R G Lesure
Biographic Data
| ID | 3921 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R G Lesure |
| GIVEN NAMES | R G |
| FAMILY NAME | Lesure |
| SIGNATURE | LESURE R G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Los Angeles |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7279-9558 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 141 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Large-Scale Patterns in the Agricultural Demographic Transition of Mesoamerica and Southwestern North America
This article examines large-scale spatial and temporal patterns in the agricultural demographic transition (ADT) of Mesoamerica and southwestern North America ('the Southwest'). An analysis of published settlement and subsistence data suggests that the prolonged ADTs of these regions involved two successive eras of rapid population growth. Although both periods of growth were fueled by the introduction or development of more productive domesticat…
Representation as Visual Exegesis: The Stone Figurines of Chalcolithic Cyprus
An image may signify not simply by resembling its referent but also by being similar to or different from other images. Among Chalcolithic stone figurines from Cyprus, that second dimension of signification seems to account for much of the formal variability. Several heterogeneous types were characterized by differential schematization: images ranged from highly schematic to more recognizably anthropomorphic. In each of these types, formal relati…
Economic growth in Mesoamerica: Obsidian consumption in the coastal lowlands
Reply to Comments from Brit Solli, Elisabeth Rudebeck and Alison Mickel
Many thanks for the stimulating comments. My response is organized as a series of topics that builds toward a summary of what I see as ‘epic’ in archaeology.Archaeology compared to history. The cat
Emplotment as Epic in Archaeological Writing: The Site Monograph as Narrative
To emplot a narrative as epic is to present a story of vast scope and multiple plots as a legitimate member of a tradition of other such stories. This article argues that emplotment as epic is the broadest of three levels of plot in archaeological writings. At that level, the site monograph emerges as a characteristically archaeological form of narrative, fundamental to archaeology as a discipline and a source of chronic anxiety for archaeologist…
Prehistoric Figurine Styles as Fashion: A Case from Formative Central Mexico
Small, ceramic figurines used in household settings in Central Mexico during the first millennium bc were emphatically stylistic. Attributes cooperated to direct the viewer's attention to the style of the figurine, to how the figurine was made, and to the choices of makers and users from a range of alternative ways of making. This article draws on studies of modern fashion to develop a social interpretation of these patterns based on two collecti…
Houses of Style: Consumption, Adornment, and Identity in Formative Tlaxcalan Households
The households of Formative period central Mexico represent critical loci for understanding major social transformations during a millennium (900b.c.–a.d.100) that witnessed the expansion and contraction of several macro-regional stylistic and economic networks, formalization of enduring political and religious institutions, and initial urbanization and state formation. Households and their constituent members used style to articulate important e…
The Neolithic Demographic Transition in Mesoamerica
The Neolithic demographic transition in Mesoamerica was a gradual process that unfolded over most of the Formative period (1800 BC-AD 200). An analysis of published records of over 6,700 pre-Hispanic burials, focusing on changing proportions of juveniles 5-19 years of age, suggests that fertility rates rose steadily during both the second and the first millennia BC. The gradual pace of the demographic transition was probably related to the low in…
Swidden agriculture, village longevity, and social relations in Formative central Tlaxcala: Towards an understanding of macroregional structure
Figurine Fashions in Formative Mesoamerica
Swidden Agriculture in Thetierra Fría? Evidence From Sedimentary Records in Tlaxcala
Swidden agriculture in Mesoamerica is commonly associated with the hot and humid lowlands and with small isolated communities. Charcoal-rich sediments discovered in Tlaxcala, however, suggest that it was practiced in the cold highlands in the Formative and Classic periods. The headwaters of the Xilomantla drainage incised a nine-meter deep channel shortly before 200b.c., in response to increased runoff from slopes degraded by agriculture. It was …
Palaces and Power in the Americas: From Peru to the Northwest Coast
Introduction - Jessica Joyce Christie Part 1. Identification of Palaces 1. Looking for Moche Palaces in the Elite Residences of the Huacas of Moche Site - Claude Chapdelaine 2. Landscape of Power: A Network of Palaces in Middle Horizon Peru - William H. Isbell 3. Lords of the Great House: Pueblo Bonito as a Palace - Stephen H. Lekson Part 2. Palaces as Active Stage Sets of Political Ideology 4. Sacred and Profane Mountains of the Pasion: Contrast…
Chronology, Subsistence, and the Earliest Formative of Central Tlaxcala, Mexico
We propose that pottery-using villages did not appear in the upland Apizaco region of central Tlaxcala, Mexico, until after 1000 B.C., centuries after such developments in choice locations for maize agriculture. We excavated at two of the earliest known Formative sites in the region. That work revealed abundant intact refuse deposits, allowing us to evaluate an existing ceramic chronology with new radiocarbon dates as well as characterize Formati…
Linking Theory and Evidence in an Archaeology of Human Agency: Iconography, Style, and Theories of Embodiment
Interpretive Challenges in the Study of Early Complexity: Economy, Ritual, and Architecture at Paso de la Amada, Mexico
The Goddess Diffracted: Thinking about the Figurines of Early Villages
Small ceramic figurines representing predominantly human females are characteristic artifacts of many of the world's earliest settled villages. A long-standing interpretive tradition links these to "fertility cults" or "mother goddesses," but recent feminist scholarship suggests that such interpretations simply perpetuate our own society's preconceptions about gender, nature, and culture. Such critiques have stimulated a burgeoning literature on …
First Quaternary Fossil Record of Caecilians from a Mexican Archaeological Site
A single vertebra from an Early Formative period archaeological site in coastal Chiapas, México, is identified as belonging to the amphibian Dermophis mexicanus (Duméril and Bibron) 1841 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae). The vertebra was recovered from deposits dated to approximately 1200–1350 B.C. The specimen represents the first Quaternary fossil record for gymnophiones. Its presence suggests the possible role of the species as a bioturbat…
Platform Architecture and Activity Patterns in an Early Mesoamerican Village in Chiapas, Mexico
Archaeologists working on early sedentary societies regularly face the problem of interpreting unusual buildings. Were such special structures public buildings or high-status residences? One reason for continued debate may be that in some instances, categorical distinctions between ceremonial and residential structures were poorly developed even though there is plenty of evidence for ritual activity. The solution proposed here is to build descrip…
Figurines as Representations and Products at Paso de la Amada, Mexico
It is useful to view ceramic figurines from the Early Formative site of Paso de la Amada, Mexico, as both representations and products. That analysis links changes in a tradition of small, solid figurines to the rise of a novel social discourse concerning the elaboration and beautification of the human body. An increasing symbolic emphasis on the body may have been an important backdrop to the emergence of chiefly ideologies in the region
Vessel Form and Function in an Early Formative Ceramic Assemblage from Coastal Mexico
Vessel design, patterns of surface attrition and sooting, and frequencies of different forms provide the basis for interpretations of the function of ceramic vessels from the Early Formative (1550–850 b.c.) site of Paso de la Amada, on the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Vessels used for the transport, preparation, storage, cooking, and serving of foods and beverages are tentatively identified. Results reveal an assemblage dominated by a few si…
Refining an Early Formative Ceramic Sequence From the Chiapas Coast of Mexico
Analysis of Early Formative ceramics from the site of Paso de la Amada, on the coast of Chiapas, Mexico, yields a refined sequence for the period 1400–1000b.c.A simple key has been developed to classify midden assemblages. Its utility for creating chronologically sensitive groupings is confirmed by multidimensional scaling of 32 units. The refined ceramic sequence provides a basis for investigating short-term sociopolitical dynamics during the Ea…
Early Formative Platforms at Paso de la Amada, Chiapas, Mexico
Recent excavations have revealed Early Formative platforms at the site of Paso de la Amada on the coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Platforms supported large, perishable structures up to 22 m long. These structures were not arranged in plaza groups or ceremonial precincts, but were scattered across the site. One of their functions may have been to control or integrate social units within the village, such as neighborhoods or lineages. It remains uncertai…
Chronology, Subsistence, and the Earliest Formative of Central Tlaxcala, Mexico
We propose that pottery-using villages did not appear in the upland Apizaco region of central Tlaxcala, Mexico, until after 1000 B.C., centuries after such developments in choice locations for maize agriculture. We excavated at two of the earliest known Formative sites in the region. That work revealed abundant intact refuse deposits, allowing us to evaluate an existing ceramic chronology with new radiocarbon dates as well as characterize Formati…
The Goddess Diffracted: Thinking about the Figurines of Early Villages
Small ceramic figurines representing predominantly human females are characteristic artifacts of many of the world's earliest settled villages. A long-standing interpretive tradition links these to "fertility cults" or "mother goddesses," but recent feminist scholarship suggests that such interpretations simply perpetuate our own society's preconceptions about gender, nature, and culture. Such critiques have stimulated a burgeoning literature on …
Early Formative Platforms at Paso de la Amada, Chiapas, Mexico
Recent excavations have revealed Early Formative platforms at the site of Paso de la Amada on the coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Platforms supported large, perishable structures up to 22 m long. These structures were not arranged in plaza groups or ceremonial precincts, but were scattered across the site. One of their functions may have been to control or integrate social units within the village, such as neighborhoods or lineages. It remains uncertai…
Linking Theory and Evidence in an Archaeology of Human Agency: Iconography, Style, and Theories of Embodiment
The Neolithic Demographic Transition in Mesoamerica
The Neolithic demographic transition in Mesoamerica was a gradual process that unfolded over most of the Formative period (1800 BC-AD 200). An analysis of published records of over 6,700 pre-Hispanic burials, focusing on changing proportions of juveniles 5-19 years of age, suggests that fertility rates rose steadily during both the second and the first millennia BC. The gradual pace of the demographic transition was probably related to the low in…
Figurines as Representations and Products at Paso de la Amada, Mexico
It is useful to view ceramic figurines from the Early Formative site of Paso de la Amada, Mexico, as both representations and products. That analysis links changes in a tradition of small, solid figurines to the rise of a novel social discourse concerning the elaboration and beautification of the human body. An increasing symbolic emphasis on the body may have been an important backdrop to the emergence of chiefly ideologies in the region
Platform Architecture and Activity Patterns in an Early Mesoamerican Village in Chiapas, Mexico
Archaeologists working on early sedentary societies regularly face the problem of interpreting unusual buildings. Were such special structures public buildings or high-status residences? One reason for continued debate may be that in some instances, categorical distinctions between ceremonial and residential structures were poorly developed even though there is plenty of evidence for ritual activity. The solution proposed here is to build descrip…
Vessel Form and Function in an Early Formative Ceramic Assemblage from Coastal Mexico
Vessel design, patterns of surface attrition and sooting, and frequencies of different forms provide the basis for interpretations of the function of ceramic vessels from the Early Formative (1550–850 b.c.) site of Paso de la Amada, on the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Vessels used for the transport, preparation, storage, cooking, and serving of foods and beverages are tentatively identified. Results reveal an assemblage dominated by a few si…
Prehistoric Figurine Styles as Fashion: A Case from Formative Central Mexico
Small, ceramic figurines used in household settings in Central Mexico during the first millennium bc were emphatically stylistic. Attributes cooperated to direct the viewer's attention to the style of the figurine, to how the figurine was made, and to the choices of makers and users from a range of alternative ways of making. This article draws on studies of modern fashion to develop a social interpretation of these patterns based on two collecti…
Swidden Agriculture in Thetierra Fría? Evidence From Sedimentary Records in Tlaxcala
Swidden agriculture in Mesoamerica is commonly associated with the hot and humid lowlands and with small isolated communities. Charcoal-rich sediments discovered in Tlaxcala, however, suggest that it was practiced in the cold highlands in the Formative and Classic periods. The headwaters of the Xilomantla drainage incised a nine-meter deep channel shortly before 200b.c., in response to increased runoff from slopes degraded by agriculture. It was …
Large-Scale Patterns in the Agricultural Demographic Transition of Mesoamerica and Southwestern North America
This article examines large-scale spatial and temporal patterns in the agricultural demographic transition (ADT) of Mesoamerica and southwestern North America ('the Southwest'). An analysis of published settlement and subsistence data suggests that the prolonged ADTs of these regions involved two successive eras of rapid population growth. Although both periods of growth were fueled by the introduction or development of more productive domesticat…
Houses of Style: Consumption, Adornment, and Identity in Formative Tlaxcalan Households
The households of Formative period central Mexico represent critical loci for understanding major social transformations during a millennium (900b.c.–a.d.100) that witnessed the expansion and contraction of several macro-regional stylistic and economic networks, formalization of enduring political and religious institutions, and initial urbanization and state formation. Households and their constituent members used style to articulate important e…
Refining an Early Formative Ceramic Sequence From the Chiapas Coast of Mexico
Analysis of Early Formative ceramics from the site of Paso de la Amada, on the coast of Chiapas, Mexico, yields a refined sequence for the period 1400–1000b.c.A simple key has been developed to classify midden assemblages. Its utility for creating chronologically sensitive groupings is confirmed by multidimensional scaling of 32 units. The refined ceramic sequence provides a basis for investigating short-term sociopolitical dynamics during the Ea…
Early Formative Platforms at Paso de la Amada, Chiapas, Mexico
Recent excavations have revealed Early Formative platforms at the site of Paso de la Amada on the coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Platforms supported large, perishable structures up to 22 m long. These structures were not arranged in plaza groups or ceremonial precincts, but were scattered across the site. One of their functions may have been to control or integrate social units within the village, such as neighborhoods or lineages. It remains uncertai…
Vessel Form and Function in an Early Formative Ceramic Assemblage from Coastal Mexico
Vessel design, patterns of surface attrition and sooting, and frequencies of different forms provide the basis for interpretations of the function of ceramic vessels from the Early Formative (1550–850 b.c.) site of Paso de la Amada, on the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, Mexico. Vessels used for the transport, preparation, storage, cooking, and serving of foods and beverages are tentatively identified. Results reveal an assemblage dominated by a few si…
Refining an Early Formative Ceramic Sequence From the Chiapas Coast of Mexico
Analysis of Early Formative ceramics from the site of Paso de la Amada, on the coast of Chiapas, Mexico, yields a refined sequence for the period 1400–1000b.c.A simple key has been developed to classify midden assemblages. Its utility for creating chronologically sensitive groupings is confirmed by multidimensional scaling of 32 units. The refined ceramic sequence provides a basis for investigating short-term sociopolitical dynamics during the Ea…
First Quaternary Fossil Record of Caecilians from a Mexican Archaeological Site
A single vertebra from an Early Formative period archaeological site in coastal Chiapas, México, is identified as belonging to the amphibian Dermophis mexicanus (Duméril and Bibron) 1841 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Caeciliidae). The vertebra was recovered from deposits dated to approximately 1200–1350 B.C. The specimen represents the first Quaternary fossil record for gymnophiones. Its presence suggests the possible role of the species as a bioturbat…
Platform Architecture and Activity Patterns in an Early Mesoamerican Village in Chiapas, Mexico
Archaeologists working on early sedentary societies regularly face the problem of interpreting unusual buildings. Were such special structures public buildings or high-status residences? One reason for continued debate may be that in some instances, categorical distinctions between ceremonial and residential structures were poorly developed even though there is plenty of evidence for ritual activity. The solution proposed here is to build descrip…
Figurines as Representations and Products at Paso de la Amada, Mexico
It is useful to view ceramic figurines from the Early Formative site of Paso de la Amada, Mexico, as both representations and products. That analysis links changes in a tradition of small, solid figurines to the rise of a novel social discourse concerning the elaboration and beautification of the human body. An increasing symbolic emphasis on the body may have been an important backdrop to the emergence of chiefly ideologies in the region
Interpretive Challenges in the Study of Early Complexity: Economy, Ritual, and Architecture at Paso de la Amada, Mexico
The Goddess Diffracted: Thinking about the Figurines of Early Villages
Small ceramic figurines representing predominantly human females are characteristic artifacts of many of the world's earliest settled villages. A long-standing interpretive tradition links these to "fertility cults" or "mother goddesses," but recent feminist scholarship suggests that such interpretations simply perpetuate our own society's preconceptions about gender, nature, and culture. Such critiques have stimulated a burgeoning literature on …
Linking Theory and Evidence in an Archaeology of Human Agency: Iconography, Style, and Theories of Embodiment
Palaces and Power in the Americas: From Peru to the Northwest Coast
Introduction - Jessica Joyce Christie Part 1. Identification of Palaces 1. Looking for Moche Palaces in the Elite Residences of the Huacas of Moche Site - Claude Chapdelaine 2. Landscape of Power: A Network of Palaces in Middle Horizon Peru - William H. Isbell 3. Lords of the Great House: Pueblo Bonito as a Palace - Stephen H. Lekson Part 2. Palaces as Active Stage Sets of Political Ideology 4. Sacred and Profane Mountains of the Pasion: Contrast…
Chronology, Subsistence, and the Earliest Formative of Central Tlaxcala, Mexico
We propose that pottery-using villages did not appear in the upland Apizaco region of central Tlaxcala, Mexico, until after 1000 B.C., centuries after such developments in choice locations for maize agriculture. We excavated at two of the earliest known Formative sites in the region. That work revealed abundant intact refuse deposits, allowing us to evaluate an existing ceramic chronology with new radiocarbon dates as well as characterize Formati…
Swidden Agriculture in Thetierra Fría? Evidence From Sedimentary Records in Tlaxcala
Swidden agriculture in Mesoamerica is commonly associated with the hot and humid lowlands and with small isolated communities. Charcoal-rich sediments discovered in Tlaxcala, however, suggest that it was practiced in the cold highlands in the Formative and Classic periods. The headwaters of the Xilomantla drainage incised a nine-meter deep channel shortly before 200b.c., in response to increased runoff from slopes degraded by agriculture. It was …
Figurine Fashions in Formative Mesoamerica
Swidden agriculture, village longevity, and social relations in Formative central Tlaxcala: Towards an understanding of macroregional structure
Houses of Style: Consumption, Adornment, and Identity in Formative Tlaxcalan Households
The households of Formative period central Mexico represent critical loci for understanding major social transformations during a millennium (900b.c.–a.d.100) that witnessed the expansion and contraction of several macro-regional stylistic and economic networks, formalization of enduring political and religious institutions, and initial urbanization and state formation. Households and their constituent members used style to articulate important e…
The Neolithic Demographic Transition in Mesoamerica
The Neolithic demographic transition in Mesoamerica was a gradual process that unfolded over most of the Formative period (1800 BC-AD 200). An analysis of published records of over 6,700 pre-Hispanic burials, focusing on changing proportions of juveniles 5-19 years of age, suggests that fertility rates rose steadily during both the second and the first millennia BC. The gradual pace of the demographic transition was probably related to the low in…
Reply to Comments from Brit Solli, Elisabeth Rudebeck and Alison Mickel
Many thanks for the stimulating comments. My response is organized as a series of topics that builds toward a summary of what I see as ‘epic’ in archaeology.Archaeology compared to history. The cat
Emplotment as Epic in Archaeological Writing: The Site Monograph as Narrative
To emplot a narrative as epic is to present a story of vast scope and multiple plots as a legitimate member of a tradition of other such stories. This article argues that emplotment as epic is the broadest of three levels of plot in archaeological writings. At that level, the site monograph emerges as a characteristically archaeological form of narrative, fundamental to archaeology as a discipline and a source of chronic anxiety for archaeologist…
Prehistoric Figurine Styles as Fashion: A Case from Formative Central Mexico
Small, ceramic figurines used in household settings in Central Mexico during the first millennium bc were emphatically stylistic. Attributes cooperated to direct the viewer's attention to the style of the figurine, to how the figurine was made, and to the choices of makers and users from a range of alternative ways of making. This article draws on studies of modern fashion to develop a social interpretation of these patterns based on two collecti…
Economic growth in Mesoamerica: Obsidian consumption in the coastal lowlands
Representation as Visual Exegesis: The Stone Figurines of Chalcolithic Cyprus
An image may signify not simply by resembling its referent but also by being similar to or different from other images. Among Chalcolithic stone figurines from Cyprus, that second dimension of signification seems to account for much of the formal variability. Several heterogeneous types were characterized by differential schematization: images ranged from highly schematic to more recognizably anthropomorphic. In each of these types, formal relati…
Large-Scale Patterns in the Agricultural Demographic Transition of Mesoamerica and Southwestern North America
This article examines large-scale spatial and temporal patterns in the agricultural demographic transition (ADT) of Mesoamerica and southwestern North America ('the Southwest'). An analysis of published settlement and subsistence data suggests that the prolonged ADTs of these regions involved two successive eras of rapid population growth. Although both periods of growth were fueled by the introduction or development of more productive domesticat…
Archaeology (18 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (16 works) · Geography (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · History (12 works) · Formative assessment (11 works) · Art (8 works) · Latin American history and culture (7 works) · History (6 works) · Mesoamerica (6 works)