Marxist Archaeology Today: Historical Materialist Perspectives in Archaeology from America, Europe and the Near East in the 21st Century (Historical Materialism, 296)

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. ‎Contents ‎Figures ‎Tables ‎Notes on Contributors ‎Part 1. Introduction ‎Chapter 1. Marxist Archaeology Today: Observations on Dialectical Materialism in Archaeology, Its Sources and Tendencies (Milevski) ‎Part 2. Case Studies ‎Chapter 2. Work and Subsistence in Preceramic Groups of Southeastern Mexico (Pérez Martínez and Acosta Ochoa) ‎Chapter 3. The Mode of Production of the Chalcolithic Period in Palestine (Milevski, Gandulla and Jaruf) ‎Chapter 4. An Exceptional Case of the Urban Revolution? A Marxist Perspective on the Preclassic Maya (Bajema) ‎Chapter 5. Violence in the Prehispanic Andes: Materialities, Social Practices and the Moche Case (Gonzales-Panta and Tantaleán) ‎Chapter 6. Marx, Marxism and Classical Antiquity (Roskams) ‎Chapter 7. Marxism, Historical Archaeology and Capitalism’s ‘Laws of Motion’ (Wurst) ‎Part 3. Balances and Perspectives ‎Chapter 8. Tangible Objects: Marxism, Production and Archaeology (Lull) ‎Chapter 9. Politics and Social Ontology in Prehistory (Lull, Micó, Rihuete Herrada and Risch) ‎Chapter 10. Vere Gordon Childe and Latin American Social Archaeology (Vitores) ‎Chapter 11. Transitions: from Archaeology to Historical Materialism (Michael-Matsas) ‎Index This volume is the most up to date collection of case studies and balance sheets on the application of Marxism to archaeology. The contributions shed new light on the ways in which archaeology has inspired historical materialism from its origins through to the present.