What similarities and differences do humans see between themselves and animals? Why do people commonly make metaphorical comparisons between human beings or social groups and animals, and to what degree are people's attitudes and beliefs about animals parallel to or contingent upon their attitudes and beliefs about human beings and human society? This collection of articles considers these issues. The issues are basic in any study of "totemism," or human and animal relationships, and they have been discussed in anthropological literature since the time of Lewis Henry Morgan's work on Iroquois social organization. The contributors to this anthology have not limited themselves to the notion that clans and moieties are the only sources and objects of metaphorical comparisons between humans and animals. They suggest a shift in perspective that has metaphorical comparisons generated by conceived similarities and differences between animals and particular types of human beings. Some examples of this include macaw fledglings as adolescents; pumas as fully initiated men, and foxes as young married men. With this shift of emphasis, a significantly different analytic focus in the study of human-animal relations is produced.

Presenting 10 essays by experts in the fields of anthropology, ethnography, and ornithology on the native peoples of South America and their use of birds, this volume offers a fascinating view into the lives and customs of some of the indigenous peoples living in the rainforest and coastal areas of Brazil and Peru. This book includes color photographs of South American natives in festival and ritual celebrations and everyday activities, along with spectacular objects of featherwork, textiles, and pottery. Contributors: Ruben E. Reina, Kenneth M. Kensinger, Kay L. Candler, Virginia Greene, Elizabeth Netto Calil Zarur, Catherine V. Howard, Patricia J. Lyon, Jon F. Pressman, Peter T. Turst, and Mark Robbins. University Museum Monograph, 75

Our perceptions and conceptions regarding the roles and importance of maize to ancient economies is largely a product of scientific research on the plant itself, developed for the most part out of botanical research, and its recent role as one of the most important economic staples in the world. Anthropological research in the early part of the last century based largely upon the historical particularistic approach of the Boasian tradition provided the first evidence that challenged the assumptions about the economic importance of maize to sociocultural developments for scholars of prehistory. Subsequent ethnobotanic and archaeological studies showed that the role of maize among Native American cultures was much more complex than just as a food staple. In Maize Cobs and Cultures, John Staller provides a survey of the ethnohistory and the scientific, botanical and biological research of maize, complemented by reviews on the ethnobotanic, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary methodologies.

Metaphor, though not now the scholarly “mania” it once was, remains a topic of great interest in many disciplines albeit with interesting shifts in emphasis.Warren Shibles' Metaphor: An Annotated Bibliography and History (Bloomington, Ind. 1971) recorded the initial interest. Then Metaphor: A Bibliography of Post-1970 Publications, published by John Benjamins, continued the record through the mania years up to 1985 when writings proliferated as metaphor was seen to be a fundamental category in human thought and language.Five years later, there is a need for a report on the newest thinking and tendencies in the field. This need is fulfilled by Metaphor II which offers a comprehensive view of information which would otherwise remain scattered throughout a numbing plethora of resources, including many sometimes-hard-to-find publications from Eastern Europe.Metaphor II systematically collects references of books, articles and papers published between 1985 and May 1990, and includes for completeness corrections and additions to the earlier bibliographies. Abstracts are given for many of the titles, while four indices (disciplines, semantic fields, metaphor theory and names) multiply the number of access points to the information.

The contributors to this book focus on the relationship between nature and society from a variety of theoretical and ethnographic perspectives. Their work draws upon recent developments in social theory, biology, ethnobiology, epistemology, sociology of science, and a wide array of ethnographic case studies -- from Amazonia, the Solomon Islands, Malaysia, the Mollucan Islands, rural comunities from Japan and north-west Europe, urban Greece, and laboratories of molecular biology and high-energy physics. The discussion is divided into three parts, emphasising the problems posed by the nature-culture dualism, some misguided attempts to respond to these problems, and potential avenues out of the current dilemmas of ecological discourse.

Front Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- 1: Biographies of Place -- 2: Place-Making and Politics -- 3: The Lake Titicaca Basin, Past and Present -- 4: The Site of Khonkho Wankane -- 5: Making Ritual Places: Caravan Routes and the Founding of Khonkho Wankane -- 6: Experiencing Ritual Places: Stelae, Sunken Courts, and the Creation of an Axis Mundi -- 7: The Power of Ritual Places: Politics and Social Difference through Time -- 8: The Political Cartography of an Axis Settlement -- Appendix -- Notes -- References -- Index -- Back Cover

Icons of Power investigates why the image of the cat has been such a potent symbol in the art, religion and mythology of indigenous American cultures for three thousand years. The jaguar and the puma epitomize ideas of sacrifice, cannibalism, war, and status in a startling array of graphic and enduring images. Natural and supernatural felines inhabit a shape-shifting world of sorcery and spiritual power, revealing the shamanic nature of Amerindian world views. This pioneering collection offers a unique pan-American assessment of the feline icon through the diversity of cultural interpretations, but also striking parallels in its associations with hunters, warriors, kingship, fertility, and the sacred nature of political power. Evidence is drawn from the pre-Columbian Aztec and Maya of Mexico, Peruvian, and Panamanian civilizations, through recent pueblo and Iroquois cultures of North America, to current Amazonian and Andean societies. This well-illustrated volume is essential reading for all who are interested in the symbolic construction of animal icons, their variable meanings, and their place in a natural world conceived through the lens of culture. The cross-disciplinary approach embraces archaeology, anthropology, and art history.

Gender in Pre-Hispanic America offers rich opportunities for comprehending current trends and considering future directions in research. It is unique in that it puts social theory at the forefront of the discussion. The book has a special intellectual presence and contemporary relevance in its engagement with the social lives and constructs of its authors and readers alike. The consideration of the role of gender in our daily lives, including in our professions, becomes inescapable when reading this book. It is not simply a question of men's roles having been possibly overemphasized and overstudied to the detriment of women's. The fact that genders, as opposed to sexes, are socially constructed categories focuses our attention on the ways in which these and other social constructs have shaped our present understanding of the past and informed past peoples' understand of their present. In various articles in this book, the reader will not find unanimity in what is meant by "gender" or how to go about studying it. What will be found, however, is a collection of interesting, informed, thought-provoking, and often lively essays. It is hoped that this volume will mark a stage in an evolving study of this field and provoke new research in the future.

This study presents an approach to metaphor that takes contextual factors into account. It analyses how metaphors depend on and change the context in which they are uttered, and how metaphorical interpretation involves the articulation of asserted, implied and presupposed materials.

Comprehensive and cross-referenced, this informative volume is a rich introduction to the world of nature as experienced by ancient peoples around the globe. 51 halftones.