Pacaritambo

THE ANCIENT AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS (History of Civilization series)
by Friedrich Katz. B&W drawings. Cover photo: Mask representing the god Quezalcoatl, Aztec, c. 1500. Condition: NEW 2000 Phoenix Press Trade Paperback, first printing. Content: Originally published in Germany in 1969. Ever since Columbus set foot on American soil ("invaded" is the correct term), and convinced he had reached India, called the native populations Indians, the origins of the aboriginal inhabitants have been hotly debated. There are few empires about which such contradictory ideas persist as those of the Inca and the Aztecs. Katz Begins his study of the ancient American civilizations - spanning the vast period from the first peoples, thirty-five to fifty thousand years ago, to the Spanish Conquest of 1517 - with a discussion of the sources of our knowledge. He describes the inhabitants, their agriculture - and the cultural sphere of Mesoamerica. Tracing the development of the civilizations of pre-Columbian America from village communities to prosperous city states, this is a fascinating account of how these civilizations culminated in the magnificent empires of the Aztecs and Inca. [1 copy available]
$ 18.49 + shipping

THE ANCIENT EARTHWORKS AND TEMPLES OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS
by Lindesey Brine. Condition: UNREAD 1996 Oracle Publishing (London), first printing. Tiny edgewear with light tanning to page edges. Name inside front cover. Content: Originally published in England in c. 1894. In 1969 an English naval officer set sail from Liverpool, intending to visit the pre-Columbian monuments of Northern and Central America. Only three years had elapsed since the American Civil War had put an end to slavery and large parts of the continent were still inhabited by native peoples, living in the traditional way. This book is the record of his epic journey, by river steamer and mule train, and is based on the diaries he kept at the time. It covers the major archaeological sites of North America, from the huge prehistoric earthworks of Ohio to the hidden Aztec temples of Mexico, with visits to the lands of the Shoshone, the Sioux, the Pawnee and the Dakotas, among many others. An intriguing tour of the great civilizations of the Americas, both ancient and recent, this personal account offers the armchair traveller the opportunity to experience all the excitement of exploration and discovery more than a hundred years ago. Excellent!!! [1 copy available]
$ 7.59 + shipping

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF MESOAMERICA: Mexican and European Perspectives
by Warwick Bray and Linda Manzanilla (Editors). Color & B&W photos, maps, drawings. Condition: NEW 1999 British Museum Press trade paperback, first printing. Content: Since the 19th century, scholas in Mexico, Europe and North America have been studying the development and demise of the civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica. Discoveries made over the last 20 years ahve provided new insights into all the different groups which flourished in the region. In February of 1995 the Museum brought together a group of eminent European and Mexican scholas to discuss the present state of research ini Mesoamerican studies. This volume brings together seven papers given at that conference, uncovering new findings in 3 major geographical regions of Mesoamerica: the Highlands, the Gulf Coast and the Maya territory. Contributors: Linda Manzanilla, Leonardo Lopes Lujan, Gordon brotherston, John Gledhill, Norman Hammond, Nikolai Grube, Ponciano Ortiz Ceballos, and M. del Carmen Rodriguez. Essential readings! Questions welcome. [3 copies available]
$ 11.49 + shipping

THE ART OF MESOAMERICA: From Olmec to Aztec (Revised Edition)
by Mary Ellen Miller. Wonderful color & B&W photos, maps, drawings. Condition: UNREAD 1996 Thames & Hudson Trade Paperback, revised edition. Content: This revised edition of a noted pre-Columbian art history book will satisfy various types of readers, including travelers, armchair archaeologists, museum goers, and art history students. Inspired by new discoveries in archaeology and by major museum exhibitions, Miller (history of art, Yale) covers Mesoamerica's broad range of cultures, from Olmec to Aztec; geographic areas, including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and the Yucatan; and time periods, from archaic to postclassic. She explains how architecture, sculpture, painting, and ceramics relate to the dynamic forces of advance and decline within each culture and pays special attention to recent hieroglyphic decipherments and evidence for dating. The publication is enhanced by 193 pages of illustrations and beautiful color photography on quality paper. Covers all periods of the art of ancient Central America. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 11.49 + shipping

CONVERSING WITH THE PLANETS: How Science and Myth Invented the Cosmos
by Anthony Aveni. B&W photos, charts, & Maya language charts illustrate. Condition: NEW 1994 Kodansha International Trade Paperback, first thus, first printing. Content: Probably the best book on the subject. "Aveni, a professor of astronomy and anthropology at Colgate University, seeks here to integrate--in his view, reintegrate--the rational universe with a more comforting model that takes into account "the interrelationship between matter and spirit." Such ancient astronomically inclined peoples as the Babylonians and the Mayans, he argues, made direct connections between events in the night sky and those on earth, and hence between nature and culture. The Mayans, for example, used their observations of the path of Venus to create a culturally useful myth about planting." For those interested in Mesoamerican archeoastronomy, this is an invaluable point of view for study. [1 copy available]
$ 8.49 + shipping

THE CULT OF THE CAT
by Nicholas J. Saunders. 130 color & B&W photos and drawings. Condition: NEW 1991 Thames & Hudson large softcover, first printing. Content: Cats belong to a supernatural world of poetency and prowess. They are the survivors, the creatures most at home in their environment, the fastest and most successful predators on earth. Since Alexander, kings have hunted them; Hercules and David conquered them and wore their skins. The Egyptians worshipped them as goddesses; the shamans and sorcerers of Central Africa and South America took on their shapes to gain entry to the spirit realm; the the dark circle of witchcraft they are the envoys of Satan. Tamed, they remain free, our link with the superhuman in the wild. Between the feline and the human worlds has developed a mysterious rapport expressed in magic, in folk belief, and in the continuing presence of countless millions of pet cats as the objects of everyday worship. [1 copy available]
$ 7.49 + shipping

GODS OF EDEN: Egypt's Lost Legacy and the Genesis of Civilization
by Andrew Collins. B&W illustrations. Condition: NEW 2001 Bear & Company Trade Paperback, first printing. (Originally printed in London 1998). Tiny edgewear. Wonderful B&W photos, drawings, charts, "floor plans," and maps. Content: In his book From the Ashes of Angels, Andrew Collins provided historical and scientific evidence showing how Elder gods, who were the flesh and blood members of a race of fallen angels, founded ancient Egypt. Now, in this book, he describes the remarkable achievements of their culture. Assembling clues from archaeology, mythology, and religion, Collins shows us how this great society mastered acoustic technology and spread Egyptian technology of all types to the other ancient civilizations of the world - especially pyramid builders. Interesting! Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 15.49 + shipping

A GUIDE TO MEXICAN ARCHAEOLOGY
by Roman Pisa Chan. B&W drawings and photos; color photos and maps. Condition: Good only, c. 1971 Minutae Mexicana paperback, no printing given. Content: This book, although old, is wonderful source of photos - some I've never seen before. Chan takes the reader through the ages of Mescoamerican archaeology, beginning with the Remote Ages & the Pre-Classic Horizon to the Post-Classic Horizon. Informative and easy to read. Strikes me as a book that was probably sold at archaeological tourist sites in Mexico. Older, but worth it. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 6.49 + shipping

THE LOST REALMS (The Earth Chronicles, Book 4)
by Zecharia Sitchin. B&W maps & drawings illustrate. Condition: Gently pre-read, if at all, 1990 Avon paperback, 7th printing. Tiny edgewear. Interior clean & tight. Content: In the sixteenth century, Spanish conquerors came to the New World in search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold. Instead, they encountered inexplicable phenomena that have puzzled scholars and historians ever since: massive stone edifices constructed in the Earth's most inaccessible regions ... great monuments forged with impossible skill and unknown tools ... intricate carvings describing the events and topography of half a world away. In this, the remarkable and thoroughly researched fourth volume of The Earth Chronicles, author Sitchin uncovers the long-hidden secrets of the lost civilizations of the pre-Columbian Americas and offers documentation of the giant gods who spawned the greatness of the Incans, Mayans, and Aztecs -- the Anunnaki -- "those who from Heaven to Earth came." Sitchin was born in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, and raised in Palestine, where he acquired a knowledge of modern and ancient Hebrew, other Semitic and European languages, the Old Testament, and the history and archaeology of the Near East. Sitchin graduated from the University of London, majoring in economic history. A journalist and editor in Israel for many years, he now lives and writes in New York. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 8.49 + shipping

MASKS OF THE SPIRIT: Image and Metaphor in Mesoamerica
by Roberta H. Markman and Peter T. Markman. Introduction by Joseph Campbell. Color photos & B&W photos & maps. Condition: NEW 1994 University of California Press large softcover [0.8 x 9.2 x 12.2 (276 pages)], first paperback edition, first printing. Shelfwear diagonal crease bottom front cover. Content: The authors perceive the Mesoamerican mask as a metaphor and agent of transformation, mirroring in its relationship with its wearer the unity of the "underlying life force and the natural world it forms and sustains." Examples of the mask's symbolism, illustrated with black-and-white and color plates, are drawn from pre-Columbian images of the rain god, modern folkways, and contemporary art. While the Markmans' approach is nearer art than science, it draws on and reconciles scholarship in many disciplines, including anthropology and sociology as well as mythology. The extensive bibliography includes works by Alan Watts, Claude Levi-Strauss, and Joseph Campbell, as well as Mesoamericanists. [2 copies available]
$ 11.49 + shipping

MESOAMERICA: The Evolution of a Civilization (Random House Studies in Anthropology)
by William T. Sanders & Barbara J. Price. B&W photos, drawings, maps illustrate. Condition: Gently pre-read (to about page 19) 1968 Random House Trade Paperback, first printing. Tiny edgewear, binder's glue wrinkles down spine, light foxing fore edges. Better than it sounds. Content: This is a book on the theory of civilization, dealing with the Mesoamerican cultures of ancient Mexico and Guatemala long before the appearance of the white man. Wonderful history. Yes, there are parts that may be dated in 2005, but the basic premises and theories are still worth the read. [1 copy available]
$ 9.49 + shipping

MESOAMERICAN MYTHOLOGY: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America)
by Kay Almere Read and Jason J. gonzalez. B&W photos, drawings, maps illustrate. Condition: NEW 2002 Oxford University Press Trade Paperbck, first printing. Content: At the heart of this handbook on the mythologies of the peoples of Mexico and Central America lies its 140-page dictionary of deities, themes, and concepts. Each of the substantial entries in this section identifies the myth's time period and the cultural group in which it originated. The expository essays relate the tales associated with each character, explain how the myth has morphed over the centuries, cite archaeological and artistic evidence, and explain the myth's significance. The essays conclude with see also references to related entries and brief article-specific bibliographies. Although analytical and exploratory, the essays also convey the richness and imaginativeness of Mesoamerican myth, in which celestial bodies, wild and domestic animals, and divine personages are imbued with mystical meaning. They also discuss the ways in which indigenous tales and Christian lore affected one another, sometimes producing a synergistic hybrid. A helpful glossary defines significant terms, and more than 70 pictures of artworks, temples, and archaeological sites illustrate significant places and personages. An extensive introduction lays out the cultural history of Mesoamerica from earliest to recent times, key scholarly issues, and themes. The section that follows presents two major mythic time lines (K'iche' Maya and Nahua) and examines the meaning of time in the cultures of calendar-making peoples. Two concluding sections of the book list additional information sources. The first of these annotates selected bibliographic and Web sources; the second and larger simply lists print resources, most in English but some in Spanish. [2 copies available]
$ 12.49 + shipping

OAXACA: The Archaeological Record
by Marcus Winter. B&W dig drawings and photos. Condition: UNREAD 1999 Minutiae Mexicana. S.A. de C.V. Trade PB, second edition, fourth printing. Tiny edgewear. Content: Ongoing explorations in Oaxaca are adding new data to The Archaeological Record, and confirming that a number of native groups contributed to make it a high culture area; it was the site of Mesoamerica's first great city - Monte Alban; and homeland of two of ancient America's writing systems - Zapotec and Mixtec; and its mortuary customs were elaborate, and its extraordinary ceramic sculpture. This is the perfect book to guide you through the sites if you are planning a trip to Monte Alban. Marcus Winter is a researcher in the Archaeology Section of the Oaxaca Regional Center of the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). [1 copy available]
$ 9.49 + shipping

PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA: Myths and Legends (AKA: Myths of Pre-Columbian America)
by Donald MacKenzie. B&W photos and drawings illustrate. Condition: UNREAD 1996 Senate Trade Paperback, first printing. Light tanning to page edges. Content: This is a re-issue of the original 1923 work by MacKenzie in which he attempts to show that old-world ancient cultures (India, China, Greeks, Polynesians, Middle East, etc.) impacted and "improved" the civilizations of the Ancient Americas. We see these influences in the myths of the Mayas, Incas, Aztecs. While this book is interesting and certainly thought-provoking, it was originally written during a period when historical thought determined that the "barbaric empires" of the New World could not have possibly achieved greatness through their own inventiveness and independently. Hmmm. Questions welcome. [2 copies available]
$ 6.49 + shipping

PRECOLUMBIAN GOLD: Technology, Style and Iconography
edited by Colin McEwan. Spectacular color photos, B&W photos, and maps. Condition: NEW 2000 British Museum Press large softcover. Perfect. Content: Pre-Columbian Gold is a compilation of 13 essays by leading international scholars (archaeologists, art historians, metallurgists, etc.) that presents the latest research into the technology and iconography of pre-Columbian goldworking; areas covered are Peru, Bolivia, and Chile; Ecuador and Colombia; Central America and the Caribbean. Essays include discussions of gold offerings from excavations at Batan Grande, Peru; a description of recently discovered Malagana goldwork from Colombia; and an account of gold found in archaeological contexts from Panama. The results of analytical work on these finds have yielded new insights into Pre-Columbian social organization and beliefs, which are complemented by breakthroughs in iconographic interpretation of Nasca gold masks. The essays are comprehensively illustrated with 209 black-and-white photos and 37 color plates. Pre-Columbian Gold is the first interdisciplinary volume of its kind to cover a wide range of the principal Pre-Columbian goldworking cultures in the Americas. Both authoritative and accessible, it will be an important reference work for scholars but equally of interest to the non-specialist. [1 copy available]
$ 33.49 + shipping

RELIGIONS OF MESOAMERICA: Cosmovision and Ceremonial Centers
by David Carrasco. B&W drawings illustrate. Condition: New 1989 HarperSanFrancisco Trade Paperback reissue, 10th printing. Content: Engaging exploration of religious expression in Mexico! Highly regarded scholar Davd Carrasco provides an overview of the history of Mesoamerican cultures and vividly describes their religious forms, structures, myths, and prevailing "cosmovision"--the Mesoamerican view of time and space and its ritualized representation and enactment. Carrasco details the dynamics of two important cultures--the Aztec and the Maya--and discusses the impact of the Spanish conquest and the continuity of native traditions into the post-Columbian and contemporary eras. Integrating recent archaeological discoveries in Mexico City, he brings about a comprehensive understanding of ritual human sacrifice, a subject often ignored in religious studies. [I disagree with this part of the review. Ritual human sacrifice is a centerpoint of study of the Ancient Americas.] "The application of worldmaking, worldcentering and worldrenewal as a way to understand the role of activities within any cultural system is a brilliant idea, although not applied cross-culturally in Mr. Carrasco's book." [1 copy available]
$ 12.49 + shipping

SPIRITS OF THE JAGUAR; The Natural History and Ancient Civilizations of the Caribbean and Central America
by Paul Reddish. Beautiful color photos illustrate. Condition: Gently pre-read, IF at all, 1997 BBC Books (UK) hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), no printing given. Content: While this is a companion book to a BBC series on the Ancient Americas, it is fully capable of standing alone as a work of history. Central America and the Caribbean lay claim to some of the world's greatest biological riches. BBC producer Reddish proposes that through the shifting of continental plates, the land moved to where the plants and animals already existed. This companion volume to the PBS series charts the history of these regions from their drifting land masses to the arrival and evolution of exotic inhabitants, including humans. Human impact has been both a blessing and a curse: the greatest civilizations of the New World, the Maya and the Aztecs, were shaped by the regions' animals (jaguars and quetzals) and volcanoes, while Europeans brought advanced technology and new domesticated plants and animals as well as disease, slavery, and death. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 5.49 + shipping

STORIES FROM MEXICO - Historias De Mexico (Side By Side Bilingual Books)
by Genevieve Barlow & William Stivers. Clever B&W illustrations by Phero Thomas & Julia Scharf . Cover art by Sandra Burton. Condition: NEW 1996 Passport Books Trade Paperback, 6th printing. Content: These 16 legends, drawn from 1500 years of Mexican history are told in Spanish and English, on facing pages, and with end vocabulary lists in both languages. Reviewer: "Because the stories are ancient stories that reflect themes still used in modern Latin America the reading is interesting for older readers while still being easy enough for beginners and intermediates. Reading is much more pleasurable when, in difficult sections, one doesn't have to go searching through a separate dictionary. Translations are not literal and therefore instructive in phraseology." Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 9.49 + shipping

TEXTILE TRADITIONS OF MESOAMERICA AND THE ANDES: An Anthology
edited by Margot Blum Schevill, Janet Catherinei Berlo, and Edward B. Dwyer. B&W photos, drawings, & maps illustrate. Condition: NEW 1996 University of Texas Press Trade Paperback, reprint edition. Content: In this volume, anthropologists, art historians, fiber artists, and technologists come together to explore the meanings, uses, and fabrication of textiles in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia from Precolumbian times to the present. Originally published in 1991 by Garland Publishing, the book grew out of a 1987 symposium held in conjunction with the exhibit "Costume as Communication: Ethnographic Costumes and Textiles from Middle America and the Central Andes of South America" at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University. Questions welcome. [2 copies available]
$ 9.49 + shipping