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Anthropology Book recs
Feb. 18th, 2014 05:39 pmKeeping in mind that recommending this books simply means that I think they are worth a read, not that I agree 100% with them.
The Maya and Mesoamerica
Elsewhere in the Americas:
African:
The Maya and Mesoamerica
- For Newbies:
- The Maya by Michael Coe (I think we're up to the eighth edition by now)- a good intro into the Ancient Maya
- Breaking the Maya Code by Michael Coe- About the deciphering of the ancient Mayan glyphs
- Reading the Maya Glyphs by Michael Coe and Mark van Stone- teaches you to read said ancient Mayan glyphs
- Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya by Simon Martin- The pictures are the best thing about this book. They are beautiful.
- Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest by Matthew Restall- Really good overview, excellent for explaining the errors of popular "knowledge"
- Popol Vuh translated by Dennis Tedlock- my favorite translation of the Maya creation myth. Fascinating and lovely.
- Maya Calender Origins: Monuments, Mythistory, and the Materialization of Time by Prudence M. Rice
- More of interest to those of a scholarly persuasion
- Oldies but goodies- these are basic building blocks of the field, but some of the theories may be a little outdated
- The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art by Linda Schele
- A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya by David Freidel and Linda Schele
- The Code of Kings: The Language of the Seven Sacred Maya Temples and Tombs by Linda Schele and Peter Mathews
- Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path by David Freidel and Linda Schele
- The Caste War of the Yucatan by Nelson Reed
- The Two Milpas of Chan Kom by Alicia de Cruz
- Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570 by Inga Clendinnen
- Maya Conquistador by Matthew Restall
- Maya Society Under Colonial Rule by Nancy M. Farriss- One of my favorites.
- Oldies but goodies- these are basic building blocks of the field, but some of the theories may be a little outdated
- Misc Authors not mentioned elsewhere
- Dennis Tedlock
- Barbara Tedlock
Elsewhere in the Americas:
- For Newbies:
- The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis- a really fun read, both as an ethnography and as an adventure tale.
- Dark Shamans: Kanaima and the Poetics of Violent Death by Neil L. Whitehead- with a caveat. Only the first chapter is really of interest to newbies. It's a narrative of what happened to the author while he was studying a group in South America. The rest of the book is more scholarly, but the first chapter is a really suspenseful, chilling, on-the-edge-of-your-seat story.
- More of interest to those of a scholarly persuasion:
- Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society by Beth A. Conklin
- More of interest to those of a scholarly persuasion:
- Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy by Mircea Eliade: Old and a lot of the theoretical framework has more recently been called into question (I wrote my Seniors Honors Thesis doing exactly that), but fundamental to any serious study of the field. It's been a huge part of studies for decades and influences tons of scholars afterwards. And it is a good read with good info and insight.
- Shamans and Religion: An Anthropological Exploration in Critical Thinking by Alice Beck Kehoe: Shorter than Eliade's work and easier to read, but probably not very interesting to anyone who isn't into anthropological theory and meta. However, I adore it. It inspired my Senior Honors Thesis and played a huge part in shaping how I think about shamanism.
African:
- For Newbies:
- Return to Laughter by Elenore Smith Bowen
- More of interest to those of a scholarly persuasion:
- Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society by Lila Abu-Lughod
