Public Lectures

Letters from the Ancients of Water (Huarochirí, Peru)

Frank Salomon shows that the ontological world described in the 17th-century Huarochirí manuscript lives on in descendent Andean communities of our day.

Rulers from the West: Teotihuacan in Maya History and Politics

David Stuart discusses recent advances in understanding the complex relationship between the Classic period center of Teotihuacan in Central Mexico and the Maya region through image and text.

Water, Copper, Wak’as, and Empire: Late Prehispanic Political Ecology in the High-Altitude Atacama Desert

Frances Hayashida discusses how access to water and copper helps us understand local organization in the Atacama Desert under Inka rule and requires us to rethink purely economic explanations for imperial incorporation and actions.