Institute of Archaeology

Home → People → Visiting Scholars

Samuel Vivian Connell

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Ph.D., UCLA, 2000

Fax: 310-206-4723
E-mail: connellsamuel@foothill.edu

Mailing Address:

Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
308 Charles E Young Dr. North
A210 Fowler Building/Box 951510
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1510

Personal Homepage

Class Websites

Position and Home Institution

Professor, Foothill College

Research Interests

Complex societies in Latin America focusing on regional integration in eastern Mesoamerica and the northern Andes. Set to start a new research project in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

Research Summary

The Pambamarca Archaeological Project is investigating the sequence of occupation and activity at the Pambamarca pucaraes (fortresses) in highland Ecuador, an hour north of Quito. Located on and around the equatorial line, our work concentrates on mapping and excavating structures inside the forts. Probably because of its critical geographic location along a main route to the Amazon basin, the Pambamarca zone contains the largest concentration of prehispanic forts in the New World. Previous years of investigation by our project have shown that there are two types of fortresses, intrusive Inka and local indigenous Cayambe, and that the fortresses are arranged along either side of a bitterly contested frontier. There is evidence for warfare everywhere. At many of the fortresses we have found caches of stones used for pelting the enemy. Our aim is uncover the differences between the Inka and Cayambe warfare tactics, and identify the remnants of Inca roads. What made the Cayambe very successful at resisting the Inka when the rest of South American fell so quickly? The two decade period of resistance is exceptionally interesting anthropologically, especially as we try to make sense of increasing resistance to globalization in our own times.

Edit This Page

secondaryNav

Secondary Navigation

featPub

Featured Publication

The Construction of Value

Scholars from Aristotle to Marx and beyond have been fascinated by the question of what constitutes value. The Construction of Value in the Ancient World makes a significant contribution to this ongoing inquiry, bringing together in one comprehensive volume the perspectives of leading anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, linguists, philologists, and sociologists on how value was created, defined, and expressed in a number of ancient societies around the world. Based on the basic premise that value is a social construct defined by the cultural context in which it is situated, the volume explores four overarching but closely interrelated themes: place value, body value, object value, and number value. The questions raised and addressed are of central importance to archaeologists studying ancient civilizations: How can we understand the value that might have been accorded to materials, objects, people, places, and patterns of action by those who produced or used the things that compose the human material record? Taken as a whole, the contributions to this volume demonstrate how the concept of value lies at the intersection of individual and collective tastes, desires, sentiments, and attitudes that inform the ways people select, or give priority to, one thing over another.

Available now!

utilityNav