Maya Village Research Articles

Habitat Mosaic, Wildlife Availability, and Hunting in the Tropical Forest of Calakmul, Mexico.

Habitat loss and subsistence hunting are two of the main activities that affect wildlife in frontier areas. We compared subsistence hunting patterns in four villages with different ethnic composition and degree of habitat disturbance in the vicinity of Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Campeche, Mexico. We also compared differences between some of these villages in harvest composition and prey availability to determine hunting preferences. We used a Landsat TM satellite image to analyze the degree of disturbance around the villages. We conducted periodic surveys of subsistence hunting and prey availability. Wildlife availability was assessed monthly on nine transects (3000 m) established in the vicinity of three villages. The relative amount of disturbed habitat was smaller in an indigenous Maya village ( IV ) and larger in a mestizo village ( MV ). The two mixed-composition villages ( MCVs) had intermediate levels of disturbance. Ten species, four large and six small, of birds and mammals accounted for 97% of the hunting records. Hunting was more intense in IV and less intense in MCV1. The three village types had different hunting preferences. The habitat-mosaic composition in the vicinity of the villages influenced prey availability and subsistence-hunting preferences. Changes in the habitat mosaic were caused by the size of the holding and by ethnic composition. In spite of longer settlement time, the habitat mosaic in the vicinity of IV was less transformed than that of the other sites. Their larger holding size and greater diversity of economic activities may explain why the Mayas at IV have transformed the landscape less than the other groups and can hunt more and larger prey.

Children's Daily Activities in a Mayan Village: A Culturally Grounded Description

Building on recent efforts to reconceptualize development and socialization as contextually grounded processes, several aspects of Yucatec Mayan children's daily lives are observed, including maintenance activities, social orientation, work, and play. For each category of activity, the behavior of children ranging in age from 0 to 17 is described. Three principles of engagement generated to explain the Mayan cultural context (primacy of adult work, parental beliefs, and independence of child motivation) are used to interpret the descriptive data, illustrating how cultural understanding enables a meaningful interpretation of Mayan children's behavior and how lack of knowledge of these principles could lead to a misinterpretation through a Western cultural lens.

State Leasehold and Mayan Customary Cultivation Rights in Belize

Fears of ensuing losses of biodiversity and indigenous cultures raise important issues concerning land and development policies in indigenous communities living at the margins of protected forest reserves. Understanding the evolution of interactions between state land tenure institutions, customary land practices, and environmental changes provides insight for the maintenance of both forest habitat and native cultures. The case history of the Masewal (Yucatec Maya) village of San Antonio (Cayo), Belize, is presented because its lack of an active land market allows direct associations to be drawn between governmental land policies and customary practices. The Belizean state leasehold tenure system, implemented in the 1960s to support Masewal control over ancestral lands, has become a negative social influence leading to land underutilization, supporting rapid forest conversion to pasture land and increasing village differentiation in household access to traditional natural resources. A new form of land tenure may be needed if natural resources and Masewal culture are to be protected.

Women's labor, fertility, and the introduction of modern technology in a rural Maya village.

In the mid 1970s, the introduction of modern technology into a Maya subsistence agricultural village markedly increased the efficiency with which maize could be ground and water collected. This change in labor efficiency introduced a possible savings in the overall time that women allocate to work and, importantly, to energetic work. This article documents the response of female fertility to the introduction of laborsaving technology. Using two proximate determinants of female fertility, we look at the association between the advent of modern technology and changes in the age at which women give birth to their first child and the length of mothers' birth intervals. Analyses show that since the introduction of laborsaving technology, mothers have their first child at a younger age. Changes in birth intervals are less conclusive. Although completed family size is not known because many of the women in the sample are still in their childbearing years, women who initiate reproduction at a younger age can potentially have longer reproductive careers and larger families. Examining the relationship between female fertility and modern technology has important implications for the changes in demographics and economics now going on in many developing communities.

Baiting the British Bull: A Fiesta, Trials, and a Petition in Belize

In the study of colonial history the ability to discover the voice of the people is often hindered by the fact that most extant sources are archival, written by those who held power. In some instances mediated sources have survived which can be read as colonialist text, or can be read subversively, from the perspective of the colonized. Such is the case surrounding the events which began in May 1865 when a traditional Yucatecan religious festival was held in the Maya village of Xaibe, near Corozal in the Northern District of Belize (known at that time as British Honduras). The newly appointed British magistrate laid criminal charges against those celebrants who had engaged in the alleged cruelties of thevaqueríaor bullfights held in conjunction with the fiesta. In June, nearly four hundred residents of the District, “Persons of mixed Spanish and Indian descent and Indians,” petitioned the House of Assembly demanding redress from a magistrate who had, “systematically harassed and oppressed the people … prevented them from disposing of their commodities before the hours of service on Sunday mornings … and has endeavoured and partly succeeded in putting a stop to the festivities of one of their most sacred and cherished festivals.” The petition was rejected and colonial authorities challenged its authenticity, the integrity and character of the signatories, and the “alien” culture it represented.

Maya Women, Gender Dynamics, and Modes of Production

This paper provides a perspective on theconnection between the roles performed by Yucatec Mayawomen and global economic trends, particularly thosefocused on the increase of migration and incorporation of women into wage-labor employment. Theanalysis is founded on the gender dynamics in the MayaYucatec society. The fieldwork sites for this study werethe Maya village of Chan Kom and the developing resort area of Cancun. The discussion centerssocioeconomic and ideological implications of theresponses of Maya women to the increasingly complexexpansion of global capitalism and its acceleratingvolatility. Maya women, associated with the domestic andprivate realm, are also believed to serve as guardiansof tradition. Maya women who migrate, leaving theirvillages, face a social and economic challenge. The discussion frame of this studyleads to arevision of the anthropological agendas traditionallypresented in Chan Kom's ethnographic record. Assumptionsabout power and authority have misrepresented women as part of the labor force in the Mayaproductive system. The tension between peasant andmigrant Maya roles and world-wide economic trends isforging a negotiated space for Yucatec Mayawomen.

"WHEREVER WE'VE FOUND DEAF PEOPLE, THERE'S SIGN"

Just as no one can pinpoint the origins of spoken language in prehistory, the roots of sign language remain hidden from view. What linguists do know is that sign languages have sprung up independently in many different places. Signing probably began with simple gestures, but then evolved into a true language with structured grammar. "In every place we've ever found deaf people, there's sign," says anthropological linguist Bob Johnson. But it's not the same language. "I went to a Mayan village where, out of 400 people, 13 were deaf, and they had their own Mayan Sign - I'd guess it's been maintained for thousands of years." Today at least 50 native sign languages are "spoken" worldwide, all mutually incomprehensible, from British and Israeli Sign to Chinese Sign.

Authority, Social Conflict and the Rise of Protestantism: Religious Conversion in a Mayan Village

Authority, Social Conflict and the Rise of Protestantism: Religious Conversion in a Mayan Village

Sign Language, Culture & Community in a Traditional Yucatec Maya Village

A traditional Mayan village in the state of Yucatan has an unusually high number of deaf inhabitants (13 of about 400). The deaf people have a rich sign language, which is not the same sign language as that of the deaf inhabitants of the towns and cities of Mexico. The deaf villagers are almost fully integrated into the ordinary patterns of life, and appear to have access to the economic benefits of the society; deafness is relatively depoliticized. This pattern is explained by the fact that all hearing villagers are able to communicate well in sign language.

Diffuse-Adhering Escherichia coli (DAEC) as a Putative Cause of Diarrhea in Mayan Children in Mexico

Diarrhea is a major cause of infantile morbidity and mortality in developing countries. A community-based, case control study was conducted in a southern Mexican Mayan village for 3 weeks during the peak diarrhea period to prospectively identify the infectious agents associated with childhood diarrheal disease. Several enteropathogens were isolated from stools of 34 of 58 cases, although none was significantly associated with diarrhea. For the 24 cases from which no enteropathogens were isolated, diffuse-adhering Escherichia coli (DAEC) strains were significantly associated with diarrheal disease (P less than .02; odds ratio = 6; 95% confidence limit, 1.08-99.0). DAEC were highly heterogeneous with respect to plasmid content and serotype. Three DNA probes designed to differentiate E. coli exhibiting localized, diffuse, or aggregative adherence were compared with results from a standard HeLa cell binding assay to assess the utility of these probes in the field. This study provides evidence for the potential pathogenic capacity of DAEC and underscores the variety of diarrheal agents operating within a community.

Sacred games: ritual warfare in a Maya village

Sacred games: ritual warfare in a Maya village

Mythe et pratique sociale. Le cheval qui sauta le cenote

The most popular myth told in Tabi (a maya village of Northern Yucatan) tells us about two men vying for a girl, ending up with the death of one of them and the escape of the other, who flies over the cenote on horseback. The emphasis is on the analysis and the signification of certain themes in the myth : the evocation of a golden age, the high jump of the horse, the curse upon the village. The meaning of this myth is related to the actual history of the village, from the colonial to the modern period.

Ethnoarchaeology and Paleodemography: A Test of Turner and Lofgren's Hypothesis

Ethnographic data from a contemporary Highland Mayan village are used to test Turner and Lofgren's (1966) proposition that the capacities of cooking vessels reflect the size of households. Some variation in the volumes of cooking jars in the present sample probably is due to differences in household size. However, it appears that significant amounts of variation also can be explained by reference to conditions that are indirectly related to social status and wealth. Problems and prospects for archaeological application of the measure are discussed.

Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory

Preface (Norman Hammond and Gordon R. Willey) Introduction (Gordon R. Willey and Norman Hammond) Theoretical Interpretations 1. Priests, Peasants, and Ceremonial Centers: The Intellectual History of a Model (Marshall Joseph Becker) 2. Cropping Cash in the Protoclassic: A Cultural Impact Statement (Bruce H. Dahlin) 3. A New Order and the Role of the Calendar: Some Characteristics of the Middle Classic Period at Tikal (Clemency Coggins) 4. Teotihuacan, Internal Militaristic Competition, and the Fall of the Classic Maya (George L. Cowgill) 5. An Epistemological Pathology and the Collapse, or Why the Maya Kept the Short Count (Dennis E. Puleston) Data Presentations 6. Prehistoric Settlement at Copan (Gordon R. Willey and Richard M. Leventhal) 7. Prehispanic Terracing in the Central Maya Lowlands: Problems of Agricultural Intensification (B. L. Turner II) 8. The Representation of Underworld Processions in Maya Vase Painting: An Iconographic Study (Jacinto Quirarte) 9. A Sequence for Palenque Painting Techniques (Merle Greene Robertson) 10. The Lagartero Figurines (Susanna M. Ekholm) Ethnohistoric Approaches 11. The Lobil Postclassic Phase in the Southern Interior of the Yucatan Peninsula (Peter D. Harrison) 12. Coapa, Chiapas: A Sixteenth-Century Coxoh Maya Village on the Camino Real (Thomas A. Lee, Jr.) 13. Religious Syncretism in Colonial Yucatan: The Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Evidence from Tancah, Quintana Roo (Arthur G. Miller and Nancy M. Farriss) 14. Continuity in Maya Writing: New Readings of Two Passages in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Gordon Brotherston) Bibliography General Index Author Index

Maya medicinal plants of San Jose Succotz, Belize

The traditional use of plants for medicine was studied in the Maya village of San José Succotz, Belize. Sixty-four species were collected and 106 remedies are described. The ethnobotany of Succotz is discussed in relation to traditional concepts of medicine, ritual and magic in treatment of illnesses, and biochemically active constituents of the plants. Use of plants in Belize and the Yucatan is compared.

When a House is not a Home: Fieldworkers and Landlords in a Mayan Village, Yucatan, Mexico

Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Malcolm Shuman; When a House is not a Home: Fieldworkers and Landlords in a Mayan Village, Yucatan, Mexico. Human Organization 1 December 1979; 38 (4): 400–404. doi: https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.38.4.m76088865n04413p Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest Search

Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory

* Preface (Norman Hammond and Gordon R. Willey) * Introduction (Gordon R. Willey and Norman Hammond) * Theoretical Interpretations *1. Priests, Peasants, and Ceremonial Centers: The Intellectual History of a Model (Marshall Joseph Becker) *2. Cropping Cash in the Protoclassic: A Cultural Impact Statement (Bruce H. Dahlin) *3. A New Order and the Role of the Calendar: Some Characteristics of the Middle Classic Period at Tikal (Clemency Coggins) *4. Teotihuacan, Internal Militaristic Competition, and the Fall of the Classic Maya (George L. Cowgill) *5. An Epistemological Pathology and the Collapse, or Why the Maya Kept the Short Count (Dennis E. Puleston) * Data Presentations *6. Prehistoric Settlement at Copan (Gordon R. Willey and Richard M. Leventhal) *7. Prehispanic Terracing in the Central Maya Lowlands: Problems of Agricultural Intensification (B. L. Turner II) *8. The Representation of Underworld Processions in Maya Vase Painting: An Iconographic Study (Jacinto Quirarte) *9. A Sequence for Palenque Painting Techniques (Merle Greene Robertson) *10. The Lagartero Figurines (Susanna M. Ekholm) * Ethnohistoric Approaches *11. The Lobil Postclassic Phase in the Southern Interior of the Yucatan Peninsula (Peter D. Harrison) *12. Coapa, Chiapas: A Sixteenth-Century Coxoh Maya Village on the Camino Real (Thomas A. Lee, Jr.) *13. Religious Syncretism in Colonial Yucatan: The Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Evidence from Tancah, Quintana Roo (Arthur G. Miller and Nancy M. Farriss) *14. Continuity in Maya Writing: New Readings of Two Passages in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Gordon Brotherston) * Bibliography * General Index * Author Index

The Coxoh Colonial Project and Coneta, Chiapas Mexico: A provincial Maya village under the Spanish conquest

The Brigham Young University-New World Archaeological Foundation is developing an interdisciplinary research program focused on the upper Grijalva River basin which was occupied at the time of the Spanish conquest principally by indigenous Coxoh Mayan-speakers. Five important Coxoh villages have been identified and located in this region and excavtions are planned at all of them.

Princes of the Earth: Subcultural Diversity in a Mexican MunicipalityTradition and Adaptation: Life in a Modern Yucatan Maya Village

Princes of the Earth: Subcultural Diversity in a Mexican MunicipalityTradition and Adaptation: Life in a Modern Yucatan Maya Village

Tradition and Adaptation: Life in a Modern Yucatan Maya Village

Tradition and Adaptation: Life in a Modern Yucatan Maya Village