ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the themes that organize the volume beginning with a brief history of research on the relationship between religion and politics in American archaeology as background. The three themes of the volume seek to move beyond the perspectives that have dominated archaeological treatments of religion and politics. The first theme seeks to move beyond a focus on political integration by considering the ways that political authority in complex societies was created and negotiated among diverse constituencies via religious idioms. The second theme considers the recent ontological turn in archaeology and how understandings of Native American world views can inform research on precolumbian religion. The third theme considers recent theories of materiality and how these can provide new insights into the entities that made a difference in political life. The chapter concludes with an overview of the volume that discusses the contributions of the authors within the context of the three themes.
