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"Los Títulos de Ebtún" is a corpus of documents written in Yucatec Maya and Spanish throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries (1561-1869). These administrative texts include land titles, land purchases, sale records, legal petitions regarding the delimitation of boundaries, and boundary surveys. They were produced in a legal dispute involving the Ebtún community with their Mayan and Spanish neighbors. The origin of this lawsuit was the reducción por congregación policy and the reorganization of the geopolitics of the Yucatecan peninsula through the displacement and relocation of a large part of its population. The analysis of this corpus allows us to illuminate the territorial strategies that the inhabitants of Ebtún developed throughout the colonial period, as well as to elaborate hypotheses regarding the different regimes of rights and land tenure prevailing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the examination of Olmec jade objects at the Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Maya jade artifacts from the Chichén Itzá site housed in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, two categories of drilling techniques have been identified: practical and ritual. Practical drilling encompasses drilling positioning, sequential drilling for decoration and openwork. Ritual drilling imbues jade objects with symbolism related to breath and life. In Neolithic China, two systems of drilling techniques for jade processing have been reconstructed: axial rotary drilling and bearing rotary drilling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractFollowing decolonial and feminist geographic perspectives, in this paper I look at the everyday (re)productive work of Maya women in their home-gardens in the Peninsula of Yucatán, Mexico. Building from the notion that our territories are constructed from our bodies, I engaged with the knowledges, experiences, and practices that Maya women have accumulated, as they face the challenges and joys of caring for their environment and their families. Using methodological pluralism that included conversations, walks, and surveys, I met with 38 women from 11 communities in the Peninsula. This approach allowed for a better interpretation and understanding of the realities of these women than a single method could provide. In these meetings, we talked about their daily work in their solar through experiences and stories about plants and food. The solar, also called home-garden, is part of a multiple use of the territory strategy of Maya communities. Within the solar, women grow food and do other activities necessary for sustaining life. In the work they do, women generate and reproduce knowledge and traditions that highlight the connections between communities and their territories. Particularly, their agrobiodiverse knowledge is key for shaping healthy bodies and territories. Facing a colonial/modern world, Maya women reclaim these ways of life and the validity of knowledges generated in these spaces as a way to resist and endure, as they have done for thousands of years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jade has been long recognized by archaeologists as an important trade item among ancient Mesoamerican cultures, particularly for ancient Olmec and Maya cultures. Unfortunately, the precocious development of Olmec society led many early archaeologists to overemphasize Olmec influence on the Maya during the Formative period (ca. 1000–400 BC). This is particularly noteworthy in the attribution of tri-lobed jade "spoon" pendants to the Olmec despite the lack of archaeological evidence. Using a recently discovered tri-lobed jade "spoon" pendant from the site of Ka'kabish, Belize, and dated to the Middle Formative period (ca. 800–600 BC), this article argues that such pieces should not be unquestionably attributed to the Olmec. This argument is supported by correlation with similar objects from other secure archaeological contexts at Maya sites dating to the Middle Formative period. This article contends that using the ethnonym Olmec to describe these objects creates an a priori assumption that these objects originated in the Olmec region and were merely repurposed by the Maya and argues for a reinterpretation of the origin and meaning for these objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape-oriented approaches in archaeology have moved beyond site-based research to interpret how people have engaged with, modified, and constructed the environment and how the legacies of these activities continue to influence land use. In the Maya Lowlands, landscape archaeology is related to the analysis of settlement patterns, households, agricultural intensification, and water management. The increasing availability of LiDAR data has revolutionized the mapping of archaeological landscapes under vegetation, especially in tropical environments like the Maya Lowlands, but researchers still emphasize site-oriented settlement densities and infrastructure. Furthermore, the accessibility of drone-based LiDAR platforms has the potential to collect data across several seasons or years to facilitate change detection. In this paper, we compare three LiDAR datasets collected from 2018 to 2023, using both occupied and unoccupied airborne systems. The landscape surrounding the archaeological site of El Infiernito, Chiapas, Mexico near the Classic period (AD 250–800) dynastic capital of Piedras Negras, Guatemala was selected to compare these LiDAR datasets in the context of prior, extensive ground-based fieldwork. These data were used to interpret the built environment, land use, hydrology, landscapes of movement, and other infrastructure constructed and modified by several communities beginning in the Late Preclassic period (400 BC–AD 250) to the present. When used alongside systematic survey and ground verification, the combination of several LiDAR platforms to collect data across different seasons at El Infiernito enhanced the understanding of the spatial distribution of archaeological sites and features across the karst landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NACLA Report on the Americas explores the connections between Palestine and the Americas, focusing on solidarity, resistance, and shared struggles against colonial violence. The issue delves into historical ties, state collaborations, and grassroots solidarity between Abya Yala and Palestine, highlighting the need for a structural analysis of settler colonialism and liberation movements. Through articles, roundtable conversations, and historical analyses, the issue aims to deepen readers' understanding of the global context of Palestine solidarity and inspire a new language of liberation that transcends binary thinking. [Extracted from the article]

Maize (Zea mays) was a fundamental part of the diet for the Classic period Maya (ca. 250–900 CE) and other Mesoamerican societies. Nixtamalization, the process whereby maize is cooked in an alkaline solution, is important as it enhances the nutritional value of maize, among other reasons. However, documenting this process in the archaeological record is not straightforward. A microbotanical study of residues collected from ceramic vessels and grinding stones from Late Classic (ca. 600–900 CE) contexts at the Lowland Maya site of La Corona (Peten, Guatemala), revealed the presence of starch spherulites. Their authenticity was confirmed by polarized microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) imaging combined with iodine staining. We argue that nixtamalization as a cooking technique was occurring at La Corona during the 7th and 8th centuries CE. We present evidence from ceremonial contexts, specifically burial and feasting/commensal events. This is the earliest evidence of lime-treated maize in the Maya area recovered directly from ceramic vessels linked to preparation and/or consumption of food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiproxy data collected from the largest inland wetland in Belize, Central America, demonstrate the presence of large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facilities built by Late Archaic hunter-gatherer-fishers, which continued to be used by their Maya descendants during Formative times (approximately 2000 BCE to 200 CE). This is the earliest large-scale Archaic fish-trapping facility recorded in ancient Mesoamerica. We suggest that such landscape-scale intensification may have been a response to long-term climate disturbance recorded between 2200 and 1900 BCE. Agricultural intensification after 2000 BCE has been credited for supporting the rise of pre-Columbian civilizations in Formative Mesoamerica, but we suggest that some groups relied more heavily on the mass harvesting of aquatic resources. We argue that such early intensification of aquatic food production offered a high value subsistence strategy that was instrumental in the emergence of Formative period sedentarism and the development of complexity among pre-Columbian civilizations like the Maya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the long history of Classic Maya hieroglyphs, a logosyllabic writing system used from the late first millennium BCE through the mid‐second millennium CE in southern Mesoamerica, the most commonly recorded phonetic value was the syllable u (/ʔu/). With over a dozen different u hieroglyphs, Classic Maya scribes had more options for recording /ʔu/ than any other syllable or logograph. Cognitive approaches to writing systems typically attribute graphemic variation (i.e., alternation between signs with equivalent linguistic value) to semantic differences like animacy or to non‐linguistic factors like identity. Distribution of Classic Maya u hieroglyphs, however, suggests that morphosyntactic context influenced which grapheme scribes wrote and when. This case suggests that scribal knowledge of Classic Maya hieroglyphs included ideas about writing's relationship to language. It also highlights the cognitive relevance of morphosyntax for a writing system's users as they differentiate among graphic signs with identical linguistic denotation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In colonial Yucatán, Mexico, the owners of plantation-like estates known as haciendas conscripted saints and cows to expropriate land from Indigenous Maya farming communities. In this paper, I trace the role of hacienda saints by framing them as an introduced or adventive species, capable of forming both mutualistic and invasive interspecies relationships in their new habitat. I examine the introduction of saints to the region by Franciscans, early attempts by Maya people to build anticolonial coalitions with saints and cows, the participation of hacienda saints in extractivist ranching practices, and the ultimate reclaiming and possible naturalization of saints by Maya rebels. This paper extends conceptualizations of the plantation—as both a site of species extinction and a site of interspecies collaboration—to include Catholic saints, so as to interrogate the dynamic role of supernatural entities in deep and ongoing histories of extractivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in family life related to globalization may include reduction in the collaborativeness observed in many Indigenous American communities. The present study examined longitudinal changes and continuities in collaboration in a Guatemalan Maya community experiencing rapid globalization. Fluid collaboration was widespread 3 decades ago among triads of mothers and 1‐ to 6‐year‐olds in 24 Mayan families exploring novel objects during home visits (Dayton et al., 2022). However, in the "same" situation 30 years later, 22 mother–child triads of their relatives spent half as much time in collaboration among all three people. This aligns with globalizing changes and with the pattern of Dayton et al.'s middle‐class European American families. Nonetheless, the Mayan families maintained harmonious interactions, in line with preserving important cultural values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyze the changes in children's height, weight, BMI and rates of stunting and overweight and obesity over three periods: 1986–1987, 1996–1998, and 2023 for the community of Yalcoba in the Yucatan Peninsula. Material and Methods: Four hundred forty (6‐to‐15 years) children measured in 2023 were compared with data obtained in 1986–1987 (n = 675) and 1996–1998 (n = 628). Z‐scores of height and BMI were calculated to estimate percentages of stunting and high BMI‐for‐age (overweight and obesity). Comparisons of anthropometric parameters by sex and age groups between years of measurement were performed through one way ANOVAs. Results: Differences in anthropometric parameters were significant in all age groups of both sexes. Boys measured in 2023 were, on average, 6.4 and 3.3 cm taller than boys measured in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively. Increases in girls were 12 and 7.3 cm, respectively. Average increases in weight of boys measured in 2023 were 7.9 kg compared to the 1980s and 5.8 kg compared to 1990s. Average increases in girls measured in 2023 were 11.3 kg compared to the 1980s, and 7.6 kg compared to the 1990s. Stunting between the 1980s and 1990s decreased by 15 percentage points and between the 1990s and 2023 decreased by 47 percentage points. The percent of children deemed overweight/obese during these periods increased from 8 to 12–50 by 2023. Conclusion: Results reflect the overall trends seen in the Yucatan where stunting has decreased substantially but the numbers of overweight/obese youths have increased dramatically in the past 30 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the change in the Dietary Diversity (DD) Index of Maya women of reproductive age living in rural areas of the Western Highlands of Guatemala after nutrition, health, and agroecology interventions. Methods: This is a secondary analysis study on DD from two matched groups from three villages in the Lake Atitlan area in the department of Sololá. The first cohort was recruited in 2017 (sample of n = 77). The second cohort was recruited in 2020 (sample of n = 61). Both were followed until 2021. The program provided various resources for assistance for food production and home improvements (sessions from 2018 to 2022). Agroecology sessions were conducted in the test farm. Due to the COVID-19, adjustments were made to continue the education and training sessions. Results: Both cohort samples had a statistically significant increase in participants who consumed at least 15 g from five groups of foods (2017: p =.00002; 2020: p =.045). There was a statistically significant increase in mean food groups consumed daily (2017: p <.00001; 2020: p =.005). Conclusions for Practice: Implementing interventions that include nutrition, health, and agroecology practices in the long term has demonstrated a statistically significant increase in the Dietary Diversity Index of Maya women in their reproductive years living in rural villages in the Western Highlands. Significance: Indigenous Maya women face numerous health challenges, including stunting, poor nutrition, and maternal mortality. Low dietary diversity and limited food access in rural areas of Guatemala exacerbate these issues. The intervention in this study statistically increased the Dietary Diversity Index of Maya women, notably raising the consumption of Vitamin B and Vitamin A-rich foods, which are essential for maternal and fetal health. These findings highlight the potential for culturally appropriate nutrition programs to enhance dietary diversity in this population, promoting overall health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Retos: Nuevas Perspectivas de Educación Física, Deporte y Recreación is the property of Federacion Espanola de Asociaciones de Docentes de Educacion Fisica 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.)

Using oral histories of three generations of a Tzotzil Maya Muslim family in Chiapas, Mexico, this paper examines how these members navigate and make meaning of their different identities as their traditional knowledge systems have been disrupted by land dispossession and displacement. This storied process illustrates the knowledge production and transferal processes while underscoring the critical relationship with the land that intertwines with identity formation and knowledge production of three generations of this Maya Muslim community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I illustrate the interplay between infrastructure and racialised differentiation through the case of the Maya Train—a contentious megaproject aimed at constructing 1,554 km of rail tracks across southeast Mexico, led by the López Obrador federal administration. Drawing on an analysis of narratives produced by the state, I argue that the Maya Train sustains and reproduces racial capitalism. The argument is developed by putting Gargi Bhattacharyya's and Nancy Fraser's understanding of the racial capitalism framework in conversation with Mónica Moreno Figueroa's conceptualisation of mestizaje. I show how the Maya Train functions as a project of mestizaje by promising homage, social justice, and development while also acting as a homogenising and oppressive force. The racialising practices embedded in the megaproject reproduce and extend colonial legacies in a heartland of expropriation and are transformed into materiality through the power of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an introduction to the articles featured in the latest issue of Design Issues. The articles explore various topics related to design, including the intersection of place and game design, the relationships between ethnography and design, the role of design in addressing social challenges, the separation of appropriate and inappropriate in modern design, and the use of metaphor analysis in design research. The document also includes reviews of books on graphic design and decolonizing design. Additionally, there is information about recent editions of Design Issues and changes to the editorship. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Foro Internacional is the property of El Colegio de Mexico AC 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.)

Mopan (Mayan) oral histories have preserved for over three hundred years precise details of their early contact with Spanish missionaries. The Mopan histories supplement Spanish documents in documenting significant Mopan resistance to Christian conversion and testify to an extended period in which Christianized Mopan living in Spanish mission villages coexisted as neighbours and trading partners with their non-baptized kin. From the perspective of Mopan inside the Christian villages, a specific contrast of forest to village was doubly determined, not only by Spanish policy that made forest fugitives of those who did not wish to take Christian baptism, but also by an older understanding that the forest and other wilderness areas such as the venerated mountains were the domain of supernatural and non-human creatures. Data from linguistic-anthropological analysis of voice, gaze, and manual gesture reveal how modern-day Mopan tellings present forest residence not as incidental to or the result of non-Christian identity, but instead as a crucial part of constructing, causing, or explaining that identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soil mantle of the tropical karstic landscapes of Southern Mexico was shaped by specific processes of pedogenesis and long-term human impacts of ancient Maya agriculture. To understand the interaction between natural and human-induced soilforming processes in the calcareous mountains of Chiapas state, we studied soil toposequences around the Classic Maya site of Budsilhá and related them to the archaeological evidence of settlement and land-use distribution. Soil chemical analysis, micromorphological observations, and clay mineral identification were carried out in key soil profiles at the main geoforms. Limestone hills are occupied by shallow Rendolls which are usually perceived as incipient soils. However, high content of silicate clay composed of kaolinite and vermiculite and ferruginous clayey soil material observed at macro- and microscale backed the hypothesis that these soils were formed from the residues of thick Terra Rossa after their erosion. Swampy lowlands are occupied by thick clayey gleyic soils with clay mineral assemblages similar to those in the upland Rendolls. We suppose that the mineral matrix of the lowland soils is largely derived from the pedosediments of eroded upland Terra Rossa, which lost original ferruginous pigmentation and aggregation due to redoximorphic processes. Some wetland soils contain neoformed gypsum that is atypical for humid tropics; sulfidesulfate transformation under fluctuating redox conditions could promote gypsum synthesis. Ancient Maya land use was closely related to soil-geomorphic conditions: settlements with homegardens occupied calcareous hills, whereas the primary agricultural domain was developed on lowland soils after their drainage by artificial canals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage is defined and maintained through complex and changing processes. In what ways might heritage scholars and practitioners understand dynamic complexities theoretically, methodologically and ethically? Through reflections on involvement in environmental and cultural heritage initiatives with Maya communities in southern Belize, this paper argues for an explicit forefronting of community aims and goals in heritage-focused project design and implementation. It demonstrates how cultural anthropologists involved in collaborative projects with archaeologists, non-governmental and/or community organisations may use ethnographic approaches to push collectively towards decolonial, community archaeologies. The challenges of ethnographers and archaeologists working together to document heritage past and present are critically and reflexively analysed, using frameworks rooted in environmental anthropology to capture the fluid and negotiated nature of heritage constructions by exploring what it means to live a 'good life' in Maya communities in Belize. The insights generated for developing a decolonising approach for future work of this type are also considered. By challenging what constitutes project 'success', and discussing the questions simultaneously posed and revealed by the long-term community projects detailed here, the paper argues for a more collaborative, nuanced and fluid conceptualisation of what constitutes heritage, and who is served by its documentation and dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article synthesizes monumentality, governance, urbanism, and regional statecraft in the Northern Maya Lowlands during the Preclassic and Classic periods. As in some parts of the Southern Lowlands, ceremonial spaces likely predated sedentism and monumental construction predated large-scale inequality. Nevertheless, the process of construction and the resulting monuments facilitated complex societies. In the Late Preclassic, some political centers featured factional competition, and there is less evidence for individual rulers than in the Southern Lowlands. The Classic period exhibits remarkable variation in governance. Both dynastic rulership and collective governance in the form of shared decision making are common in the Northern Lowlands throughout the Classic period, with a shift toward the former in later centuries. Northern Lowland cities, while more densely settled than most Southern Lowland centers, do not follow settlement scaling expectations. Density contributed to neighborhood formation and collective action, yet minimal spatial clustering of households makes neighborhoods more difficult to identify. Intra-household inequality appears not to correlate with forms of governance. Marketplaces facilitated the both leadership strategies and household livelihoods. Scholars debate the nature or governance at Chichen Itza, yet several recent projects in its hinterlands clarify the nature of regional statecraft at Chichen, whose leaders exercised a variety of strategies, enabling the enrichment of some of its neighbors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 34th National Women's Encuentro in Argentina brought together feminists, sexual dissidents, and social movement activists to discuss the need for a more inclusive feminist movement. After much debate, the name of the Encuentro was changed to the Plurinational Encuentro of Women, Lesbians, Trans, Travesti, Bisexual, and Nonbinary People, highlighting the history of exclusion. The concept of plurinationalism challenges the idea of the nation-state and emphasizes the recognition of different peoples and their experiences. Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizers continue their work in the face of repressive governments. Plurinational feminism offers a way to confront challenges such as genocide, militarization, and the rise of right-wing anti-rights agendas. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of global and local networks and the need for direct action. The discussion on plurinationalism can either be forgotten or serve as a tool to deepen discussions and challenge the current context of fascism and instrumentalization of feminisms. [Extracted from the article]

The genus Cnidoscolus (Euphorbiaceae) contains some species with socioeconomic and cultural relevance in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. There is little published information on the traditional knowledge of this genus, and the recent movements of younger people to more populated cities and towns risks this knowledge being forgotten. To preserve this knowledge, we wanted to answer the questions: what are the species or varieties of the plant with the generic name chaya that the contemporary Maya population uses in the Yucatan Peninsula, and in which agroecosystems are these species or varieties found? Nine local communities were selected for interviews in which the general population and healers shared their knowledge about the uses and management of Cnidoscolus spp. Through these interviews, we identified eight species or cultivars used by these communities: six cultivars of C. aconitifolius ( chay , makat chay , chay sin espinas, ch'inch'in chay , tsaj , and tsaj / hoja de papaya), C. multilobus ( tsaj ), and C. souzae ( tsaj ). Within homegardens chay , makat chay and chay sin espinas are utilized for their feeding, medicinal and fodder value; while ch'inch'in chay and tsaj are utilized for their feeding, medicinal, and living-fence potential. In paddocks, ch'inch'in chay and tsaj are utilized as livestock feed. Tsaj is used for handcrafts, and tsaj / hoja de papaya possesses spiritual-religious attributes. The feeding, medicinal, fodder, living-fence, spiritual-religious, and handcraft potential of species and cultivars of Cnidoscolus reflect their biocultural importance for Maya inhabiting the peninsula of Yucatan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine learning can offer an efficient method to identify and map caves, sinkholes, and other cave-like features (i.e. sinkholes, rockshelters, voids) using remotely sensed imagery. While there exists a body of work applying machine learning for sinkhole identification, little work exists for caves. In the densely forested and rugged Maya Lowlands, developing such a methodology can help archaeologists to identify previously unknown caves that may contain important archaeological materials. Here, we introduce a proof-of-concept project that uses random forest and lidar-derived landscape morphometrics to map caves and other cave-like features in northwest Belize. Several undocumented caves and cave-like features were identified in our study area based on model results. Next steps towards making a more robust version of this model include the addition of more training data and integration of a larger number of morphologic parameters. Based on the results described here as well as those in cited works focused on caves, we proposed machine learning as a first step in cave and cave-like feature identification, followed then by fieldwork and ground-truthing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes spatial gestures and cognition in a new, or so-called "emerging", visual language, the Yucatec Maya Sign Language (YSML). This sign language was created by deaf and hearing signers in various Yucatec Maya villages on the Yucatec Peninsula (Mexico). Although the sign language is not a signed version of spoken Yucatec Maya, both languages evolve in a similar cultural setting. Studies have shown that cultures around the world seem to rely on one preferred spatial Frame of Reference (FoR), shaping in many ways how people orient themselves and think about the world around them. Prior research indicated that Yucatec Maya speakers rely on the use of the geocentric FoR. However, contrary to other cultures, it is mainly observable through the production of gestures and not speech only. In the case of space, gestures in spoken Yucatec Maya exhibit linguistic features, having the status of a lexicon. Our research question is the following: if the preferred spatial FoR among the Yucatec Mayas is based on co-expressivity and spatial linguistic content visually transmitted via multimodal interactions, will deaf signers of an emerging language created in the same cultural setting share the same cognitive preference? In order to answer this question, we conducted three experimental tasks in three different villages where YMSL is in use: a non-verbal rotation task, a Director-Matcher task and a localization task. Results indicate that YMSL signers share the same preference for the geocentric FoR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La nosología de los lacandones del norte contempla dos categorías principales de enfermedades: las autóctonas, llamadas “verdaderas enfermedades” –enviadas por los dioses ancestrales–, y las infecciones exógenas –“de los ladinos”–, creadas por deidades extranjeras. Las primeras se curan por medio de prácticas rituales, mientras que el tratamiento de las segundas necesita de métodos terapéuticos ajenos a la cultura local. En el texto, se presenta información etnográfica inédita, recabada durante el periodo de confinamiento por la pandemia. El análisis del material etnográfico permitió destacar las distintas interpretaciones que los lacandones elaboraron para explicar la difusión del virus SARS-CoV-2 desde su cosmogonía, así como los métodos que se emplearon para prevenir o curar la infección. Este análisis muestra cómo los conocimientos sobre los procesos de salud y enfermedad son nociones dinámicas, que se modifican y adaptan de acuerdo con las variaciones culturales, pues se encuentran estrechamente vinculadas a la religión y la cosmovisión.

What is involved in finding fields? Agricultural intensification and its archaeological correlates are not always obvious. Archaeologists frequently equate capital‐based investment and arable farming as the sole path to intensified production. The presence of terraces to slow water flows across land, canals to bring water to drier lands, and raised and drained fields to reduce water, are methods to bring marginal lands into productive use. Labor‐based economies, especially those of the Americas before European conquest, present an entirely distinct pathway toward intensification based on tending the landscape. Tropical societies in general, and the Maya in particular, demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of the natural world, cultivating biological capital as a product of their culture with skill, hand tools, scheduling, and fire. Asynchronous and embedded fields transform into forests in a poly‐cultivation practice, emphasizing the diversity that prevails in tropical woodlands. As with most traditional land‐use systems around the world, the Maya milpa cycle reduces temperature and evapotranspiration, conserves water, maintains biodiversity, builds soil fertility, inhibits erosion, and nurtures people. Labor investments per se do not leave direct evidence on the landscape, apart from the implicit density of settlement, yet the imprint of their management lies in the forest landscape itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Maya scholars have referenced coastal settlements in the more general discourse on past landscapes, coastal landscapes have only rarely been the explicit focus of research programs. Coastal peoples, however, faced distinct challenges and opportunities not shared by their inland neighbors. These had material ramifications in terms of the specific decisions coastal inhabitants made over time while trying to take advantage of opportunities and manage risks. The north coast of the Yucatan Peninsula is a complex physiographic mosaic that is categorically distinct from the inland expanses of the Maya lowlands. No doubt, the physically delimiting aspects of the north coast's diverse environment played a major role in shaping more localized concepts of landscape. Here, we employ an historical ecology framework to integrate the interdisciplinary studies conducted by the Proyecto Costa Escondida along the Yucatan's north coast. Specifically, we focus on the ancient Maya port site of Vista Alegre and what our research has revealed about the dynamic interplay of social and natural processes that shaped life at this ancient Maya port over the past three millennia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence of ancient Maya exploitation of salt, other marine resources, settlement, and sea trade is hidden in flooded mangrove landscapes on the cays, mainland, and in shallow offshore locations on the south coast of Belize. This article includes a discussion of the coastal economy from the Middle Preclassic through the Postclassic periods (600 B.C.–A.D. 1500). Data from sites discovered and excavated since 1982 in the coastal area of the Port Honduras and Paynes Creek National Park support a model of coastal reliance on marine resources and tree crops. The need for a regular supply of coastal salt to inland cities may have expanded the market for other marine resources. Obsidian imported from volcanic highlands documents long-distance trade throughout prehistory in the area. The island of Wild Cane Cay expanded its role in long-distance coastal trade after the abandonment of inland cities in southern Belize at the end of the Classic period. Inundation of the region documented from the depths of radiocarbon-dated archaeological deposits below the water table and from a sediment core indicates sea-level rise of at least 1 m that submerged the coastal sites. The waterlogged deposits provided an ideal matrix for preservation of vertebrate material at Wild Cane Cay. The red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) peat below the sea floor in a shallow lagoon preserved wooden buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We utilized 10 microsatellite loci to examine the genetic diversity, genetic structure, and demographic history of Zamia decumbens Calonje, Meerman, M.P. Griff. & Hoese, an endangered cycad species occurring in small populations on karst topography within the Maya Mountains of Belize. Four populations in two distinct habitats were sampled: three inside dolines (one at a cave entrance and two at the bottom of sinkholes) and one on a rocky hilltop. Genetic variation in the species reflects the demographic history of the sampled populations which appears closely linked to the karstification of the limestone bedrock on which it occurs rather than being structured geographically or by habitat type. Contemporary gene flow between populations is low, with the cave population facilitating most of the genetic connectivity in the region as a source of migrants to other populations. Coalescent‐based modeling revealed that the two sinkhole populations were established first, and the hilltop and cave populations were more recently founded from a common ancestral population. All populations were in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium and moderately heterozygous, yet signatures for recent bottleneck events were recovered for the doline populations. Furthermore, a high inbreeding coefficient and high average pairwise relatedness were found for the hilltop population, the latter possibly the result of recent illegal harvesting activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Maya used dress to help them structure social interaction. Taking a behavioral chain and practice approach, I define dress elements of male courtiers and how they were combined into outfits during the daily practices of dressing and attending court. I identify two groups of headgear, Standard and Special, among courtiers on vases showing historical interaction among humans. Each vase is considered commemorative and must communicate to an audience. I identified six Standard hat types that were widespread in the Maya Lowlands. The distribution implies a basic set of recognizable roles that provided the political-religious structure of the typical Maya court, perhaps as early as the Late Preclassic period. Four of the hat types are connected to glyphic titles. Each titleholder's position in the vase's visual space implies a hierarchy of roles. The results support my hypothesis that dress does identify social roles in the Maya court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits ear ornament data from Tikal—both material and visual—to better understand the varied roles of ear ornamentation in ancient Maya society over time. The author discusses relevant terms and terminology, then emphasizes the social aspects of ear piercing and stretching as well as the place of ear ornaments in economic exchange. Ear ornamentation was a critical aspect of socialization for ancestral Mayas, but the extent of this practice was classed. Whereas the styles of nonelite ear ornaments were more resistant to change over time, the jade earflares of elites became more standardized in form while growing in complexity. With this standardization, jade earflares achieved a status close to currency, not just to be coveted or collected but also to be displayed on the body to the fullest extent possible. However, like many currencies, jade earflares were more complex than simple tokens of exchange. The symbolic dimensions that gave these objects meaning and economic value were integral to their power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the duplication diacritic of Epigraphic Mayan (ISO 639-3 emy) during the Classic period (a.d. 200–900). Cataloged as grapheme 22A, it consists of two dots optionally and rarely affixed to another grapheme to command the reader, in the majority of cases, to read a syllabogram twice in sequence. This article reviews prior literature on the diacritic, elaborates a typology of four distinct but ultimately related functions, and employs a data set compiled by means of the Maya Hieroglyphic Database to determine via statistical tests whether scriptal, linguistic, media, geographic, and temporal factors were influential in its distribution, and more narrowly, its various functions. The results indicate that two lexemes, käkäw 'cacao' and k'ahk' 'fire,' account for several of the scriptal and linguistic traits that show significant relationships with 22A, with the former, käkäw , likely serving as a major prototype in the evolution of 22A. It is also pointed out that 22A is absent from the Postclassic (a.d. 900–1521) codices, suggesting that one of the Classic regional subtraditions with lowest frequency of use of 22A may have been a direct ancestor of the subtraditions responsible for the codices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we describe and evaluate formal elements in ceramics from El Tintal (Guatemala) to determine their participation in networks of cultural affiliation in the Maya Lowlands from the Middle Preclassic to Terminal Classic periods. We look at constellations of surface treatment, decoration, and vessel forms to reconstruct stylistic affinities, using the concepts of ceramic system and form as applied within the type: variety-mode system developed for the archaeology of the Maya Lowlands. We find that pottery dating to the late Middle Preclassic, Late Preclassic, and Early and Late Classic periods shows a significant degree of stylistic consistency and convergence with many sites in broad regions of the Maya Lowlands. This trend strongly suggests the presence of relatively inclusive and extensive regional networks of social interaction. In contrast, Terminal Preclassic and Terminal Classic assemblages at El Tintal show a greater degree of idiosyncratic variability and shared modal elements with a minimal number of sites. This trend indicates the development of more insular and diffuse forms of interaction between sites during these periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]