Period, Style and Meaning in Ancient American Art
1970; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 1; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/468624
ISSN1080-661X
Autores Tópico(s)Historical and Literary Studies
ResumoTHE word encloses many meanings. In archaeology, its minimal sense is as a unit of time or contemporaneity, differing from a stage, or unit of cultural similarity.I Period also means recurrence among similar units of duration, in the sense conveyed by periodicity and specific duration. The life-span of each species is a known duration, and every member of the species shares that duration. Whatever exists may be said to have or to share in a specific duration. Similar existences display similar durations. Each such specific duration is a form of periodicity. If every entity has a specific duration, everything definite will have a knowable period. Conversely, those notions about which period is unclear probably lack definiteness. When we are unsure about something, our uncertainty is measured by our inability to define its period. Many historians rightly question the credibility of most periodizations. For instance R. M. Mayer showed that periods in history are neither necessary nor self-evident, and that periodology is entirely a matter of convenience dependent mainly upon aesthetic considerations, especially in regard to the proportion and number of periods.2 J. H. J. van der Pot concurs in stating that it is impossible to formulate directives for the correct proportion of the duration of the periods in relation to each other, and for their number. He urges that periodization, which forms the quintessence of history, should be idiographic (i.e. not based on historical law) and endocultural, arising from subject-matter rather than from exocultural necessities of geog-
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