Andrew Turner’s research focuses on art, iconography, and religious symbolism in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. His most recent work explores the use of shared art styles, iconographic conventions, and writing systems to consolidate power and forge corporate identities among diverse ethnic groups in Central Mexico following the collapse of the metropolis of Teotihuacan around AD 600. Turner has also worked in the Central Andes, investigating the role of artistic production in shaping and reinforcing conceptions of sexuality and social identity among the Moche culture (AD 100-800) of Peru’s north coast.
Turner, Andrew. Sex, Metaphor, and Ideology in Moche Pottery of Ancient Peru. BAR International Series 2739, Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 41. Archaeopress, Oxford, 2015.
Turner, Andrew. Forthcoming. “Unmasking Tlaloc: The Iconography, Symbolism, and Ideological Development of the Teotihuacan Rain God and Other Masked Beings.” In Gods, Ancestors and Human Beings: Anthropomorphic Representations in the Mesoamerican Highlands. University of Colorado Press, Boulder.
Turner’s teaching interests include the visual culture of pre-Hispanic and Colonial Mesoamerica and the Central Andes. Topics include indigenous painted manuscripts, international art styles, cross-cultural interaction, state and imperial artistic strategies, gender, and identity. Turner’s courses stress critical thinking and thoughtful discussion.