Making Value, Making Meaning: Techné in the Pre-Columbian World

This handsomely produced volume stems from a Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Symposium held in the fall of 2013 that, in traditional Dumbarton Oaks fashion, incorporated a mix of scholars specializing in the art and archaeology of Mesoamerica and the Andes. The resulting publication consists of fourteen chapters, including an introduction, seven chapters focused on the Andes, five pertaining to Mesoamerica, and one that offers a comparative analysis involving both regions. The majority of the Andean essays treat the archaeology of coastal cultures, while one focuses on a north-coast Inca outpost and two deal with Inca and Tiwanaku sites in the highlands; they span the chronological gamut from the Early Horizon to the Inca period. Three of the Mesoamerican essays focus on the Late Preclassic and Classic Maya, and two deal with highland cultures of the Classic period at Teotihuacan and Cacaxtla. There is no discernible order to organization of essays in...