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Indigenous Architecture and the Spanish American Plaza in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean
Author(s) -
LOW SETHA M.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1995.97.4.02a00160
Subject(s) - mesoamerica , indigenous , colonialism , oppression , denial , history , architecture , ethnology , anthropology , geography , sociology , archaeology , political science , ecology , psychology , politics , psychoanalysis , law , biology
Plazas are often important spatial representations of society and social hierarchy. Those built in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean under the direction of the Spanish have been interpreted as architectural representations of colonial control and oppression. Underlying these interpretations is the tacit assumption that plaza‐centered urban design was of solely European derivation, in spite of considerable evidence of pre‐Columbian contributions. In fact, the correspondence between the indigenous forms and Spanish reconstruction is so well documented that the denial of its significance is startling.