Water Folk: Reconstructing an Ancient Aquatic Lifeway in Michoacán, Western Mexico

By Eduardo Williams

This study of subsistence activities (fishing, hunting, gathering, and manufacture) in the Cuitzeo and P tzcuaro lake basins (Michoac n, Western Mexico) underscores the value of ethnoarchaeology as a tool for reconstructing the ancient aquatic lifeway in the territory of the Protohistoric Tarascan state (ca. AD 1450-1530), which flourished in an environment dominated by lakes, rivers, swamps and marshes. Mesoamerica was the only civilization in the ancient world that lacked major domesticated sources of animal protein; therefore, abundant wild aquatic species (fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and plants, etc.) all played strategic roles in the diet and economy of most Mesoamerican cultures, including the Tarascans.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1407312529
• ISBN13: 9781407312521
• Release Date: May 2014
• Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Ltd
• Length: 118 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.3" x 11.7"