Infrastructures of Religion and Power: Archaeologies of Landscape, Ritual, and Semiotics

This book explores the role of religion in ancient polities' place-making and infrastructural projects, combining Indigenous philosophies with Lefebvre, Peirce, and assemblage theories. Case studies from Angkor and the Andes show how rituals of place-making shaped power relations and reconstructed past ontologies, cosmologies, ideologies, and political struggles.

Format: Hardback
Length: 404 pages
Publication date: 06 February 2024
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This captivating book delves into the profound and intricate relationship between religion and the creation of places and infrastructures in ancient polities. Through a multidisciplinary approach, it combines Indigenous philosophies with the spatial and semiotic insights of Lefebvre, Peirce, and proponents of assemblage theories. By examining case studies from ancient Angkor and the Andes, the book sheds light on the captivating rituals of place-making that played a central role in shaping territorialization and semiosis, fundamental aspects of political worlds. The perspectives developed within this text offer a valuable reconstruction of how landscapes were conceived, perceived, and experienced in the spirit of Henri Lefebvre. It explores how these landscapes may have aligned or clashed, providing a rich tapestry of insights into the complex interplay of power relations in past societies.

The examination of built environments, infrastructures, and rituals staged within specialized buildings serves as a powerful tool for archaeologists to infer past ontologies, cosmologies, ideologies of time and place, and historically specific political struggles. This study will captivate students and researchers with interests in ritual, infrastructures, landscape, archaeological theory, political institutions, semiotics, human geography, and the civilizations of the ancient Andes and Angkor.

Weight: 952g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367404215