Mummies and Mortuary Monuments: A Postprocessual Prehistory of Central Andean Social Organization

Description

Author: Isbell, William H. (1943-)

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Pub Date: 1997 (First edition)

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Book.  Good to Very Good.  Binding tight.  No marks, tears, bends or folds.  Very light edge and corner wear.  Appears unused.  Dust Jacket: Fair to Good.  NOT price clipped (no price indicated).  Some edge wear along upper front and rear edges.

Notes:  The origin, history, and nature of the ayllu–a group of relations or ceremonial “kin” who share labor, resources, ritual obligations.  I suppose many cultures have this sort of grouping–in the southern United States “grave-cleaning” day, in northern New Mexico the mayordomo who says it’s time to clean the acequias, in the pueblos the celebration of feast days.  Some archaeologists believe the ayllu date back as far as 6000 B.C.  Isbell says nope, probably only around 200 B.C., as a means of resistance to the “state”.   Ancestor worship as affirmation–“I’m here, they were here before me, they will come after me.  Life goes on.”