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The Kaan ("Snake") kings, a powerful political entity in the Classic Maya Lowlands, were housed in the Early Classic period at Dzibanche, and they moved their capital to Calakmul by the year a.d. 642 (Helmke and Awe 2016; Martin 2020:138–139). Their network of alliance and intermarriage radiated southward, and Waka's early eighth-century queen, Lady K'abel, was from the Kaan bloodline and married in to the Wak lineage, exemplifying the close connection between the two political entities. The discovery of Stela 44 in tunneling efforts in M13-1, the city's important ritual center, allows us to trace political ties between the Kaan and Wak kings to significantly earlier than previously known, which seem to begin around the mid-sixth century. This monument provides insight into three converging lines of evidence supporting the profound alliance these elites had built: first, the accession of a Wak king, Wa'oom Uch'ab Ahk, under the supervision of the Kaan king K'ahk' Ti' Ch'ich'; second, the father of the new king, Chak Tok Ich'aak, seems to be connected to La Corona, another early Kaan ally; and third, the mother of Wa'oom Uch'ab Ahk, Ix Ikoom, is also connected to La Corona and the broader Kaan hegemony through her title ix sak wahyis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sounds produced by humans and their environment are perceived and codified based on people's experiences as members of social groups, resulting in some sounds being used as means of communication. In this article, we present an archaeoacoustic study of diverse types of instruments excavated or collected from Comalcalco and Jonuta, two important pre-Hispanic Maya sites located in the modern state of Tabasco (Mexico). We propose a methodology to analyze organological and acoustic characteristics for each type of instrument, considering their relevant archaeological information, so as to provide some interpretations of how sounds could have been materialized, shared, and used in specific moments of Maya ritual and daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, I use the type-variety-mode analysis to define the diagnostic ceramic material for the Ik'hubil Ceramic Complex dating to the Terminal Classic (ca. a.d. 780–930/1000). The percentages of shared ceramic content indicate that multiple sites in the mid-to-lower Sibun Valley are members of an Ik'hubil Ceramic Sphere. My preliminary analyses of sites in the lower Belize River valley suggest that the Ik'hubil Sphere may extend across a broader area of north-central Belize during the Terminal Classic, discrete from the Spanish Lookout Sphere in the upper Belize Valley. Northern Yucatec traits are identified in ceramics and architecture in the eastern Sibun and Belize Valleys, along with marked changes in foodways. The presence of trading diasporas and more intimate social relationships, such as intermarriage, may explain this mix of local and hybrid forms of material culture introduced by the ninth century in this part of the eastern Maya Lowlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits a long-neglected site in Northern Belize, the Classic Maya settlement of El Pozito, located in the Orange Walk District. Investigations led by Mary Neivens and Dennis Puleston explored the site between 1974 and 1976, documenting its architecture and recovering a substantial quantity of artifacts. Afterward, events conspired to bring these investigations to a close, leaving the site in a half-century scholarly limbo. The research here seeks to rectify this. Combining extant field notes with sporadic publications and recently conducted ceramic analysis, the authors reconstructed El Pozito's sequence of construction, occupation, and usage over 20 centuries. This new research revealed a settlement of surprising complexity, combining aspects of urban functionality amid a landscape of rural complexity. This article argues that the best way to understand such complexity is through the conceptual lens of a "town." Neither a city nor a dispersed rural settlement, El Pozito functioned as a critical node that connected local, agrarian Maya with each other as well as the whole of the Classic Maya world. In this way, the research here seeks to rehabilitate this site, rescue it from its scholarly limbo, and restore its place in understanding the complex pre-Columbian landscapes of Northern Belize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We summarize the clinical trials (CTs) main characteristics, including members of ethnic minorities from Latin America. We carried out a systematic search in six databases. We made a descriptive synthesis of CTs, summarizing the characteristics, interventions, main findings, results, and conclusions reported. 4411 studies were acquired in search strategy, leaving 24 CTs in the final selection. Of these, ten were randomized, four were non-randomized, and the remainder had other designs. Most of the studies were carried out in the population of infants and children (08), ten of the studies included only women, and two studies included men. Nine studies were conducted in Mexico, with the Mayan ethnic minority being mostly evaluated (05). In only 15 it was mentioned that their research was approved by a research ethics committee. Finally, half of the CTs reported funding from international agencies and third reported funding from government agencies. Our results show that that CTs in ethnic minorities are limited and reduced to a few native peoples of the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we examine what local well‐being means in the contexts of collaborative heritage management and national development in Mexico. Driven by the request of Lacandon Mayas (including the second author) who live in Puerto Bello Metzabok, Chiapas, Mexico, in 2018, we engaged in archeological consolidation and heritage management to promote local tourism and sustainable economic development. This collaboration raised a series of ethical and practical questions of how to engage with the Eurocentric project of development. Addressing these issues has become critical, as the Mexican president's signature infrastructure project, Tren Maya (Maya Train), is designed to promote nationwide development via increased cultural heritage tourism in Chiapas and southern Mexico. Through critical reflection on experiences with Metzabok community members, we address Eurocentrism and colonialism by enacting a Lacandon (i.e., Hach Winik) buen vivir. This form of well‐being is relational and communal and creates a common good that includes more‐than‐humans. Via this critical perspective, we argue that a decolonial project can use the tools of development as an initial step in creating Indigenous well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text discusses two studies, "Style: A Queer Cosmology" by Taylor Black and "Queer Disappearance in Modern and Contemporary Fiction" by Benjamin Bateman, which explore the connection between queerness, style, and identity. Black's study focuses on personal style as a manifestation of individual essence in literary and cultural production, while Bateman's book examines the queer configuration of evanescence in fiction and environmental contexts. Both studies primarily analyze male and trans subjects, with Black's analysis including the works of Flannery O'Connor, Nikki Giovanni, and Toni Morrison. The studies highlight the long-standing association between queerness and style, and both authors draw connections between queerness, style, and the natural world. The writing styles of Black and Bateman reflect the themes they discuss, and overall, these studies provide insights into the complex relationship between queerness, style, and the environment. [Extracted from the article]

During the Colonial Period, Maya communities underwent significant social and religious transformations. This paper investigates how the Maya communities of Lamanai, Belize maintained resilience in the 16th century. By examining ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence at Lamanai, especially zoomorphic effigies at two Christian churches, the study demonstrates that resilience was not solely a product of human agency but also arose from engagement with other species and materials. Drawing influence from process philosophy, this paper redefines resilience as a dynamic and creative process encompassing active adaptation, reorganisation, and transformation. It argues that the ability to cross boundaries is essential to resilience. Maya communities were able to transcend the boundaries of properties, entities, realities, and cultures, which enabled them to re-envision their relationships with others and the world. Boundary-crossing allowed them to navigate complex changes with ease and integrate diverse cultural elements into their identity, ultimately fostering resilience in the face of colonial challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, the Maya Leaders Alliance unveiled "The Future We Dream," a vision document sharing a common interest among the Mopan and Q'eqchi' Maya people of Belize for a future in which they are committed to sustaining a reciprocal relationship with and stewardship of the land. In this context, this paper shares results from three communities bordering a forest reserve who were asked to identify important practices, which they considered "traditional" and "environmentally sustainable," as part of a collaborative NGO project to promote indigenous forest management. Through analysis of data collected alongside Indigenous Community Promoters (ICPs), it explores how these terms were defined and deployed to discuss healthy forests and healthy communities. The paper discusses how collaborative and community- led data collection addresses both the need to decolonize sustainability discourse and produce better data for better project outcomes (Maya, traditional ecological knowledge, forest management, environmental sustainability, indigenous land rights). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mexicon is the property of Verlag Anton Saurwein and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This ethnobotanical study highlights the significant knowledge of the Maya Yucatecan healers about medicinal plants used to treat skin diseases and the importance of studying the ancient knowledge inherited from generation to generation. Historically, the Maya people have relied on the use of medicinal plants to treat various ailments, including skin diseases. The study focuses on identifying the plants that have been traditionally employed for these purposes. By comparing historical sources with contemporary ethnobotanical data gathered from the field, this research uncovers the evolving patterns of plant usage over time. It also underscores the significance of considering sociopolitical circumstances in understanding changes in local knowledge. The data indicated that Rutaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Lamiaceae, and Asteraceae were the most represented families. The ethnohistoric record also showed gaps linked to the local knowledge developed by the Mayans over time. The principal component analysis technique applied to our ethnobotanical data simplifies the complexity of information on the use of medicinal flora to treat skin conditions, resulting in a new predictive model for pooling herbal knowledge. Correlations indicated that more than 50% of the listed species are used to treat fungal infections. This historical perspective enriches our understanding of the dynamic relationship between the Maya people and their use of medicinal plants for skin-related ailments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precolumbian Maya graffiti is challenging to document because it is complex, multilayered, and difficult to see with the naked eye. In the Maya Lowlands, precolumbian graffiti occurs as etched palimpsests on parts of substructures such as stucco walls of residences, palaces, and temples that are frequently only accessible through dark and narrow tunnel excavations. Experienced iconographers or epigraphers with advanced drawing skills are the most qualified researchers to accurately record, analyze, and interpret precolumbian Maya graffiti. Because these scholars have a vast knowledge of conventions and styles from multiple time periods and sites, they are less likely to document the complex and seemingly chaotic incisions incorrectly. But as with many specialists in Maya archaeology, iconographers and epigraphers are not always available to collaborate in the field. This raises the question, how might an archaeologist without advanced training in iconography accurately record graffiti in subterranean excavations? Advances in digital applications of archaeological field recording have opened new avenues for documenting graffiti. One of these is Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), a method that uses a moving light source and photography in order to visualize, interact with, and analyze a three-dimensional object in a two-dimensional image. With practice, RTI images can easily be produced in the field and later shared with specialists for the purposes of analysis and interpretation. Performed on a series of 20 unique graffiti from the Maya archaeological site of Holtun (two examples are presented here), RTI shows promise as a viable technique for documenting and preserving graffiti as cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The slash-and-burn cultivation system is a millenarian practice still used in many countries today, with significant environmental impacts. However, identifying evidence of this agricultural method in soil records is challenging due to natural and human factors that can obscure or alter fire signals. This challenge is particularly evident in the Yucatán Peninsula, where the ancient Maya practiced slash-andburn agriculture in a dynamic tropical karst environment, making it difficult to pinpoint the origins and consequences of this practice. In this study, we use a recent agricultural burning in a karstic landscape in Chiapas as a model to understand alterations in soil properties. We then apply these insights to identify similar features at a Maya site on the Yucatán Peninsula, specifically at Coyote Quarry. For both cases, we conducted micromorphological analysis, soil physical-chemical characterization, thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry analysis, and radiocarbon dating of mollusk shells, soil organic carbon, and charcoal fragments (the latter exclusively at Coyote Quarry). Our findings reveal significant effects on the soils from the Chiapas site post-burning, including changes in grain size distribution, pH, and total organic and inorganic carbon. These results were compared to those obtained from the Coyote Quarry soils and pedosediments. Key findings include micromorphological features, the presence of charcoal and other burned materials, and pyrogenic carbon identified through thermal analyses. The preservation of these burned features was facilitated by the typical karstic vertical soil erosion and redeposition as pedosediments in karstic depressions. The intrinsic association of the fire signals found in these karstic sinkholes and their radiocarbon dates enables us to link this evidence to the initiation of slash-and-burn agriculture by the Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula during the transition between the Archaic and Early Pre-Classic periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses recent advancements in Maya scholarship, including advancements in astronomy, linguistics, archaeology, and cultural history. These advancements have been made possible through technologies such as LiDAR, the decipherment of Maya glyphs, and ancient DNA research. The article emphasizes the interconnectivity among different cultures and the continuity of Maya culture from ancient times to the present. It highlights the groundbreaking work of Gerardo Aldana in his book "Calculating Brilliance," which explores the role of synodic planetary periods in Maya astronomy. The article also reviews the "Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions," which provides detailed illustrations and information about Maya stelae. The book "The Maya: Lost Civilizations" by Megan E. O'Neil challenges traditional clichés and provides cutting-edge arguments and discoveries about Maya culture. It covers topics such as Maya writing, art, architecture, and the impact of the Spanish invasion. O'Neil also addresses contemporary racialized issues and the importance of including Maya perspectives in the study of their culture. The book "Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art" takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding Maya divinity and the artistry of Maya sculptors, painters, ceramists, and scribes. It explores the interconnectedness of the divine, human, and natural realms in Maya culture and seeks to decipher the meaning behind Maya artworks. The text also highlights the importance of including Guatemalan scholars in the study of Maya history and [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses three books that explore different aspects of Catholicism in colonial Mexico. The first book, "The Franciscans in Colonial Mexico," edited by Thomas M. Cohen, Jay T. Harrison, and David Rex Galindo, provides a broad picture of Franciscans' missionary work in New Spain. The second book, "The Stations of the Cross in Colonial Mexico" by John F. Schwaller, examines the history and development of the devotion to the Stations of the Cross in Mexico. The third book, "Transforming Saints" by Charlene Villaseñor Black, discusses the transportation and transformation of female Catholic images from Spain to New Spain. These books highlight the adaptation and interaction between Spanish Catholicism and Indigenous cultures in colonial Mexico. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Revista Mexicana de Enfermería is the property of Publicidad Permanyer SLU and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Clearing and construction activities related to the Maya Train (Tren Maya) project resulted in potential and inevitable impacts to archaeological caves sites in largely undeveloped areas of Quintana Roo. An effort coordinated by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) involved accelerated digital documentation of two caves – via SLAM-enabled mobile LiDAR scanning and targeted photogrammetry – to facilitate prompt visualization and evaluation of terrestrial and subterranean geospatial relationships. Mobile LiDAR is well suited to the challenges of capturing the complex, multilevel morphology of caves and was readily deployed across and through priority environments. Specific archaeological features – such as ancient Maya rock art and masonry shrines – were documented via photogrammetry, and the resulting higher-resolution models co-referenced with the georeferenced mobile LiDAR-generated point clouds of each cave and the surrounding topographic context. This integrative approach contributed to a more informed decision-making process, with respect to conservation and construction, and provided baseline data for future monitoring of the affected cave sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For millennia, healing and psychoactive plants have been part of the medicinal and ceremonial fabric of elaborate rituals and everyday religious practices throughout Mesoamerica. Despite the essential nature of these ritual practices to the societal framework of past cultures, a clear understanding of the ceremonial life of the ancient Maya remains stubbornly elusive. Here we record the discovery of a special ritual deposit, likely wrapped in a bundle, located beneath the end field of a Late Preclassic ballcourt in the Helena complex of the Maya city of Yaxnohcah. This discovery was made possible by the application of environmental DNA technology. Plants identified through this analytical process included Ipomoea corymbosa (xtabentun in Mayan), Capsicum sp. (chili pepper or ic in Mayan), Hampea trilobata (jool), and Oxandra lanceolata (chilcahuite). All four plants have recognized medicinal properties. Two of the plants, jool and chilcahuite, are involved in artifact manufacture that have ceremonial connections while chili peppers and xtabentun have been associated with divination rituals. Xtabentun (known to the Aztecs as ololiuhqui) produces highly efficacious hallucinogenic compounds and is reported here from Maya archaeological contexts for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the impact of a millennium-long period of decreased rainfall during the transition from the Middle to Late Holocene on human diet and population dynamics in the northern neotropical Maya Lowlands. To do so, we use a nearby paleo-precipitation reconstruction to evaluate the timing of this period of reduced rainfall and compare those data to population proxies and stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen from directly dated human bone spanning the interval of interest. Our results show that decreased precipitation coincided with archaeological and isotopic evidence for increasing reliance on maize as a dietary staple. Two rockshelter sites located in Southern Belize have produced a mortuary assemblage that spans the Holocene. These assemblages provide a unique opportunity to examine how early farmers during the transition to agriculture may have been affected by Middle to Late Holocene climate change. Between 5600 and 4200 cal BP lowland populations were already consuming significant amounts of maize reflected in proxies for the protein and the whole diet portions, suggesting the establishment of farming communities at least 800–2200 years before the emergence of public architecture. We demonstrate that increasing reliance on maize shows the resilience of farming populations to climate variability during this crucial period just prior to massive demographic change and the emergence of complex economic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The whip spider Paraphrynus maya Armas, Trujillo & Agreda, 2017, (Amblypygi: Phrynidae) previously known only from Guatemala, is recorded for the first time from Honduras on the basis of an adult female from Trojes, El Paraíso department, Honduras. Now, the Honduran arachnofauna contains two confirmed Paraphrynus species: Pa. laevifrons (Pocock, 1894) and Pa. maya. Also, the paratypes of Pa. maya from Alta Verapaz department, Guatemala, are regarded as misidentified specimens of Pa. williamsi Mullinex, 1975. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity in the Neotropics includes an extraordinary diversity of plant variation produced by evolution that is useful for human well-being. Traditional knowledge of the Tenek, a Huastec Mayan culture, represents an important biocultural heritage for this realm. Here, we used the information about their useful plants to explore evolutionary biocultural patterns occurring in Neotropics. Our goal was to analyse the phylogenetic distribution of usage guilds, their degree of evolutionary clustering, significant associations, and phylogenetic overlap between guilds to test the hypothesis that Tenek selection of plants is not random but phylogenetically clustered. We found significant phylogenetic clustering in all usage guilds except ceremonial and medicine. Tenek people use a variety of relatively deep plant lineages providing specific services that biocultural processes have promoted in the ecosystems they inhabit. The lineages Asterales, Caryophyllales, Fabales, Lamiales, Malpighiales, and Malvales in eudicots and Poales and Asparagales in monocots concentrated most of the Huastec Mayan useful plants. Multi-functional hot nodes, including Asterales, Fabales, Lamiales, Malvales, Poaceae Sapindales, and Solanales, with phylogenetic overlap between usage guilds, should be major priority targets in conservation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Akatek Maya traditionalists in highland Guatemala regard sacrifices to living mountains as an essential world-creating act and an existential necessity. Drawing on my ethnography and description of a particular blood sacrificial ritual, preceding the advent of the New Year, I develop the concept of 'existential animism' to capture this dynamics of a continuous formation and constitution of the world and an existential, often precarious, difficult and painful, negotiation of a subject's position in it. Rethinking reciprocity as intersubjectivity, I explore sacrificial giving in terms of mutual relatedness and joint participation, characterised by the commitment to a fundamentally indeterminate, uncertain and delicate world of which we are a part and on which we depend. Finally, I argue that such phenomenologically inspired 'dwelling perspective' may be of relevance for further research on animist societies that strive to move within ambivalent landscapes and hierarchical relationships with other human as well as nonhuman beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial from the journal "La Granja, de Ciencias de la Vida" discussing the concept of sustainability and its importance in global development. The editorial highlights the need for a balance between economic, social, and environmental factors in order to achieve sustainable development. It also acknowledges the challenges faced in implementing sustainable practices, particularly in organizations that rely on the exploitation of the environment. The document concludes by introducing several scientific articles that explore different aspects of sustainable development. Another editorial from the same journal briefly mentions a study on the positive effects of regulations on eco-innovation and sustainable performance in the automotive manufacturing industry in Mexico. The editorial also highlights other articles in the journal, including research on glaciers in the Andes, landslide susceptibility analysis, bovine mastitis, and beneficial bacteria for maize cultivation. The editorial emphasizes the importance of scientific research and the role of journals in disseminating knowledge. [Extracted from the article]

Pre-Columbian food production in the Maya Lowlands was long characterized as reliant on extensive, slash-and-burn agriculture as the sole cultivation system possible in the region, given environmental limitations, with maize as the dominant crop. While aspects of this "swidden thesis" of Maya agriculture have been chipped away in recent years, there has been an underappreciation of the many forms of long-term capital investments in agriculture made by ancient Maya people. Here, we review the last three decades of research that has overturned the swidden thesis, focusing on long-term strategies. We demonstrate long-lasting agricultural investments by Maya people, in social capital including multigenerational land tenure, in cultivated capital including long-lived trees, and in landesque capital including soil amendments and landscape engineering projects, such as terracing and wetland modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a photogrammetric model and new line drawing of Sacul Stela 3 at the ancient Maya site of Sacul 1, Guatemala. Although virtually illegible in person and from photographs, the inscription on the eroded stela can largely be read or reconstructed in the 3D model. Our reading confirms a previous argument that the kingdom based at Sacul 1 was attacked in A.D. 779 by forces from the site of Ucanal. Traveling by night, warriors from Sacul retaliated with a raid at dawn next day on an unidentified site and, months later, followed up with an attack on Ucanal itself. The same narrative appears substantially on a well-known monument, Ixkun Stela 2, but there are differences between the two texts which suggest that Sacul and Ixkun had their own sculptors and record-keepers and which offer insights into the implications of verbs (pul, "to burn" and ch'ak , "to chop") commonly attested in Classic Maya accounts of war. We then present the results of GIS analysis which suggests that the site area of El Rosario (between Sacul 1 and Ucanal) is an appealing candidate for the unidentified site mentioned in the stela text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a preliminary, revised life history of Punta Laguna, Yucatan, Mexico, and considers in detail the site's relationship to nearby communities. More specifically, this article presents the results of a type-variety analysis of the cumulative palimpsest of ceramics excavated at the site between 2017 and 2022. Unlike initial studies conducted in the 1980s, the current study suggests that Maya peoples occupied Punta Laguna continuously or recurringly from 600/300 b.c. through a.d. 1500/1550. Punta Laguna is therefore usefully understood as a persistent place. By offering a composite life history of Punta Laguna, this article aims to augment current understandings of the complex social, political, and economic landscape of the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula. It also considers the utility of archaeological studies of persistent places to scholarship on urban sustainability and suggests that research investigating the connections between early occupation and site longevity may prove a fruitful avenue of study. Finally, this article argues that investigations of persistent places may provide a counterweight to the more common focus on collapse and thereby offer a more comprehensive understanding of the Maya past—one that emphasizes the vitality of the Maya present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I propose a "Milky Way / creation hypothesis" for the elongated eastern structures in early Maya E Groups: they were modeled on the Milky Way galaxy. These architectural arrangements, beginning in the Preclassic period (c. 900 B.C.–A.D. 200) in the southern Maya Lowlands, were adopted from predecessors in the Early Preclassic neighboring Gulf Coast region. The widespread overall similarity of E Groups suggests a shared belief system centered on myths about creation, and many of the characters (e.g., Maize God) and events of creation in Maya myths are set in the Milky Way. The general north–south axial orientation of the eastern platform, frequently pivoted northeast–southwest, is proposed to be related to the rainy season position of the Milky Way overhead. E Groups were probably multifunctional ritual theaters, the eastern platforms serving as stages for nighttime performances of creation stories. Late modifications into a tripart edifice, with structures or superstructures in the center and at both ends, replicated the major asterisms of the visible galaxy and/or the creator gods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancestral Maya engineered wetland fields and canals in floodplains for plant cultivation and water management. Canals and reservoirs, however, also provide aquatic resources to supplement agriculture. Maya created multi-trophic ecological aquaculture by modifying the waterscape to increase the amounts of foods and useful materials, such as fish, turtles, waterfowl, and reeds. While archaeological and ethnographic investigations across the Maya area explore aquatic constructions, technology, and foodstuffs, they have not focused on aquaculture. In the western Maya lowlands, including the site of Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico, ancestral Maya modified floodplains around lakes and rivers for farming fish and aquatic resources near their settlements and fields. These extensive modifications for ecological aquaculture enhanced the productivity and resiliency of natural ecosystems. The domesticated waterscapes near the ritually important Mirador Mountain at Mensabak also followed pan-Mesoamerican beliefs in origin mountains that generated water, plants, and fish for humans. Importantly, Maya integrated subsistence is illuminated by research on domesticated landscapes and ecological aquaculture that examines a range of resources rather than just plants. Certainly across Mesoamerica, ecological aquaculture allowed people to intensify production of "farms" of aquatic species, particularly fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article utilizes the Maya Hieroglyphic Database (Looper and Macri 1991–2022) to study the spellings of three glyphic values based on T713 (Thompson 1962), namely, the logogram K′AB′ 'hand, arm' (n = 88), the logogram K′AL 'to close, wrap, adorn' (n = 484), and the syllabogram mi (n = 68), cataloged as MZ1, MR1, and MR2, respectively, by Looper et al. (2022). The main goal is to study the functions of certain graphemes typically placed atop T713 (T713's "holding site") when it has the value K′AL , and to determine to what extent such signs can be described as lexical determinatives. The article concludes that MZ1 K′AB′ constitutes the unmarked value of T713, while MZ1 K′AL requires contextual or graphemic disambiguation, the latter facilitated by means of phonetic complements (e.g., k′a or la) or lexical determinatives (e.g., T617/1M3). Syntagmatic contextual associations resulting from frequent proximity to other signs was a common factor in the establishment of certain signs as lexical determinatives. The question of MR2 mi , which can be analyzed as either a digraph or a case of a "phonetic determinative" (distinct from "phonetic complement") in the holding site of T713, is left open to future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Section focuses on recent research centered on iron-ore mirrors in Mesoamerica and Central America. Iron-ore mirrors are rare and esoteric artifacts, mainly crafted by specialized centers in the Maya, central Mexico, and Zapotec areas from the Early Preclassic to the Postclassic. They were found in numerous archaeological sites and cultures, from the Gila River in the United States to the isthmus of Panama. In this introduction, we present a temporal, geographical, and contextual framework for the actual knowledge on mirrors, in order to fully understand the complexity and importance of the research on these prestigious artifacts. Indeed, the mirrors combine spiritual and political power in a portable and material way, giving a great insight into Mesoamerican beliefs and leading to important information on the relation between rulers of different political centers from different cultural areas. Finally, we present the articles of the Special Section and give an overview of their content and relevance to the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book review discusses "Códice Maya de México: Understanding the Oldest Surviving Book of the Americas," which is a volume published to accompany an exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum. The book explores the authenticity and significance of the Mesoamerican pictorial document, which is believed to be the oldest of the four pre-Hispanic Maya codices. It provides insights into the historical context, iconography, and content of the codex, as well as the Maya culture, bookmaking, scribal practice, and astronomy. The volume includes contributions from scholars and archaeologists, synthesizing previous investigations and offering new insights into the codex. It is a concise and accessible resource that sheds light on the importance of the codex to contemporary Maya communities. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents the life and trajectory of Gudrun Lenkersdorf, an outstanding researcher and scholar of the colonial history of Chiapas. Lenkersdorf moved to Mexico in the 1950s and began studying Mayan civilization. She conducted research on the Tojolabal, an indigenous group from Chiapas, and their relationship with Spanish domination. Lenkersdorf became an emblematic figure in the field of historical studies and defended the rights of Mayan peoples. Her historical proposal questions the homogenization of indigenous forms of government and refutes the claim that democratic forms of government were introduced by the Spanish. [Extracted from the article]

Yucatec Maya orality has been a popular topic of study of scholars from a wide array of disciplines. These studies often rely on academically generated categories of speech that have often been stylized in forms that descend from Western thought. The generated speech categories may overlook more performance-based forms that are more common of Indigenous knowledge systems. Most of the collected and analyzed Maya oral literature appears to be recounted by men, leaving women’s orality and their unique ways of interpreting the world largely under-documented. In this paper, I expand our understanding of Yucatec Maya women’s oral literature by providing a systematic documentation and description of u t’aan nukuch máak, words of the elders, a ‘speech’ genre that relies largely on performance. The performance of u t’aan nukuch máak are an embodiment of my female collaborators’ culture, as they occur in their daily routines. U t’aan nukuch máak are performed (or uttered) in the context of certain bodies, objects, times, and spaces that index concepts that reflect the strength of Maya cultural memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hunting is part of the biocultural heritage of the Maya people of the Yucatán Peninsula because it has been part of their strategy of multiple use of resources and their cosmovision since pre-Hispanic times. The study of knowledge and practices on the uses of natural resources can help to improve the resilience of biological and human communities to disturbances. The aim of this study was to characterize the biocultural knowledge associated with traditional hunting in the Mayan community of Xul, Yucatán. From September to December 2020, 42 mixed questionnaires and seven semi-structured interviews were applied to local hunters. It was found that 23 species of vertebrates (35 mammals, 6 birds, and 1 reptile) are hunted in Xul and are used mainly for food. The species with higher cultural importance (iic) were the red brocket deer (Mazama temama), collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), and ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata). The dry season is their favorite season for hunting (71.4 %) and hunters prefer the milpa (92.9 %) and forest (83.3 %) as hunting sites. The most practiced techniques are the “batida” (flushing by hunting teams, p’uuj; 92.9 %), “caminar por el monte” (walking through the woods, xíimbal ts’on; 73.8 %), and “lampareo” (hunting with flashlights, ts’on; 69 %). In Xul there are beliefs such as virtues, the owners of animals and the winds (Ik’). These results show the continuity of biocultural knowledge related to hunting and its importance in the management and conservation of wild fauna in rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on the relationship between the pre-Hispanic cities of Tula and Chichén Itzá has polarized the interpretation of Mesoamerican history, from those who deny any direct contact, to those who maintain that these contacts existed in the form of invasions or migrations. In this work we present epigraphic evidence reinforcing the direct relationship between both cities, which adds to the considerable iconographic and architectural evidence of such nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of grave goods provides information about the rituality of ancient populations. The present investigation aspires to broaden the knowledge about the funerary use of spindle whorls among pre-Hispanic Mayas. These objects are generally interpreted as part of the identity of the buried individuals. However, in Palenque, southern Mexico, spindle whorls are deposited in contexts that present evidence of posthumous rituals and secondary manipulation of the skeletal content. In this research, six recently excavated funerary contexts from Group IV, an elite household from Palenque, are examined in detail. These graves are compared with burials of other domestic groups and with an example of the Palenque’s royalty: the Red Queen’s sarcophagus. Iconographic, historical and ethnographic sources allowed to infer that the spindle whorls in Palenque were used to carry out posthumous rites that involved the production of thread to materialize a communication route with the ancestors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research in the Maya Lowlands has revealed substantial new evidence for the first pottery producers at about 1000-600 bc, during the early Middle Preclassic period. This comparatively late adoption is a special case in Mesoamerica, where pottery appeared elsewhere up to a millennium earlier. Although archaic lifeways had long been established in the region, and pottery technology was likely known to some archaic communities, these new data reveal the complex set of circumstances that prompted the shift to ceramic production across the Yucatan Peninsula, Peten, and Belize. This article reviews these data from the perspective of the upland region of central and southern Yucatan, known as the Elevated Interior Region (eir). Its rather complex early settlement links the eir to contemporary pottery industries throughout the peninsula, suggesting well-established exchange systems were in place even as the first populations chose to settle more permanently on the landscape. Most significant among these cultural shifts was the increasing dependence on maize foodways as a primary subsistence strategy. Intensive maize agriculture has not been documented in Mesoamerica much before 1000 bc, yet ceramic technology was adopted independently of its use in other areas. Current evidence suggests, however, that the two were linked in the Maya Lowlands, where a relatively rapid transition took place as horticultural communities became more dependent on maize crops, followed waterways to settle more permanently on the landscape, and began producing pottery locally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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During the Middle Preclassic period (c. 1000-350 BCE), the people of the Maya lowlands transitioned fromamobile horticulturalist to sedentary farming lifestyle, exemplified by permanent houses arranged around patios and rebuilt over generations. Early evidence of this change has been found in northern Belize, in the Belize Valley, and at Ceibal, Guatemala. At Cuello and other sites in northern Belize, mortuary rituals tied to ancestor veneration created inequality from the beginning of sedentary life. There, relatively dense populations facilitated the emergence of competitive sociopolitical strategies. However, Maya communities in different regions adopted different aspects of sedentism at different times and employed different power strategies. Unlike Cuello, Ceibal was founded as a ceremonial center by semi-mobile people. Middle Preclassic ritual practices at Ceibal and in the Belize Valley were associated with more collective leadership. At the end of this period, increased population densities contributed to a shift to more exclusionary rituals and political strategies throughout the lowlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhanced immigration enforcement measures are now a dominant practice throughout the world. The concept of transnationalism, used by scholars to illuminate the complex dynamics these measures have across nation-state borders, has been critiqued for its replication of methodological nationalism—the assumption that the nation-state is a natural social and political form of the modern world. How then can migration scholars deepen the understanding of the mobilities of migrant children and youth without replicating methodological nationalism? We propose a relational socio-cultural analytic that synthesizes settler colonial theory and the theory of racialized legal status to comprehend the complex experiences of Indigenous migrant Maya youth and families throughout the Americas. Our use of a relational critical comparative analysis challenges structural functionalist approaches that limit the study migration dynamics within nation-state contexts, which can unwittingly sustain national membership in a state(s) as an aspirational emblem of belonging. We explore how Indigenous Maya experience and challenge the meaning of statelessness and the spillover effects of immigration enforcement measures along the US–Mexico and Mexico–Guatemala borders. We argue that a relational socio-cultural analytic lens serves as a powerful tool for understanding how nation-states co-produce stateless Indigenous populations and how these populations persist throughout the Americas and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyze changes in height, weight, and body mass index (BMI = kg/m2) from 1986 to 2022 in 3–11 year old children from Dzeal, a rural Maya community in Yucatan, Mexico. Materials and Methods: From October‐2022 to February‐2023 (third‐wave survey), we obtained anthropometric measurements of children (n = 80) and family socioeconomic data and compared them with data obtained in 1986 (n = 38) and 2000 (n = 76). Comparisons of anthropometric parameters by sex between years of measurement were performed graphically and through one‐way ANOVA, splitting children into two age groups: 3–7 and 8–11. Bonferroni adjustments for multiple comparisons were used when ANOVAs were statistically significant (p <.05). Results: In girls, significant increases in height and weight between surveys were found in 3–7 and 8–11 age groups; in boys, significant increases were only found in the 8–11 age group. Regarding BMI, there were increases in 2022 compared with 1986/2000 in both sexes from 8 years onwards. Differences indicate increases of 3.9 and 4.4 cm per decade in girls aged 3–7 and 8–11, respectively, and increases in weight of 1.1 and 3.3 kg per decade, respectively. Increases in boys 8–11 years were 2.3 cm and 2.4 kg per decade. Conclusion: Significant increases in growth parameters were observed in specific‐age children in the community studied in the context of changes in livelihoods and improvements in household material conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency and duration of Late-Holocene hydrologic extremes in northern Guatemala were investigated using multiple sedimentological and geochemical proxies preserved in a sediment core collected from Lake Petén Itzá. A general trend of increasing aridity in the Maya Lowlands during the past 2000 years was punctuated by several multidecadal- to centennial-scale drought events recorded in the Petén Itzá sediments. In particular, the period spanning the Maya Terminal Classic Period and the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), between 800 and 1300 CE, was marked by several extreme droughts and included the driest conditions of the past 2000 years between 950 and 1100 CE. Similarities between our data and other existing regional paleoclimate records suggest regional drying events during this time may have been driven by a common mechanism. Specifically, comparisons between these records and tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) suggest that the dry intervals may have been driven by a westward expansion of the North Atlantic Subtropical High pressure system. This period was unique in the general agreement between regional proxy records, which are otherwise notably heterogeneous during the Late-Holocene. During the Little Ice Age (LIA; 1400–1800 CE) mean precipitation at Petén Itzá was further reduced, and multidecadal drying events were recorded between 1500–1530, 1600–1640, and 1770–1800 CE. However, regional hydroclimatic coherency was weaker during the LIA, suggesting that additional climatic mechanisms played a more important role in local-scale hydrology during that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My research explores the relationship between metabolic health and the rise of capitalist food and labor systems, through interviews and long-term ethnographic research with Maya peoples of southern Belize. As work has been replaced with wage labor and farm foods with store-bought alternatives, diabetes has begun to affect Indigenous communities in Southern Belize. "Eating the money" earned by paid labor through consumption of commodity foods and accumulation of resources is seen to produce inequality and nutritional disease. The co-occurrence of diabetes with economic success represents the emergent and contradictory risks posed by integration into consumer capitalist economies. Concern over nutritional diseases like diabetes has led to reflexive critique of the deleterious health effects of modern food and labor relationships. Research participants' narratives emphasize the nutritional consequences of consumer culture as well as the challenges of balancing health and economic concerns in a rapidly changing world. By engaging Maya paradigms of health as embodiment with social scientific literature on political ecology and cultural studies of food systems, this article reveals that diabetes is endemic to the commodification of food and work. These findings demonstrate the integral role of commodification and consumption-oriented cultural practices to the global rise of nutrition-related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the great city of Tikal, the ancient Maya placed and oriented their ceremonial architecture and monuments in accordance with cosmological principles. Its earliest ceremonial plaza, the Mundo Perdido, is one of the oldest pre‐Classic E‐Groups of the Petén, the astronomical utility of which has been a topic of debate by archeologists and archaeoastronomers alike over the past century. In 1988, Aveni and Hartung surveyed the great temples of Tikal and revealed the relationship between their astronomical and dynastic aspects. Yet, over the intervening decades breakthroughs in the decipherment of the Maya glyphs have greatly increased our understanding of Tikal's dynastic history while interpretations in the field of archaeoastronomy have become more rigorous. For instance, more recent surveys and interpretations by Ŝprajc (2021a, 2021b) have demonstrated the importance of the Maya ritual calendar in the placement and orientation of ceremonial public architecture. The aim of this paper is to reassess this earlier fieldwork in archaeoastronomy, provide recent corroborative measurements of the orientation of key buildings, and provide a cohesive summation of the cosmological principles found in the design and construction of the city of Tikal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]