Incluye referencias bibliográficas (páginas 225-255) e índice.

Gathering in an open space : introduction to Mesoamerican plazas / Takeshi Inomata and Kenichiro Tsukamoto -- Plaza builders of the preclassic Maya lowlands : the construction of a public space and a community at Ceibal, Guatemala / Takeshi Inomata -- Social identities, power relations, and urban transformations : politics of plaza construction at Teotihuacan / Tatsuya Murakami -- Multiple identities on the plazas : the classic Maya center of El Palmar, Mexico / Kenichiro Tsukamoto -- Early Olmec open spaces at San Lorenzo, Veracruz / Ann Cyphers and Timothy Murtha -- Empty space, active place : the sociopolitical role of plazas in the Mixteca Alta / Marijke Stoll -- The social construction of public spaces at Palenque and Chinikihá, Mexico / Rodrigo Liendo Stuardo, Javier López Mejaía, and Arianna Campiani -- Interpreting plaza spaces using soil chemistry : the view from Honduras / Kara A. Rothenberg -- Plazas in comparative perspective in south-central Veracruz from the classic to the postclassic period (AD 300-1350) / Alanna Ossa -- Early transformations of Monte Alban's main plaza and their political implications, 500 BC-AD 200 / Javier Urcid and Arthur Joyce -- Plazas and the patios of the Feathered Serpent / William M. Ringle -- Plaza, atrium, and Maya social memory in sixteenth-century Itzmal / Amara Solari -- Ancient plazas : spaces of inquiry in Mesoamerica and beyond / Jerry D. Moore.

"This is the first book to examine the roles of plazas in ancient Mesoamerica. It argues persuasively that physical interactions among people in communal events were not the outcomes of political machinations held behind the scenes, but were the actual political processes through which people created, negotiated, and subverted social realities"-- Provided by publisher.