Ianir Milevski
This volume gathers papers written by archaeologists utilising the methods of historical materialism, attesting not only to what Marxism has contributed to archaeology, but also to what archaeology has contributed, and can contribute, to Marxism as a method for interpreting the history of humanity. The book’s contributors consider the question of what archaeology can contribute to a historical perspective on the overcoming of present-day capitalism, synthesising developments in world archaeology, and supplying concrete case studies of the archaeology of the Americas, Europe and the Near East.
Contributors are: Guillermo Acosta Ochoa, Marcus Bajema, Bernardo Gandulla, Alex Gonzales-Panta, Pablo Jaruf, Vicente Lull, Savas Michael-Matsas, Rafael Micó, Ianir Milevski, Patricia Pérez Martínez, Cristina Rihuete Herrada, Roberto Risch, Steve Roskams, Henry Tantaleán, Marcelo Vitores, and LouAnn Wurst.
Biographical Note
Ianir Milevski, PhD (2005), is a member of the programme ‘Raíces’, of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Argentina, and Visiting Professor at a number of Argentinian universities. His current research projects include a long-term study of the social formations of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze periods, a study of burial practices in those periods and a social history of art in the late pre-history of the Levant.
Readership
This volume is relevant to students and specialists in the field archaeology, economic anthropology and Historical Materialism, stressing the intimate relationship between them.
Table of Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables ix
Notes on Contributors x
Part 1
Introduction
1 Marxist Archaeology Today: Observations on Dialectical Materialism in
Archaeology, Its Sources and Tendencies 3
Ianir Milevski
Part 2
Case Studies
2 Work and Subsistence in Preceramic Groups in Southeastern
Mexico 39
Patricia Pérez Martínez and Guillermo Acosta Ochoa
3 The Mode of Production of the Chalcolithic Period in Palestine 76
Ianir Milevski, Bernardo Gandulla and Pablo Jaruf
4 An Exceptional Case of the Urban Revolution? A Marxist Perspective on
the Preclassical Maya 107
Marcus Bajema
5 Violence in the Prehispanic Andes: Materialities, Social Practices and
the Moche Case 137
Alex Gonzales-Panta and Henry Tantaleán
6 Marx, Marxism and Classical Antiquity 172
Steve Roskams
7 Marxism, Historical Archaeology and Capitalism’s ‘Laws of
Motion’ 201
LouAnn Wurst
Part 3
Balances and Perspectives
8 Marxism, Production, Society and Archaeology 231
Vicente Lull
9 Politics and Social Ontology in Prehistory 261
Vicente Lull, Rafael Micó, Cristina Rihuete Herrada and Roberto
Risch
10 Vere Gordon Childe and Latin American Social Archaeology 270
Marcelo Vitores
11 Transitions: from Archaeology to Historical Materialism 293
Savas Michael-Matsas
Index 325
