Christopher T Morehart
Biographic Data
| ID | 3617211 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher T Morehart |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher T |
| FAMILY NAME | Morehart |
| SIGNATURE | MOREHART C T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Arizona State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 227 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Beyond “Non-Local”: Biogeochemical and Morphological Approaches to Examining Diverse Migrant Experiences in Epiclassic Central Mexico
While biogeochemical analyses of residential history have revolutionized the study of paleomobility, the monolithic categories of “local” and “non-local” obscure a great deal of important variation in individual migrant experiences. Furthermore, these binarized designations may not always provide a culturally salient indicator of social difference. Here, the authors take a novel approach to integrating previously published biogeochemical 87Sr/86S…
Population level comparisons in central Mexico using cranial nonmetric traits
OBJECTIVES: We study the genetic diversity between Classic Teotihuacan and its neighboring towns trying to understand how far or close they are at the genetic level. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We use cranial nonmetric traits to study a sample of 280 adult skulls from archaeological sites running from the late Preclassic to the early Postclassic. Samples of Classic Teotihuacan were studied for La Ventilla and San Sebastián Xolalpan neighbors. For the …
Migration, violence, and the 'other: A biogeochemical approach to identity-based violence in the Epiclassic Basin of Mexico
Bioarchaeological studies are highly successful in accessing multivalent past social identities. This study applies social identity theory to contexts of violence, developing a theoretical framework to investigate identity-based violence at the Epiclassic (600–900 CE) central Mexican shrine site of Non-Grid 4, where at least 180 individuals were ritually sacrificed and interred. Ethnohistoric and archaeological data indicate that geographic origi…
Urbanization and Religion in Ancient Central Mexico by David M. Carballo Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. 296 pp
Intentional disruption of path-dependencies in the Anthropocene: Gray versus green water infrastructure regimes in Mexico City, Mexico
Inherited legacies of ecological imperialism in central Mexico
A non-metric traits study of skulls from Epiclassic Xaltocan in relation to other Mesoamerican cultures
Archaeologies of Political Ecology - Genealogies, Problems, and Orientations
The theoretical and methodological toolkits developed under political ecology have become increasingly relevant in current discussions of environmental impacts, sustainability, and inequality. We developed this volume to identify the unique perspectives that archaeologists offer to the field of political ecology. The archaeology of political ecology is founded on a long and diverse history focused on issues relating to environments, the human-nat…
Sustainability as a Relative Process: A Long-Term Perspective on Sustainability in the Northern Basin of Mexico
The notion of "sustainable development" has drawn attention to the precarious balance between populations and natural resources in terms of current and future needs. Approaches to the study of sustainability that focus on socio-ecological systems may obscure the fact that what is sustainable at a broad scale may not be optimal for an entire population. Political ecology offers a complementary lens to investigate how relationships between humans a…
Monitoring cultural landscapes from space: Evaluating archaeological sites in the Basin of Mexico using very high resolution satellite imagery
Chinampaagriculture, Surplus Production, and Political Change at Xaltocan, Mexico
This article examines the productivity of agriculture at the Postclassic polity of Xaltocan, Mexico. Employing multiple lines of data (remote sensing, artifactual, ecofactual, chronological, demographic, historic, ethnographic, and environmental), it reconstructs the potential productivity of an integrated raised field,chinampasystem that surrounded the polity. This exercise reveals that the system was capable of producing a sizeable caloric surp…
Low-Intensity Investigations at Three Small Sites Along Lake Xaltocan in the Northern Basin of Mexico
This report describes recent low-intensity archaeological investigations conducted at three small sites in the northern Basin of Mexico. The sites are represented by surface artifact scatters and are located on the former shoreline of the now-drained Lake Xaltocan, originally one of the principal lakes in this region. Fieldwork included mapping surface concentrations and site dimensions, conducting test excavations, and recovering surface collect…
Let the earth forever remain! Landscape legacies and the materiality of history in the northern Basin of Mexico
This article examines the landscape as an enduring protagonist in the northern Basin of Mexico over the past 1,000 years in communities north of Mexico City. Viewing materiality as the mutual constitution between social and physical worlds, I discuss the production and inheritance of landscape legacies. The manner in which legacies are inherited is tied to changing political, economic, and social conditions. This project integrates multiple sourc…
Surplus and Social Change: The Production of Household and Field in Pre-Aztec Central Mexico
Surplus: The Politics of Production and the Strategies of Everyday Life: An Introduction
Surplus: The Politics of Production and the Strategies of Everyday Life
Archaeologies of the Past and in the Present in 2014: Materialities of Human History
Research from the past year demonstrates archaeologists' diverse contributions to the anthropological study of human experience and social relationships in time and space. I divide literature published from late 2013 to late 2014 into five themes. First, archaeological research on space focuses on the persistence and materiality of landscapes, the creation and dynamics of communities and cities, and the mobility and migration of people. Second, s…
The Potentiality and the Consequences of Surplus: Agricultural Production and Institutional Transformation in the Northern Basin of Mexico
Social scientists define surplus as excess, either excess production beyond a physiologically defined threshold or excess labor that can then be routed to “non‐productive” means. Methodologically, this model is advantageous and simplifies analysis. Yet this approach can render social minimums as secondary to biological minimums and economic production as distinctive from social production. Subjectively, meeting biological requirements often are s…
The chronology and collapse of pre-Aztec raised field (chinampa) agriculture in the northern Basin of Mexico
Raised field agriculture in the Basin of Mexico was a highly sustainable farming method that did not depend upon centralised political control. Study of thechinampasystem around the Early and Middle Postclassic city of Xaltocan through a combination of remote sensing, GIS, targeted excavation and AMS dating has revealed an extensive area of raised fields that was abandoned when Xaltocan was conquered by an alliance of powerful neighbours during t…
Beyond the Ecofact: Toward a Social Paleoethnobotany in Mesoamerica
Mapping ancient chinampa landscapes in the Basin of Mexico: A remote sensing and GIS approach
Human Sacrifice During the Epiclassic Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico
This article examines changes in ritual practices during the Epiclassic period in central Mexico. It presents data recovered from recent excavations of a shrine discovered in Lake Xaltocan in the northern Basin of Mexico. Pottery and AMS dates place the construction and use of the shrine in the Epiclassic period. The shrine was first built during or soon after the collapse of the Teotihuacan state. With the decline of Teotihuacan and the emergenc…
What If the Aztec Empire Never Existed? The Prerequisites of Empire and the Politics of Plausible Alternative Histories
This article studies archaeological and local versions of the past at Xaltocan, Mexico. At Xaltocan, the past provides a vehicle for statements of ethnic, national, and community identity. Community organizations seek to glorify the town as the descendant of an ancient kingdom that, had a different constellation of historical processes transpired, could have become both the center of an empire and a nation. This process raises questions regarding…
Sustainable Ecologies and Unsustainable Politics: Chinampa Farming in Ancient Central Mexico
sustainability, archaeology, chinampa, xaltocan, farmscape, agriculture, agrarian system
Prosperity, power, and change: Modeling maize at Postclassic Xaltocan, Mexico
Wood of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Pine ( Pinus spp.) by the Ancient Lowland Maya
The recovery of pine (Pinus spp.) charcoal remains from ceremonial contexts at sites in the Maya Lowlands suggests that pine had a significant role in ancient Maya ritual activities. Data collected by the authors reveal that pine remains are a regular component of archaeobotanical assemblages from caves, sites that were used almost exclusively for ritual purposes, and that pine is often the dominant taxon of wood charcoal recovered. Comparisons w…
What If the Aztec Empire Never Existed? The Prerequisites of Empire and the Politics of Plausible Alternative Histories
This article studies archaeological and local versions of the past at Xaltocan, Mexico. At Xaltocan, the past provides a vehicle for statements of ethnic, national, and community identity. Community organizations seek to glorify the town as the descendant of an ancient kingdom that, had a different constellation of historical processes transpired, could have become both the center of an empire and a nation. This process raises questions regarding…
Mapping ancient chinampa landscapes in the Basin of Mexico: A remote sensing and GIS approach
The chronology and collapse of pre-Aztec raised field (chinampa) agriculture in the northern Basin of Mexico
Raised field agriculture in the Basin of Mexico was a highly sustainable farming method that did not depend upon centralised political control. Study of thechinampasystem around the Early and Middle Postclassic city of Xaltocan through a combination of remote sensing, GIS, targeted excavation and AMS dating has revealed an extensive area of raised fields that was abandoned when Xaltocan was conquered by an alliance of powerful neighbours during t…
Chinampaagriculture, Surplus Production, and Political Change at Xaltocan, Mexico
This article examines the productivity of agriculture at the Postclassic polity of Xaltocan, Mexico. Employing multiple lines of data (remote sensing, artifactual, ecofactual, chronological, demographic, historic, ethnographic, and environmental), it reconstructs the potential productivity of an integrated raised field,chinampasystem that surrounded the polity. This exercise reveals that the system was capable of producing a sizeable caloric surp…
Let the earth forever remain! Landscape legacies and the materiality of history in the northern Basin of Mexico
This article examines the landscape as an enduring protagonist in the northern Basin of Mexico over the past 1,000 years in communities north of Mexico City. Viewing materiality as the mutual constitution between social and physical worlds, I discuss the production and inheritance of landscape legacies. The manner in which legacies are inherited is tied to changing political, economic, and social conditions. This project integrates multiple sourc…
Ritual exchange and the fourth obligation: Ancient Maya food offering and the flexible materiality of ritual
Employing Mauss's notion of the fourth obligation, giving to the gods, this article develops a formulation of ritual exchange to examine the interactive nature of ritual practice. As a modality of interaction, ritual exchange is contingent upon enduring normative beliefs, such as perceived obligations to spiritual entities, and the social positions of ritual practitioners. Consequently, ritual exchange evinces not only the material and immaterial…
Beyond the Ecofact: Toward a Social Paleoethnobotany in Mesoamerica
Human Sacrifice During the Epiclassic Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico
This article examines changes in ritual practices during the Epiclassic period in central Mexico. It presents data recovered from recent excavations of a shrine discovered in Lake Xaltocan in the northern Basin of Mexico. Pottery and AMS dates place the construction and use of the shrine in the Epiclassic period. The shrine was first built during or soon after the collapse of the Teotihuacan state. With the decline of Teotihuacan and the emergenc…
Archaeologies of Political Ecology - Genealogies, Problems, and Orientations
The theoretical and methodological toolkits developed under political ecology have become increasingly relevant in current discussions of environmental impacts, sustainability, and inequality. We developed this volume to identify the unique perspectives that archaeologists offer to the field of political ecology. The archaeology of political ecology is founded on a long and diverse history focused on issues relating to environments, the human-nat…
Situating Power and Locating Knowledge: A Paleoethnobotanical Perspective on Late Classic Maya Gender and Social Relations
Viewing household production in terms of a political economic balance of "give and take" circumvents difficulties related to gender attribution in archaeology and challenges timeless gender stereotypes. This chapter proposes such an archaeological approach to gender by examining the charcoal assemblages from two Late Classic period Maya archaeological sites in the upper Belize Valley of western Belize. These sites occupied distinct positions with…
Migration, violence, and the 'other: A biogeochemical approach to identity-based violence in the Epiclassic Basin of Mexico
Bioarchaeological studies are highly successful in accessing multivalent past social identities. This study applies social identity theory to contexts of violence, developing a theoretical framework to investigate identity-based violence at the Epiclassic (600–900 CE) central Mexican shrine site of Non-Grid 4, where at least 180 individuals were ritually sacrificed and interred. Ethnohistoric and archaeological data indicate that geographic origi…
Sustainability as a Relative Process: A Long-Term Perspective on Sustainability in the Northern Basin of Mexico
The notion of "sustainable development" has drawn attention to the precarious balance between populations and natural resources in terms of current and future needs. Approaches to the study of sustainability that focus on socio-ecological systems may obscure the fact that what is sustainable at a broad scale may not be optimal for an entire population. Political ecology offers a complementary lens to investigate how relationships between humans a…
Low-Intensity Investigations at Three Small Sites Along Lake Xaltocan in the Northern Basin of Mexico
This report describes recent low-intensity archaeological investigations conducted at three small sites in the northern Basin of Mexico. The sites are represented by surface artifact scatters and are located on the former shoreline of the now-drained Lake Xaltocan, originally one of the principal lakes in this region. Fieldwork included mapping surface concentrations and site dimensions, conducting test excavations, and recovering surface collect…
A non-metric traits study of skulls from Epiclassic Xaltocan in relation to other Mesoamerican cultures
Monitoring cultural landscapes from space: Evaluating archaeological sites in the Basin of Mexico using very high resolution satellite imagery
Intentional disruption of path-dependencies in the Anthropocene: Gray versus green water infrastructure regimes in Mexico City, Mexico
Archaeologies of the Past and in the Present in 2014: Materialities of Human History
Research from the past year demonstrates archaeologists' diverse contributions to the anthropological study of human experience and social relationships in time and space. I divide literature published from late 2013 to late 2014 into five themes. First, archaeological research on space focuses on the persistence and materiality of landscapes, the creation and dynamics of communities and cities, and the mobility and migration of people. Second, s…
Sustainable Ecologies and Unsustainable Politics: Chinampa Farming in Ancient Central Mexico
sustainability, archaeology, chinampa, xaltocan, farmscape, agriculture, agrarian system
Wood of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Pine ( Pinus spp.) by the Ancient Lowland Maya
The recovery of pine (Pinus spp.) charcoal remains from ceremonial contexts at sites in the Maya Lowlands suggests that pine had a significant role in ancient Maya ritual activities. Data collected by the authors reveal that pine remains are a regular component of archaeobotanical assemblages from caves, sites that were used almost exclusively for ritual purposes, and that pine is often the dominant taxon of wood charcoal recovered. Comparisons w…
Situating Power and Locating Knowledge: A Paleoethnobotanical Perspective on Late Classic Maya Gender and Social Relations
Viewing household production in terms of a political economic balance of "give and take" circumvents difficulties related to gender attribution in archaeology and challenges timeless gender stereotypes. This chapter proposes such an archaeological approach to gender by examining the charcoal assemblages from two Late Classic period Maya archaeological sites in the upper Belize Valley of western Belize. These sites occupied distinct positions with…
Prosperity, power, and change: Modeling maize at Postclassic Xaltocan, Mexico
Ritual exchange and the fourth obligation: Ancient Maya food offering and the flexible materiality of ritual
Employing Mauss's notion of the fourth obligation, giving to the gods, this article develops a formulation of ritual exchange to examine the interactive nature of ritual practice. As a modality of interaction, ritual exchange is contingent upon enduring normative beliefs, such as perceived obligations to spiritual entities, and the social positions of ritual practitioners. Consequently, ritual exchange evinces not only the material and immaterial…
Sustainable Ecologies and Unsustainable Politics: Chinampa Farming in Ancient Central Mexico
sustainability, archaeology, chinampa, xaltocan, farmscape, agriculture, agrarian system
Mapping ancient chinampa landscapes in the Basin of Mexico: A remote sensing and GIS approach
Human Sacrifice During the Epiclassic Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico
This article examines changes in ritual practices during the Epiclassic period in central Mexico. It presents data recovered from recent excavations of a shrine discovered in Lake Xaltocan in the northern Basin of Mexico. Pottery and AMS dates place the construction and use of the shrine in the Epiclassic period. The shrine was first built during or soon after the collapse of the Teotihuacan state. With the decline of Teotihuacan and the emergenc…
What If the Aztec Empire Never Existed? The Prerequisites of Empire and the Politics of Plausible Alternative Histories
This article studies archaeological and local versions of the past at Xaltocan, Mexico. At Xaltocan, the past provides a vehicle for statements of ethnic, national, and community identity. Community organizations seek to glorify the town as the descendant of an ancient kingdom that, had a different constellation of historical processes transpired, could have become both the center of an empire and a nation. This process raises questions regarding…
Beyond the Ecofact: Toward a Social Paleoethnobotany in Mesoamerica
The Potentiality and the Consequences of Surplus: Agricultural Production and Institutional Transformation in the Northern Basin of Mexico
Social scientists define surplus as excess, either excess production beyond a physiologically defined threshold or excess labor that can then be routed to “non‐productive” means. Methodologically, this model is advantageous and simplifies analysis. Yet this approach can render social minimums as secondary to biological minimums and economic production as distinctive from social production. Subjectively, meeting biological requirements often are s…
The chronology and collapse of pre-Aztec raised field (chinampa) agriculture in the northern Basin of Mexico
Raised field agriculture in the Basin of Mexico was a highly sustainable farming method that did not depend upon centralised political control. Study of thechinampasystem around the Early and Middle Postclassic city of Xaltocan through a combination of remote sensing, GIS, targeted excavation and AMS dating has revealed an extensive area of raised fields that was abandoned when Xaltocan was conquered by an alliance of powerful neighbours during t…
Surplus and Social Change: The Production of Household and Field in Pre-Aztec Central Mexico
Surplus: The Politics of Production and the Strategies of Everyday Life: An Introduction
Surplus: The Politics of Production and the Strategies of Everyday Life
Archaeologies of the Past and in the Present in 2014: Materialities of Human History
Research from the past year demonstrates archaeologists' diverse contributions to the anthropological study of human experience and social relationships in time and space. I divide literature published from late 2013 to late 2014 into five themes. First, archaeological research on space focuses on the persistence and materiality of landscapes, the creation and dynamics of communities and cities, and the mobility and migration of people. Second, s…
Monitoring cultural landscapes from space: Evaluating archaeological sites in the Basin of Mexico using very high resolution satellite imagery
Chinampaagriculture, Surplus Production, and Political Change at Xaltocan, Mexico
This article examines the productivity of agriculture at the Postclassic polity of Xaltocan, Mexico. Employing multiple lines of data (remote sensing, artifactual, ecofactual, chronological, demographic, historic, ethnographic, and environmental), it reconstructs the potential productivity of an integrated raised field,chinampasystem that surrounded the polity. This exercise reveals that the system was capable of producing a sizeable caloric surp…
Low-Intensity Investigations at Three Small Sites Along Lake Xaltocan in the Northern Basin of Mexico
This report describes recent low-intensity archaeological investigations conducted at three small sites in the northern Basin of Mexico. The sites are represented by surface artifact scatters and are located on the former shoreline of the now-drained Lake Xaltocan, originally one of the principal lakes in this region. Fieldwork included mapping surface concentrations and site dimensions, conducting test excavations, and recovering surface collect…
Let the earth forever remain! Landscape legacies and the materiality of history in the northern Basin of Mexico
This article examines the landscape as an enduring protagonist in the northern Basin of Mexico over the past 1,000 years in communities north of Mexico City. Viewing materiality as the mutual constitution between social and physical worlds, I discuss the production and inheritance of landscape legacies. The manner in which legacies are inherited is tied to changing political, economic, and social conditions. This project integrates multiple sourc…
Inherited legacies of ecological imperialism in central Mexico
A non-metric traits study of skulls from Epiclassic Xaltocan in relation to other Mesoamerican cultures
Archaeologies of Political Ecology - Genealogies, Problems, and Orientations
The theoretical and methodological toolkits developed under political ecology have become increasingly relevant in current discussions of environmental impacts, sustainability, and inequality. We developed this volume to identify the unique perspectives that archaeologists offer to the field of political ecology. The archaeology of political ecology is founded on a long and diverse history focused on issues relating to environments, the human-nat…
Sustainability as a Relative Process: A Long-Term Perspective on Sustainability in the Northern Basin of Mexico
The notion of "sustainable development" has drawn attention to the precarious balance between populations and natural resources in terms of current and future needs. Approaches to the study of sustainability that focus on socio-ecological systems may obscure the fact that what is sustainable at a broad scale may not be optimal for an entire population. Political ecology offers a complementary lens to investigate how relationships between humans a…
Urbanization and Religion in Ancient Central Mexico by David M. Carballo Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. 296 pp
Intentional disruption of path-dependencies in the Anthropocene: Gray versus green water infrastructure regimes in Mexico City, Mexico
Geography (20 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (18 works) · Political science (18 works) · Archaeology (17 works) · Politics (16 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Economics (10 works) · Art (8 works) · Ecology (8 works)