Human Adaptation in Ancient Mesoamerica ― Empirical Approaches to Mesoamerican Archaeology

This volume explores the dynamics of human adaptation to social, political, ideological, economic, and environmental factors in Mesoamerica and includes a wide array of topics, such as the hydrological engineering behind Teotihuacan’s layout, the complexities of agriculture and sustainability in the Maya lowlands, and the nuanced history of abandonment among different lineages and households in Maya centers.

The authors aptly demonstrate how culture is the mechanism that allows people to adapt to a changing world, and they address how ecological factors, particularly land and water, intersect with nonmaterial and material manifestations of cultural complexity. Contributors further illustrate the continuing utility of the cultural ecological perspective in framing research on adaptations of ancient civilizations.

This book celebrates the work of Dr. David Webster, an influential Penn State archaeologist and anthropologist of the Maya region, and highlights human adaptation in Mesoamerica through the scientific lenses of anthropological archaeology and cultural ecology.

Contributors include Elliot M. Abrams, Christopher J. Duffy, Susan Toby Evans, Kirk D. French, AnnCorinne Freter, Nancy Gonlin, George R. Milner, Zachary Nelson, Deborah L. Nichols, David M. Reed, Don S. Rice, Prudence M. Rice, Rebecca Storey, Kirk Damon Straight, David Webster, Stephen L. Whittington, Randolph J. Widmer, John D. Wingard, and W. Scott Zeleznik.

Nancy Gonlin is chair of the Department of Anthropology at Bellevue College in Bellevue, Washington, where she was awarded the Margin of Excellence Award in 2012. She is coeditor ofCommoner Ritual and Ideology in Ancient Mesoamerica and Ancient Households of the Americas and coauthor ofCopan: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Maya Kingdom.

Kirk D. French is lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on complex societies in Mesoamerica and relies on an analytical approach to better understand human adaptations to environmental change through a combination of field-based archaeology, watershed modeling, and documentary film.