings and chiefs, to the economic choices of individuals and households. The case studies cover an array of geographical settings, from the Andes to Southeast Asia. The authors are leading archaeologists whose research on early empires, states, and chiefdoms is at the cutting edge of scientific archaeology.

Michael E. Smith.
At Home with the Aztecs: an archaeologist uncovers their daily life.
Routledge. 2016

At Home with the Aztecs provides a fresh view of Aztec society, focusing on households and communities instead of kings, pyramids, and human sacrifice. This new approach offers an opportunity to humanize the Aztecs, moving past the popular stereotype of sacrificial maniacs to demonstrate that these were successful and prosperous communities. Michael Smith also engagingly describes the scientific, logistic and personal dimensions of archaeological fieldwork, drawing on decades of excavating experience and considering how his research was affected by his interaction with contemporary Mexican communities. Through first-hand accounts of the ways archaeologists interpret sites and artifacts, the book illuminates how the archaeological process can provide information about ancient families. Facilitating a richer understanding of the Aztec world, Smith’s research also redefines success, prosperity and resilience in ancient societies, making this book suitable not only for those interested in the Aztecs but in the examination of complex societies in general.

Timothy A. Kohler, Michael E. Smith.
Ten Thousand Years of Inequality: the archaeology of wealth differences.
University of Arizona Press. 2018

Is wealth inequality a universal feature of human societies, or did early peoples live an egalitarian existence? How did inequality develop before the modern era? Did inequalities in wealth increase as people settled into a way of life dominated by farming and herding? Why in general do such disparities increase, and how recent are the high levels of wealth inequality now experienced in many developed nations? How can archaeologists tell?

Ten Thousand Years of Inequality addresses these and other questions by presenting the first set of consistent quantitative measurements of ancient wealth inequality. The authors are archaeologists who have adapted the Gini index, a statistical measure of wealth distribution often used by economists to measure contemporary inequality, and applied it to house-size distributions over time and around the world. Clear descriptions of methods and assumptions serve as a model for other archaeologists and historians who want to document past patterns of wealth disparity.

The chapters cover a variety of ancient cases, including early hunter-gatherers, farmer villages, and agrarian states and empires. The final chapter synthesizes and compares the results. Among the new and notable outcomes, the authors report a systematic difference between higher levels of inequality in ancient Old World societies and lower levels in their New World counterparts.

For the first time, archaeology allows humanity’s deep past to provide an account of the early manifestations of wealth inequality around the world.