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No description available.

Teotihuacan was founded in a side valley of the Basin of Mexico during the first centuries of the common era and at its height reached a size of approximately 20 square kilometers. During A. D. 400-700, the Middle Classic period, architecture and portable artifacts in the Teotihuacan style are distributed throughout Mesoamerica. The distribution of Teotihuacan style material culture is often cited as evidence that Teotihuacan had the social and political complexity characteristic of early expansionistic states, and was in fact the first empire of highland Mexico. This study traces patterns of Teotihuacan influence in Gulf Coast ceramic assemblages in order to reconstruct relationships between Teotihuacan and various Classic period Gulf Coast polities. Here influence is defined as all archaeological indications of contact between two culturally or ethnically distinct populations. Variation in the timing and patterning of influence indicates variation in the nature of the relationships sustained between the two populations. To control for temporal and geographic variation, ceramic sequences and assemblage descriptions currently in use both at Teotihuacan and on the Gulf Coast are discussed and evaluated. Patterns of Teotihuacan influence in the ceramic assemblages of the Gulf Coast are shown to vary considerably from area to area and reflect clear differences in the timing and duration of Teotihuacan contact. Variation also occurs in the fidelity with which local imitations adhere to Teotihuacan stylistic conventions, the depositional context in which Teotihuacan imitations occur, and the range and types of Teotihuacan ceramic artifacts copied. The resulting patterns are interpreted to be meaningful in terms of past relationships between Teotihuacan and various Gulf Coast polities. The existence of Teotihuacan imperial control over part of the Gulf Coast is suggested.

This study investigates prehistoric West Mexican mortuary activities as technological systems. That is, the production, distribution, and use of mortuary ceramics are considered within a social context. Changes in technology are related to social and ideational changes in the society. In the past, interest in West Mexico has been stimulated by the large number of Pre-columbian ceramic figurines found in museums and private collections worldwide. Lacking more specific information, the art world created a "cult of the dead" to describe the people who made these figurines. Today, evidence on mortuary behavior and lifeways clearly demonstrates that these people were involved in many kinds of activities. This study aims to define mortuary activity within a context of technological, social, and ideational structures. Within this framework, technological changes occurring between the late Formative and the Classic period (200 B.C. to A.D. 700) at two small sites in the Valley of Atemajac were compared to changes occurring at the center of the region, 50 kilometers away. Technical analysis of the artifacts using optical, electron optical, and x-ray techniques was carried out. When combined with grosser archaeological categories regarding the treatment of the interred, and the distribution of artifacts within and between tombs, this resulted in a technological reconstruction of the production, distribution, and use of the mortuary ceramics. This technological reconstruction was placed within a regional context, based on inferences built from settlement pattern and architectural data as well as ethnohistoric records. Technological reconstruction resulted in the unconditional conclusion that the technical, social and ideational changes seen in the Valley of Atemajac could only be due to a discontinuity in site occupation, and later resettlement by outsiders.

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This preliminary typology of Aztec formal chipped stone tools was created taking into account the context in which the lithics were recovered, their morphology, and manufacturing processes. The typology defines six categories of stone tools: ornately decorated bifaces (this includes ceremonial lithic artifacts), projectile points, scrapers, perforators, denticulates, and other. The thesis also includes an analysis of 10 previously unanalyzed Aztec lithic assemblages. When taken together the typology and lithic analysis provide a summary description of the Aztec lithic industry. / by Timothy J. Guyah. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 475-496).

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An understanding of the effects of harvest on wild plant populations is essential for discerning the ecological impacts of past and present human uses of wild species, and for conserving species which are currently overexploited. This dissertation builds on theories and methods to describe and predict the impacts of harvesting non-timber forest products (NTFP) through an ethnoecological study of the terrestrial bromeliad Aechmea magdalenae. A. magdalenae is harvested from the rainforests of South-eastern Mexico where it has a long history of exploitation. The fiber extracted from its leaves is used to embroider leather articles in an artwork known as piteado. The sustainable harvest of this species has been promoted in Mexico as a strategy to conserve forests and provide local people with a stable income. / A combination of demographic, ethnobotanical and participatory methods was used to quantify harvest strategies, measure their impacts on A. magdalenae populations, and assess potential for cultivation. The impacts of harvesting: (1) ramets used for forest plantations; (2) leaves and ramets; (3) and whole plants and ramets, were measured by comparing the dynamics of harvested and nonharvested populations. The demographic implications of variation in the ecological and human context of harvest were examined. The effects of variation in traditional management and traditional knowledge of this species were also quantified. / Analyses using matrix models indicate that primary forest populations harvested for their ramets are declining due to overexploitation. Secondary forest populations are tolerant to ramet harvest and show elevated rates of growth and vegetative propagation in wild and cultivated plants. High rates of fiber harvest have little impact on population growth rates and increase A. magdalenae's tolerance to ramet harvest. The economic and ecological implications of local harvesting strategies vary within regions as well as between regions with short and long histories of A. magdalenae management. A test of the accuracy of estimating maximum sustainable harvests using current approaches illustrates that these methods can lead to erroneous conclusions. / The results of this study are used to suggest improvements for approaches to assessing the impacts of NTFP harvest, for combining traditional ecological knowledge and science in management plans, and for using participatory ecological and ethnoecological research to promote conservation.