Maya Communities Research Articles

Patrones alimentarios y agrícolas de hogares con niños desnutridos en dos comunidades indígenas con distinto nivel socioeconómico en Guatemala

Objetivo: describir los patrones agrícolas y dietéticos de hogares con niños desnutridos en dos comunidades indígenas de distintos niveles socioeconómicos para identificar áreas específicas de enfoque para intervenciones en el futuro. Metodología: se realizaron encuestas en 25 hogares de cada comunidad. Las encuestas incluyeron recuentos dietéticos, un cuestionario de inseguridad alimentaria y un inventario de cultivos. Resultados: a pesar de diferencias en pobreza, educación materna y prevalencia regional de desnutrición, no hubo mayores diferencias entre las dos muestras en cuanto a la inseguridad alimentaria, los patrones dietéticos o los patrones agrícolas. En Tecpán y San Andrés Semetabaj, respectivamente, el 72% y el 64% de los niños cumplieron con el estándar de dieta mínima aceptable de la Organización Mundial de Salud a pesar de padecer de desnutrición crónica, evidenciada por un retraso de crecimiento lineal. Las bebidas azucaradas se consumieron frecuentemente por los niños y por las mujeres. Las verduras ancestrales fueron cultivadas y consumidas en ambas comunidades, pero por una minoría de hogares. En total, los cultivos más cultivados fueron los chiles (38% de los hogares), el güisquil (30%), la arveja (24%), la hierba mora (20%) y el quilete (14%). Limitaciones: las muestras eran de conveniencia y no permitieron comparaciones entre hogares con y sin desnutrición crónica ni una generalización de los resultados. Las evaluaciones omitieron cantidades de alimentos consumidos y prácticas de ganadería. Conclusiones: tomando en cuenta los hallazgos del estudio, proponemos que las intervenciones se enfoquen en la agricultura indígena contemplando los conocimientos agrícolas ancestrales que aún existen en las comunidades, en opciones nutritivas para reemplazar los alimentos industrializados y nutricionalmente deficientes que han influido en las comunidades y en otros factores aparte de la dieta incluso las condiciones higiénicas, las condiciones de vida, la pobreza y la agricultura comercial.

Water treatment in rural Guatemala: factors associated with the use of biosand water filters

Abstract Point-of-use water filters are a means to provide clean water vital to the health of people in developing countries. The factors that influence the adoption of this technology include hygiene knowledge, health beliefs related to the use of new technology, and technical issues with using the filter (e.g., water taste and breakage). This study examines how people in Mayan communities in rural Guatemala perceived biosand filters they had received and what factors related to their filter use. Based on the survey and interviewer observations, approximately 53% were regular filter users, 28% were irregular filter users, and 19.4% were non-filter users. The observational data revealed that actual filter use is lower than self-reported use, reflecting complexities in the adoption of technology. One such complexity can be seen in the connection between health beliefs and behavior. The belief that believing drinking filtered water is salubrious does not necessarily coincide with filter use, but education and hygienic practices correlated with regular filter use. Furthermore, regular users typically depend on family members for a daily reminder to use the filter, suggesting that education should foster peer support as well as imparting knowledge.

IDENTIDAD Y ESPIRITUALIDAD MAYA EN LA ESCUELA DE AGRICULTURA ECOLÓGICA U YITS KA´AN EN MANÍ, YUCATÁN, MÉXICO

Este articulo tiene como objetivo, analizar la importancia de la espiritualidad y la identidad colectiva, en la propuesta de la (re)construcción comunitaria de la Escuela de Agricultura Ecológica U Yits Ka’an, localizada en el municipio de Maní, en el estado de Yucatán, México. Para esta investigación, se utilizó una metodología de corte cualitativo a través de trabajo etnográfico.
 Los resultados muestran que la estrategia que sigue la escuela U Yits Ka’an, para construir un ambiente donde se pueda vivir el Ma´alob Kuxtal (buen vivir maya), se basa en la inclusión de dimensiones espirituales y de identidad maya y campesina, para priorizar lo colectivo en la solución de problemas y re valorar el ser, antes del hacer en su cotidianidad. Estos procesos tienen como consecuencia la construcción humana y etnocentrada basada en una vida buena plena y digna o Ma´alob Kuxtal, que es un modo de vida, dentro de las comunidades mayas.
 

Building resilient communities in Belize through climate-smart agricultural practices

Indigenous communities have always coexisted with nature. Their subsistence has had a dependence on the heightened stewardship of the natural environment, requiring that their farming practices evolve and adapt to today’s rapidly changing environment. As the effects of climate change become more obvious in weather pattern alterations influencing agricultural yields, so do the resilient farming practices that are being adapted to strengthen the agricultural sector. Since forests are sources of livelihoods for Mayan communities, agricultural advances promoting forest conservation and good governance are viewed as socially and environmentally responsive approaches to rural development. Cacao-based agroforestry is a long-term solution to improve our forests’ health and livelihoods in southern Belize. This system allows for the development of entrepreneurship opportunities through small-scale business models in agrotourism that highlight the cultural and biodiversity richness in these communities. The incorporation of apiculture and Inga alley cropping ensure that traditional crops such as corn, beans, and vegetables can be continuously cultivated, decreasing the deforestation rate, hence conserving our landscape and its ecosystem. These practices involve the growing of staples for the organized communities, who are embracing ecofriendly solutions for a sustainable future. The experience and knowledge developed within the communities have resulted in the development and application of climate-smart solutions and adaptation mechanisms that ensure livelihoods continue to thrive. These local initiatives establish an easy-to-replicate forest governance model, influencing regional and even national solutions to building climate-resilient forest communities in the Maya Golden Landscape.

Breastfeeding Duration and the Social Learning of Infant Feeding Knowledge in Two Maya Communities.

Variation in the durations of exclusive breastfeeding (exBF) and any breastfeeding (anyBF) is associated with socioecological factors. This plasticity in breastfeeding behavior appears adaptive, but the mechanisms involved are unclear. With this concept in mind, we investigated whether durations of exBF and anyBF in a rural Maya population covary with markers of a form of socioecological change-market integration-and whether individual factors (individual learning, physiological plasticity) and/or learning from others in the community (social learning, norm adherence) mediate these changes. Using data from 419 mother-child pairs from two Guatemalan Maya villages, we fit a bivariate linear mixed model. The model compared exBF and anyBF among children from households of varying degrees of market integration whose mothers follow what we inferred to be local infant-feeding norms. It controlled for other factors expected to affect breastfeeding durations. We found evidence that exBF is associated with whether mothers follow their population's infant feeding norms, but no evidence that exBF is associated with the household's level of market integration. Conversely, anyBF is significantly associated with the household's market integration, but not with the villages' inferred norms. Because deviations from exBF norms are likely to result in infant mortality and reduced fitness, we hypothesize that the incentive to conform is relatively strong. Relatively greater individual plasticity in anyBF allows mother-child pairs to tailor it to socioecological conditions. Deviations from anyBF norms may be tolerated because they may provide later-life health/fitness payoffs, while posing few risks to infant survival.

Language as a marker of ethnic identity among the Yucatec Maya.

Most human variation is structured around symbolically marked cultural ('ethnic') groups that require common codes of communication. Consequently, many have hypothesised that using others' linguistic competences as markers of their descent is part of an evolved human psychology. However, there is also evidence that the use of language as ethnic markers is not universally applied, but context specific. We explore the tension between these views by studying responses to bilingualism among 121 adults living in Mayan communities undergoing rapid socioeconomic changes involving increased contact with Spanish-speaking towns. We show that, although competences in Mayan were strongly tied to perceiving others as having a Mayan ethnic identity, ethnolinguistic category membership was not seen as stable through life, vertically transmitted, nor regarded as incompatible with competences in Spanish. Moreover, we find variation in how people reasoned about ethnolinguistic identities depending on their own linguistic repertoires. Our work suggests that, while there may be an evolved predisposition to use language as a signal of group identity, our developmental plasticity allows us to respond adaptively to social information around us, leading to psychological and behavioural variation within and across populations. How people reason about others based on their linguistic profiles will affect the payoffs of acquiring different languages and ultimately the long-term sustainability of linguistic diversity.

Indigenous resurgence, decolonial praxis, alternative futures: the Maya Leaders Alliance of Southern Belize

ABSTRACTWhile most scholars working on resistance and decolonisation in Latin America and the Caribbean are familiar with the Zapatistas, far fewer have afforded committed attention to the parallel Maya land rights struggle and autonomous social movement in the region. Notably, a movement that is currently advancing in both Central America and the Caribbean, namely, Belize—a former colony of the British Crown. Accordingly, this piece offers a summary of the struggle of the Qʼeqchiʼ and Mopan Maya communities of Toledo District, Southern Belize. More specifically, it introduces readers to the Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA)—an ever-evolving grassroots coalition of Maya organisations, land defenders, and human rights activists that comprise the movement. We start by illustrating the current context of heightened tension that exists between the Maya and the state, and then share an overview of the movement’s political aims and programme of activities in the face of the historical, structural, and ongoing colonial forces the Maya are up against. Ultimately, this profile will demonstrate how Maya communities in Belize are practising ‘non-metaphorical decolonisation’ and engendering ‘Indigenous resurgence’ whilst mobilising for land, dignity, and a peaceful future.

Uso de plantas aromáticas en el sector turismo en Tulum, Quintana Roo, México para la identificación de nuevos nichos productivos en la región

El sector de turismo más dinámico en Tulum, Quintana Roo, se encuentra vinculado a la provisión de servicios de salud, relajación, espiritualidad y el entorno natural; por consiguiente, con un importante uso de plantas aromáticas. Sin embargo, se sabe poco acerca de la adquisición y uso de éstas por parte de quienes ofrecen dichos servicios a los turistas. Por ello, en esta investigación se analizó información proveniente de terapeutas, instructores y elaboradores de productos naturales a fin de identificar las plantas aromáticas utilizadas en este sector en Tulum, Quintana Roo. Los resultados mostraron que las especies más usadas para los servicios turísticos son: menta, albahaca y ruda. Además, la prueba Chi cuadrada permitió identificar una asociación entre el tipo de servicio ofrecido a los turistas y 1) el proveedor a quien se compra la planta, así como, 2) la época de uso de la planta Se encontró que los servicios de yoga son quienes tienen más diversidad proveedores de plantas, son quienes más compran éstas a las comunidades mayas y junto con los servicios terapéuticos promueven el autocultivo. Asimismo, se encontró variabilidad de la época de consumo respecto a los diferentes tipos de servicios incluidos en el estudio.

Maya gene variants related to the risk of type 2 diabetes in a family-based association study

Mexican Maya populations have a notably high prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) as a consequence of the interaction between environmental factors and a genetic component. To assess the impact of 24 single nucleotide variants (SNVs) located in 18 T2D risk genes, we conducted a family-based association evaluation in samples from Maya communities with a high incidence of the disease. A total of four hundred individuals were recruited from three Maya communities with a high T2D incidence. Family pedigrees (100) and 49 nuclear families were included. Genotyping was performed by allelic discrimination with TaqMan probes. This study also included the family-based association test (FBAT) statistic U to assess the genetic associations with T2D, and the multivariate statistical and haplotype analyses. A positive association with TD2 risk was found for WFS1 rs6446482 (p = 0.046, Z = 1.994) under an additive model, and SIRT1 rs7896005 (p = 0.038, Z = 2.073) under the dominant model. Multivariate model analysis, including T2D status, age, and body mass index (BMI), displayed significant covariance in PPARGC-1α rs8192678; SIRT1 rs7896005; TCF7L2 rs7903146 and rs122243326; UCP3 rs3781907; and HHEX rs1111875 with a P < 0.05. This study revealed an association of SIRT1 and WFS1 with T2D risk.

Assemblages of Production: Capitalist Colonial Labor Regimes and other Productive Practices in Highland Guatemala

The consequences of Spanish colonial/capitalist intrusions in highland Guatemala are an emerging focus of archaeological investigation. While providing insight into the entanglements between colonialism and capitalism and their effects on Maya communities, it is critical not to fixate only on extractive and exploitative labor regimes to the exclusion of other patterns of practice and production central to the experience of people in the past. In our analyses, a singular focus on capitalist colonialism reifies the suffocating ubiquity of abstract processes, foreclosing the possibility of other ways of being in the world that were not capitalist, colonial, or formed in relation or opposition to them. Instead, a holistic approach to the assemblage of production practices in capitalist colonial contexts allows for analyses of “capitalist” practices that exist side side-by-side and/or articulated with other practices—traditional and innovative—outside the unproductive two-step of either resistance to or engagement with capitalism or colonialism. In this article we use archival and archaeological research on colonial Maya sites in the piedmont and highland regions of Guatemala to piece together the spectrum of economic and productive practices carried out by colonial Maya communities: some coerced, some opportunistic of the emerging colonial economic landscape, and others having little to do with the intrusions of capitalist/colonial practices and effects.

Foods from Mayan Communities of Yucatán as Nutritional Alternative for Diabetes Prevention.

The increase in the prevalence of diabetes has become a severe problem around the world; mainly affecting indigenous communities as the Mayan of Yucatán in Mexico. Because of the high rates of poverty and insufficient health services in this ethnic group, inexpensive and accessible treatments are necessary. Some plant foods grown in traditional Mayan agricultural systems have antidiabetic potential. Our objective was to present a review of plant foods with nutritional alternatives for diabetes prevention from traditional agricultural systems in Mayan communities of Yucatán. This review reports the hypoglycemic, antihyperglycemic, and antidiabetic activities of leaves, fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes, and tubercles grown in milpas and home gardens of Mayan communities. Some plant foods have antidiabetic effect in vitro, in vivo, and in clinical studies. Some plant foods grown in traditional Mayan agricultural systems have antidiabetic potential. The inclusion of these plant foods in the diet can serve in the treatment of diabetes.

Management and Cultivation of the Huaya India (Melicoccus oliviformis Kunth) on the Yucatan Peninsula

The domestication of plants, an evolutionary process of importance worldwide, has been widely studied in annual species but very little in perennial species, especially fruit trees. Most studies of domestication have focused on the comparison of morphological characteristics between wild and cultivated populations and on patterns of evolution of phenotypic characteristics that are under selection, known as the domestication syndrome. The objective of this research was to investigate the domestication status of populations of Huaya India (Melicoccus oliviformis, Sapindaceae) in the Yucatan Peninsula using ethnobotanical and morphological evidence. The species is cultivated in both rural and urban communities in this area, and wild populations of Huaya India are found surrounding these sites. We gathered ethnobotanical data by conducting semi-structured interviews and through participatory observation. For each fruit, sugar content and morphological characteristics were measured in situ. The results show the Huaya India presents minimal differences between wild and cultivated fruits in characteristics that are often associated with domestication (weight, length, fruit diameter, exocarp thickness, and sugar content). We attribute these results to the unconscious management to which this species has been and continues to be subjected by the inhabitants of the Maya communities, but further study is needed to determine the extent to which the observed differences reflect genetic differences due to human selection, environmental effects, or a combination of the two.

Home Literacy Environments in Maya Communities in the Yucatan Peninsula

ABSTRACTThis study provides a broad, macro-analysis of how the home literacy environment (HLE) manifests among Mayan families with preschool-aged children in Yucatan, Mexico. Despite a substantial body of work showing the significant contribution of the HLE to children’s reading achievement in the U.S., little work examines the HLE and children’s learning outside of European American contexts. The aims of the present study were to examine the dimensions of the HLE in Mayan communities in the Yucatan Peninsula and whether the HLE was related to children’s emergent-literacy skills. Mayan caregivers (n = 413) completed questionnaires asking about their literacy practices and beliefs. Children completed direct assessments of their emergent-literacy skills. Research Findings: Results indicated there were two dimensions of the HLE and there was substantial variability in the frequency of home literacy activities reported. Further, aspects of the HLE were related to children’s emergent literacy. Practice or Policy: The variability of the HLE and the associations with children’s emergent literacy has practical implications for the support of literacy development in these communities. For instance, increased parent involvement in children’s education may increase literacy materials and activities in the home.

The importance of the cultural dimension of food in understanding the lack of adherence to diet regimens among Mayan people with diabetes.

To understand non-adherence to medically recommended diets among Mayans with diabetes. Using partially sequential mixed methods, questionnaires, semi-structured brief and in-depth interviews were applied. Questionnaire data were analysed with Pearson's χ2 and Student's t tests and qualitative interviews with grounded theory microanalysis. Rural, predominantly Mayan communities in Chiapas, Quintana Roo and Yucatan, Mexico, 2008-2012. Purposive sample of Mayans with type 2 diabetes; using public health care; 168 women and twenty-seven men; age 21-50+ years. Participants understood diabetes as caused by negative emotions, divine punishment, revenge via spells, chemicals in food and high sugar/fat consumption. Eliminating corn, pork, sugary beverages and inexpensive industrialized foods was perceived as difficult or impossible. More Mayans reporting not understanding physician instructions (30 v. 18 %) reported difficulty reducing red meat consumption (P = 0·051). Non-adherence was influenced by lack of patient-provider shared knowledge and medical recommendations misaligned with local culture. Men whose wives prepared their meals, women who liked vegetables and young adults whose mothers prepared their meals reported greater adherence to dietary recommendations. Partial adherents said it made life tolerable and those making no physician-recommended dietary changes considered them too restrictive (they meant 'starving to death'). Over half (57 %) of participants reported non-adherence; the two principal reasons were dislike of recommended foods (52·5 %) and high cost (26·2 %). Adherence to dietary regimens in diabetes treatment is largely related to social and cultural issues. Taking cultural diversity, food preferences, local food availability and poverty into consideration is essential when developing health-promotion activities related to diabetes.

A Computational Approach to Scribal Practice

The study of the construction of social meaning in ancient Maya communities of Mesoamerica poses a variety of methodological problems in historical sociolinguistics due to the reliance on written records by means of a writing system that exhibits variation itself. While variation in writing systems has been previously studied in terms of diachronic shifts and dialectal variation, systematic approaches still remain elusive. This paper explores new avenues for the computational extraction of sociolinguistic features, resulting in the automatic extraction of useful sociolinguistic information from written corpora using Machine Learning algorithms. We show that these features can help illuminating the contribution of pragmatic choices in the selection of graphemes to stylistic practices that are key in the construction of Mayan scribal communities of practice.

Rainforest conservation in Mexico’s lowland Maya area: Integrating local meanings of conservation and land-use dynamics

In several tropical forested areas in which biodiversity conservation and indigenous cultures are interwoven, current conservation policies do not consider how the indigenous communities understand the concept of conservation that is promoted and implemented by conservation programs led by external actors, nor do they consider local traditional practices of resource management. To move towards more inclusive conservation policies that take these two aspects into account, research is required in indigenous settings that can inform policy makers. The present study, carried out in the lowland Maya area of Mexico, aims to investigate local meanings of rainforest conservation and dynamics of land use in two Maya common property holdings or ‘ejidos’ (Noh cah and X-Maben). The study used a Social-Ecological Systems approach comprising: (i) the Maya communities and their local meanings of conservation as a Social Subsystem, assessed through social surveys, and (ii) the rainforest of each studied ejido - which was regarded as an Ecological Subsystem and assessed through satellite images (from 2000 to 2012). In the former, interviewees were asked: “when you hear the phrase ‘conservation of the rainforest’ what do you think is being said?” They were also asked if there were local words in Maya or Spanish that were similar in meaning to the aforementioned phrase. The results relating to the meanings of conservation demonstrate that Maya people, who rely on the rainforest for multiple livelihoods, understand two types of meanings for looking after the rainforest; one promoted by governmental conservation programs, and the other called Kanan K’áax, a Maya phrase that represents their customary or community-based rainforest conservation. Differences between these two models of conservation encompass differences with respect to scale, gender and the Maya people’s own cultural practices. The results of the local dynamics of land use demonstrate that the landscapes of both study sites are dominated by mature rainforest (ranging from 73.9–82.7%), and are therefore in a good state of conservation, and that their agricultural frontiers have not expanded. Our empirical results are valuable in terms of informing the scientific community about the state of rainforest conservation in the Maya Zone, and providing policy makers (from the Maya area and elsewhere) with information to devise new, more inclusive conservation policies that take full account of the indigenous cultural practices of rainforest management.

Early Detection of Conflicts for the Management of Protected Areas: The Case of Charcoal Production in the Los Petenes Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

Management of conservation conflicts is a challenge of growing relevance for the effectiveness of protected areas worldwide, particularly in the case of socially inclusive areas such as biosphere reserves. For a successful management of the protected area, is critical to consider the social use of natural resources carried out by local populations linked to reserves, especially in socio-ecological contexts facing potential conservation conflicts (i.e., conflicts that have not yet arisen). We addressed the importance of an early detection of potential conflicts through the study of artisanal charcoal production by Yucatec Mayan communities located in the zone of influence of a biosphere reserve in Northwest Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Through semi-structured interviews with charcoal producers and in-depth interviews with environmental authorities linked to the reserve, we discuss the advantages associated to early detection of potential conservation conflicts for biosphere reserves' management.

Diet of two invasive rodent species in two Mayan communities in Mexico

Abstract The gastrointestinal content analysis of 344 invasive rodents (120 black rats and 224 house mice) in two Mayan communities revealed that rats consumed a high percentage of plants (93.3%) and arthropods (95.5%). In contrast, arthropods were less frequent (55.8%) than plants (94.6%) in mouse’s diet. In both rodent species, fragments of Sapotaceae and Hymenoptera were common plant and arthropod foods, respectively. Our results suggest that the food availability present in the Mayan communities is similar to the one described in natural habitats.

Patterns of helminth infections in Rattus rattus and Mus musculus from two Mayan communities in Mexico.

The black rat Rattus rattus and the house mouse Mus musculus are two commensal rodent species that harbour and shed zoonotic pathogens, including helminths. The aim of this survey was to study the helminth community and the patterns of infections in R. rattus and M. musculus from two Mayan communities in Mexico. Gastrointestinal helminths were isolated from 322 M. musculus and 124 R. rattus, including Gongylonema neoplasticum, Hassalstrongylus aduncus, Hassalstrongylus musculi, Hydatigera taeniaeformis metacestode, Hymenolepis diminuta, Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, Oligacanthorhynchidae gen. sp., Syphacia muris, Syphacia obvelata, Rodentolepis microstoma and Trichuris muris. The overall richness of helminths was seven in R. rattus and six in M. musculus. The results of generalized linear models showed that juvenile rodents had lower probabilities of being infected with G. neoplasticum, H. taeniaeformis and H. musculi than adult rodents. A positive association between the prevalence of S. muris and rat abundance was found. The intensity of infection with S. muris was higher in the rainy season than in the dry season; the opposite result was found for H. musculi infection. Male R. rattus harboured more S. muris specimens. The intensity of infection with T. muris was inversely associated with mouse abundance. The presence of the zoonotic H. diminuta, as well as H. taeniaeformis and R. microstoma in rodent populations indicates that there is risk of transmission, and that their entire life cycle occurs in the study area.

The Rabbit and the Goat: A Trickster's Tale of Transnational Migration of Mayas to the United States of America (El Norte)

Victor Montejo analyzes and interprets this Maya folktale as a way of explaining current transnational migration and dislocation in Maya communities. Through the story and the discussion, we see the many aspects of Maya migration, Guatemalan ethnic relations, and the power of modern global capitalism. Written from the standpoint of the year 2009, “The Rabbit and the Goat” establishes a strong marker in time and allows the reader deep insights into the present.