Coloniality in the Maya Lowlands

Coloniality in the Maya Lowlands
Author: Kasey Diserens Morgan
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2022-12-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1646422848

Coloniality in the Maya Lowlands explores what has been required of the Maya to survive both internal and external threats and other destabilizing forces. These include shifting power dynamics and sociocultural transformations, tumultuous political regimes, the precarity of newly formed nation states, migration in search of refuge, and newly globalizing economies in the Yucatecan lowlands in the Late Colonial to Early National periods—the times when formal Spanish colonial rule was giving way to Yucatecan and Mexican neocolonial settler systems. The work takes a hemispheric approach to the historical and material analysis of colonialism, bridging the often disparate literatures on coloniality and settler colonialism. Archaeologists and anthropologists working in what are today southeastern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras grapple with the material realities of coloniality at a regional level. They provide sustained discussions of Maya experiences with wide-ranging colonial endurances: violence, resource insecurity, land rights, refugees, the control of borders, the movement of contraband, surveillance, individual and collective agency, consumption, and use of historic resources. Considering a future for historical archaeologies of the Maya region that bridges anthropology, ethnohistory, Indigenous studies, settler colonial studies, and Latin American studies, Coloniality in the Maya Lowlands presents a new understanding of how ways of being in the Maya world have formed and changed over time, as well as the shared investments of historical archaeologists and sociocultural anthropologists working in the Maya region. Contributors: Fernando Armstrong-Fumero, Alejandra Badillo Sánchez, Adolfo Iván Batún Alpuche, A. Brooke Bonorden, Maia C. Dedrick, Scott L. Fedick, Fior García Lara, John Gust, Brett A. Houk, Rosemary A. Joyce, Gertrude B. Kilgore, Jennifer P. Mathews, Patricia A. McAnany, James W. Meierhoff, Fabián A. Olán de la Cruz, Julie K. Wesp

Maya Christians and Their Churches in Sixteenth-Century Belize

Maya Christians and Their Churches in Sixteenth-Century Belize
Author: Elizabeth Graham
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0813065518

It is widely held that Christianity came to Belize as an extension of the conquest of Yucatan and that adherence to Christian belief and practice was abandoned in the absence of enduring Spanish authority. An alternative view comes from the excavations of Maya churches at Tipu and Lamanai, which show that the dead were buried in Christian churchyards long after the churches themselves fell into disuse, and pre-Columbian ritual objects were cached in Christian sacred spaces both during and after Spanish occupation. Excavations also reveal that the architectural style of these early churches is Franciscan in inspiration but nonetheless the product of continuing community efforts at construction and repair. A conclusion difficult to ignore is that the Maya of Tipu and Lamanai considered themselves Christians with or without Spanish presence. Viewing historical and archaeological data through the lens of her personal experience of Roman Catholicism, and informed by feminist approaches, Elizabeth Graham assesses the concept of religion, the significance of doctrine, the empowerment of the individual, and the process of conversion by examining the meanings attributed to ideas, objects and images by the Maya, by Iberian Christians, and by archaeologists. Graham’s provocative study also makes the case that the impact of Christianity in Belize was a phenomenon that uniquely shaped the development of the modern nation. A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase

Reconstructing Ancient Maya Diet

Reconstructing Ancient Maya Diet
Author: Christine D. White
Publisher:
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1999
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 9780874806021

Annotation In light of recently discovered population centers of pre-colonial Maya that could not have been sustained by the slash-and-burn agriculture which most anthropologists believe was the dominant method of food production for the culture, the editors of this volume view the analysis of the Maya diet as particularly important for understanding the pre-Columbian population. They present 12 papers that discuss evidence from the fields of faunal and botanical analysis, paleopathology, and bone chemistry. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Cultural Change on a Temporal and Spatial Frontier

Cultural Change on a Temporal and Spatial Frontier
Author: James J. Aimers
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN:

Discussions of Mayan civilisation are still beset by questions of collapse and its causes and the Upper Belize Valley is no exception. This study examines the issue through a comparative assessment of ceramic evidence from sites in this region dating from the Terminal Classic to Postclassic period, roughly c.AD 850 to c.AD 1050.

Maya Zooarchaeology

Maya Zooarchaeology
Author: Kitty F. Emery
Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2004-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1938770730

A comprehensive work, combining traditional zooarchaeological reports and various state-of-the-art summaries of methods and theoretical perspectives. This combination of detailed discussions of basic zooarchaeological data with reviews of important themes in Maya zooarchaeology emphasizes the central issues that guide our research from basic data collection through final comparative interpretation. The chapters emphasize the newest developments in technical methods, the most recent trends in the analysis of "social zooarchaeology," and the broadening perspectives provided by a new geographic range of investigations. The main focus of the volume remains on fostering cooperation among Mesoamerican zooarchaeologists at the levels of both preliminary analysis and final theoretical reconstruction.

The Economic Anthropology of the State

The Economic Anthropology of the State
Author: Elizabeth M. Brumfiel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 360
Release: 1994
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

This work examines the scope, rationality and limits of state intervention in the economy, drawing upon studies of tribute-based states of antiquity and modern capitalist states. In examining how state personnel intervene in the economy, this book draws three conclusions about the economic anthropology of the state. First, there is a great range of variation in the way that states intervene in the economy. Second, the economic impact of the state extends far beyond its role in organising or managing production and distribution. Finally, understanding the economic anthropology of the state requires an awareness of the strength of powerholders outside the state, especially those who are often regarded as powerless.

The Entangled Past

The Entangled Past
Author: University of Calgary. Archaeological Association. Conference
Publisher: Calgary : Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2000
Genre: Antiquities
ISBN:

Chipped Stone Tool Use in the Maya Coastal Economies of Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize

Chipped Stone Tool Use in the Maya Coastal Economies of Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize
Author: William James Stemp
Publisher: BAR International Series
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN:

A highly detailed analysis of stone tools recovered from excavations at two sites on the coral island of Ambergris Caye, off the coast of Belize, which revealed evidence of continued occupation on the island from c.100 BC until well into the Historic period. The study of the wear of tools provides a clear picture of the ways in which the Maya exploited the island's natural resources, notably fish, shell, coral and salt, while comparison of the sites shows the level of interaction between communities. Sections present a tool typology and discuss lithic technology, raw materials and the archaeological context and distribution of the assemblages.