Parsons Lecture: New Perspectives on Aztec Households, Communities, and Cities

Mar
22
2013

Speaker: Dr. Michael Smith, Professor of Anthropology, School of Human Evolution & Social Change, Arizona State University
Host Department: Museum of Anthropology
Date: 03/22/2013
Time: 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Location: room 2009 Ruthven
Description:
Why were some provincial households and communities resilient in the face of conquest by the Aztec Empire, while others were destroyed or negatively impacted? How can archaeologists measure things like quality of life, resilience, community organization, and urbanization? Were the Aztecs really sacrificial maniacs? I describe excavations of Aztec provincial houses at rural and urban sites in central Mexico that help answer these and other questions about Aztec life and society. The application of new concepts and approaches to household-level excavation data generates increasingly detailed understandings of ancient households, communities, and cities in ancient central Mexico. I also explore contemporary implications of these data.

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