Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia: Reconstructing Past Identities from Archaeology, Linguistics, and Ethnohistory

Hornborg and Hill argue that the tendency to link language, culture, and biology--essentialist notions of ethnic identities--is a Eurocentric bias that has characterized largely inaccurate explanations of the distribution of ethnic groups and languages in Amazonia. The evidence, however, suggests a much more fluid relationship among geography, language use, ethnic identity, and genetics. In Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia, leading linguists, ethnographers, ethnohistorians, and archaeologists interpret their research from a unique nonessentialist perspective to form a more accurate picture of the ethnolinguistic diversity in this area. Revealing how ethnic identity construction is constantly in flux, contributors show how such processes can be traced through different ethnic markers such as pottery styles and languages. Scholars and students studying lowland South America will be especially interested, as will anthropologists intrigued by its cutting-edge, interdisciplinary approach. Contributors include Alf Hornborg, Jonathan D. Hill, Eduardo Góes Neves, Michael Heckenberger, Warren DeBoer, Kay Tarble de Scaramelli, Franz Scaramelli, Love Ericksen, Ellen B. Basso, Swintha Danielsen, Michael Dunn, Pieter Muysken, Sidney da Silva Facundes, Ana Paula B. Brandão, Östen Dahl, J. Christopher Gillam, David G. Anderson, José Iriarte, Silvia M. Copé, Eithne B. Carlin, Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, Meredith Dudley, Norman E. Whitten Jr., Fernando Santos-Granero, and Neil L. Whitehead. Included here is the cover page, title page, table of contents and first chapter entitled "Introduction: Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia" by Alf Hornborg and Jonathan D. Hill. The book in its entirety (380 pages) is available from University Press of Colorado.