Overview

A transdisciplinary collaboration among ethnologists, linguists, and archaeologists, 'Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia' traces the emergence, expansion, and decline of cultural identities in indigenous Amazonia. Hornborg and Hill argue that the tendency to link language, culture, and biology -- essentialist notions of ethnic identities -- is a Eurocentric bias that has characterised largely inaccurate explanations of the distribution of ethnic groups and languages in Amazonia. The evidence, however, suggests a much more fluid relationship among geography, language use, ethnic identity, and genetics. In this book, leading linguists, ethnographers, ethnohistorians, and archaeologists interpret their research from a unique non-essentialist perspective to form a more accurate picture of the ethnolinguistic diversity in this area. Revealing how ethnic identity construction is constantly in flux, contributors show how such processes can be traced through different ethnic markers such as pottery styles and languages. Scholars and students studying lowland South America will be especially interested, as will anthropologists intrigued by its cutting-edge, interdisciplinary approach.

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9781607321965

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Reviews

A major contribution to Amazonian anthropology, and possibly a direction changer. J. Scott Raymond,University of Calgary

""A major contribution to Amazonian anthropology, and possibly a direction changer.""J. Scott Raymond,University of Calgary

Author Information

Alf Hornborg is a professor of human ecology at Lund University in Sweden. Jonathan D. Hill is a professor and former chair of anthropology at Southern Illinois University- Carbondale.

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