Mesoamerican Archaeology as Anthropology and History : Anthropological Archaeological Research in Mesoamerica by Japanese Scholars
スポンサーリンク
概要
- 論文の詳細を見る
This paper reviews the recent major research in anthropological archaeology (1980-2002) conducted in Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America) by Japanese scholars. Compared to the long research tradition of Andean archaeology established by Japanese scholars in Peru since 1958, Mesoamerican archaeology is still coming of age in Japan. However, several Japanese scholars have contributed to anthropological studies of the development of complex societies by publishing books and articles in the Americas and Europe. Therefore, in this article, I focus on recent archaeological studies oriented towards anthropological problems. I first look at recent investigations at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Then, I examine anthropological archaeological research in Central America. Unlike ethnological research, which can only study cultural change over decades, archaeological studies can look at long-term patterns of change over hundreds of years. In this context, Mesoamerican archaeology can advance anthropological studies of the development of complex societies. Important questions of anthropological interest include the rise and decline of pre-industrial state-level societies, the nature and role of exchange in the development of complex societies, the nature of urbanism, the relationship between warfare and the development of sociopolitical complexity, native worldviews and ritual meanings, household organization and domestic activities, and articulations of domestic groups with larger political organizations. Although the Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people developed a complex stratified society with an advanced writing system, calendar, and astronomy, its essentially neolithic technologies and lack of beasts of burden were in striking contrast to the ancient civilizations of the Old World. The unique evolutionary trajectory of Mesoamerican civilization before the globalization of humanity under European hegemony, as well as that of other New World native cultures, remind us of the wide variability in societal development. The studies of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica provide an important empirical foundation for a general theoretical understanding of the nature of human society and its major evolutionary trends.
- 日本文化人類学会の論文