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410 1364 1 PB PDF
410 1364 1 PB PDF
BOOK REVIEW
Agathe Dupeyron*
enquiry, and it is refreshing to find chapters dents and professionals, but acts as a spring-
dealing with these issues in the Handbook. board to more extensive reading rather than
The chapter on indigenous archaeology by an exhaustive research tool.
Parks and McAnany, albeit really short, is Despite its shortcomings, the Handbook
an excellent overview. The book could also should be considered as an excellent resource
have included chapters focused on archaeo- for students, researchers, and professionals
tourism or community archaeology, which alike: it is a realistic depiction of the disci-
are starting to emerge as major themes in pline at the dawn of the 21st century, and
the region. A contribution by Anne Pyburn of the general directions of Mesoamerican
or Richard Leventhal on their recent work archaeology. As early as its introduction, it
would have been welcome. pulls together its main themes and broaches
The Handbook strives for breadth of scope future developments, which enables a holis-
rather than depth, which may be a hindrance. tic understanding of the discipline, and testi-
Most of the chapters are between 5 and 10 fies of the high calibre of this book.
pages long: they come across as summaries of
existing research rather than opportunities to Reference
provide new insights. However, this fits with Mol, A. A. A. 2013 Studying Pre-Columbian
the objective of the Oxford Handbook series, Interaction Networks: Mobility and
which is to survey current thinking and Exchange. In Keegan, F. W., Hofman, C. L.
research: a lot of the chapters are allegedly and Rodriguez Ramos, R. (eds) The Oxford
‘syntheses’. This Handbook therefore consti- Handbook of Caribbean Archaeology.
tutes a foundation for Mesoamericanist stu- Oxford University Press, Oxford, 329–346.
How to cite this article: Dupeyron, A 2013 A Review of The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican
Archaeology. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 23(1): 30, pp. 1-3, DOI: http://dx.doi.
org/10.5334/pia.448
Copyright: © 2013 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.