Blood and Beauty

Organized Violence in the Art and Archaeology of Mesoamerica and Central America

edited by Heather Orr and Rex Koontz

Book cover: Blood and Beauty

Extent: 400 pages

Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press

Subjects: Archaeology of the Americas

Series: Ideas, Debates, and Perspectives

Series volume number: 4

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(September 2009)

ISBN: 9781931745581

5.94 x 9.02 inches

Price: $20.00

In stock

Hardback (Published)

(September 2009)

ISBN: 9781931745802

5.94 x 9.02 inches

Price: $30.00

In stock

PDF (Published)

(December 2009)

ISBN: 9781938770432

Price: $25.00

Warfare, ritual human sacrifice, and the rubber ballgame have been the traditional categories through which scholars have examined organized violence in the artistic and material records of ancient Mesoamerica and Central America. This volume expands those traditional categories to include such concerns as gladiatorial-like boxing combats, investiture rites, trophy-head taking and display, dark shamanism, and the subjective pain inherent in acts of violence. Each author examines organized violence as a set of practices grounded in cultural understandings, even when the violence threatens the limits of those understandings. The authors scrutinize the representation of, and relationships between, different types of organized violence, as well as the implications of those activities, which can include the unexpected, such as violence as a means of determining and curing illness, and the use of violence in negotiation strategies.

  • Edited by Rex Koontz
  • Edited by Heather Orr