This is the first book in 40 years to con sider systematically the nature and ex tent of Southwestern Mesoamerican interactions. Is the Southwest simply the north ernmost extent of Mesoamerica or is it an independent entity that developed on its own with only occasional borrowings from Mesoamerica? This question is the basis for a debate that extends to the very beginnings of archaeological investiga tion in the Southwest. Mathien and McGuire have brought together 12 papers and two commentar ies that challenge this long ...
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This is the first book in 40 years to con sider systematically the nature and ex tent of Southwestern Mesoamerican interactions. Is the Southwest simply the north ernmost extent of Mesoamerica or is it an independent entity that developed on its own with only occasional borrowings from Mesoamerica? This question is the basis for a debate that extends to the very beginnings of archaeological investiga tion in the Southwest. Mathien and McGuire have brought together 12 papers and two commentar ies that challenge this long-standing and perhaps misleading central question. Reality, suggest their 13 contributors, lies not at these polar opposites but along a continuum of interactions and eco nomic connections on a number of geo graphic levels. These papers raise a series of sophisticated issues that are both theoretical and empirical. Can models such as Wallerstein's be used to study the prehistory of the Southwest and Mesoamerica and by implication other prehistoric economic systems? When is a region peripheral and when is it external? How may the boundaries of large eco nomic systems be determined?
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