Tamara L. Bray – författare

Food and feasting are increasingly recognized as having played a prominent role in the emergence of social hierarchies and the negotiation of power relations. Given the culinary nature of feasts, the archaeological visibility of such events is increased by the use of containers for both food preparation and consumption. This volume presents the utilization of culinary equipment as a window into the commensal politics of early states and empires and offers a comparative perspective on how food and feasting may have figured in the political calculus of archaic states in both the Old and New Worlds. The contributors provide important new insights into the strategies of early statecraft and the role of pots as political tools and include insight into queries such as: how did food and feasting figure in the politics of early states and empires around the world?; was feasting a universally important element in the construction of state power?; how do archaeologically discernible patterns of state feasting compare cross-culturally and through time? did state elite typically seek to create recognizable social boundaries through the use of expensive foods, special culinary equipment or distinctive cuisines, or was food and feasting equipment used rather to obfuscate privilege and bind state subjects in (asymmetrical) relations of reciprocity?The book provides an in-depth analysis for scholars and graduate students concerned with the archaeology of complex societies, the anthropology of food and feasting, ancient statecraft, archaeological approaches to micro-political processes, and the social interpretation of prehistoric pottery in these areas.

Food and feasting are increasingly recognized as having played a prominent role in the emergence of social hierarchies and the negotiation of power relations. Given the culinary nature of feasts, the archaeological visibility of such events is increased by the use of containers for both food preparation and consumption. This volume presents the utilization of culinary equipment as a window into the commensal politics of early states and empires and offers a comparative perspective on how food and feasting may have figured in the political calculus of archaic states in both the Old and New Worlds. The contributors provide important new insights into the strategies of early statecraft and the role of pots as political tools and include insight into queries such as: how did food and feasting figure in the politics of early states and empires around the world?; was feasting a universally important element in the construction of state power?; how do archaeologically discernible patterns of state feasting compare cross-culturally and through time? did state elite typically seek to create recognizable social boundaries through the use of expensive foods, special culinary equipment or distinctive cuisines, or was food and feasting equipment used rather to obfuscate privilege and bind state subjects in (asymmetrical) relations of reciprocity?The book provides an in-depth analysis for scholars and graduate students concerned with the archaeology of complex societies, the anthropology of food and feasting, ancient statecraft, archaeological approaches to micro-political processes, and the social interpretation of prehistoric pottery in these areas.

A new and characteristically innovative work from the School for Advanced Research's Seminar Series. This groundbreaking volume explores how dynamic interactions between human actors, material objects, and metaphysical beliefs shaped and sustained empires. From Han Chinese water management to Xiongnu drinking vessels, from Hittite royal imagery to Teotihuacan animal sacrifices, from Andean anti-imperial resistance to ritual rebirth in Travancore, the case studies reveal how materials and metaphysics intertwined to both enable and constrain imperial ambitions. The contributors examine how assemblages of artifacts, resources, animals, and landscapes actively shaped power relations across diverse imperial formations, while sometimes facilitating resistance to them. Moving beyond conventional political histories, the volume illuminates how things helped constitute imperial authority. In examining these material-political assemblages, the authors provide new theoretical frameworks for understanding empire-building as an emergent process involving both human and non-human actors, while raising crucial questions about archaeology’s ethical obligations in studying imperial power.

A comparative, empire-wide study of the ceramics associated with the imperial Inca state, theorizing the role of these highly recognizable vessel forms in legitimizing Inca rule and establishing imperial identities.The beautiful polychrome ceramics of the imperial Inca state have long been noted for their seemingly repetitive nature but little considered beyond this basic observation. The widespread distribution and general uniformity of the Inca pottery, however, hints at its larger importance to the imperial project. Moving beyond the pervasive "seen one, seen 'em all" mentality, Objects of Empire brings to light the variability and rich semiotic content of imperial Inca vessels. Taking a comparative, empire-wide approach, Tamara Bray identifies the parameters and significance of this variability, and defines the core elements of the imperial state style. She then investigates where, when, and why differences and deviations from the perceived norm occur. This study illuminates the strategies of territorial expansion and political control that lay at the heart of the Inca juggernaut, as well as the role of objects in the calculus of would-be rulers and subjects. Based on a unique and extensive database of imperial Inca pottery developed through detailed study of archaeologically recovered and museum-based collections, Objects of Empire reveals how power and legitimacy were produced and reproduced under the Inca through the material culture of everyday life.

Reframing the study of Indigenous visual cultures, this volume explores how images and objects generate affect and relation in non-Western contexts, foregrounding alternative modes of material engagement and meaning-making.While traditional approaches to Indigenous visual cultures have often centered on iconography and representation, this volume turns toward other ways that images and objects act in the world. Indigenous Visual Cultures in Latin America explores how material productions function not merely as signs that point elsewhere but as agents that help shape relationships, environments, and affective experience. Spanning Mesoamerica, the Andes, and Amazonia from 1500 BCE to the present, the chapters examine how meaning may reside in materials themselves; how making is a form of exchange between maker and matter; and how visual forms participate in configuring relations among humans, ancestors, deities, and place. These works are not passive containers of meaning, but charged presences—generative forces within ongoing worlds. Attuned to Indigenous ways of knowing and being, the volume invites readers to think beyond the frame, beyond the image, and beyond representation itself.