Download or read book Water Folk written by Eduardo Williams and published by British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited. This book was released on 2014 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of subsistence activities (fishing, hunting, gathering, and manufacture) in the Cuitzeo and PAtzcuaro lake basins (MichoacAn, Western Mexico) underscores the value of ethnoarchaeology as a tool for reconstructing the ancient aquatic lifeway in the territory of the Protohistoric Tarascan state (ca. AD 1450-1530), which flourished in an environment dominated by lakes, rivers, swamps and marshes. Mesoamerica was the only civilization in the ancient world that lacked major domesticated sources of animal protein; therefore, abundant wild aquatic species (fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and plants, etc.) all played strategic roles in the diet and economy of most Mesoamerican cultures, including the Tarascans.