Maya Village Research Articles

Secular Changes in Growth in the Maya Village of Yalcoba: 1986-2023.

ABSTRACTObjectiveTo 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 MethodsFour 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.ResultsDifferences 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.ConclusionResults 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.

An intermediate level of disturbance with customary agricultural practices increases species diversity in Maya community forests in Belize

Across the planet, Indigenous societies control, use, and manage large tracts of tropical forest that are crucial for combating climate change. Here we investigate whether customary Indigenous agricultural practices can increase forest species diversity using swidden (aka, slash-and-burn) agriculture. We examine the community lands surrounding two Q’eqchi’ Maya villages in southern Belize using high-resolution multispectral imagery that we collected with drones, ground truth data related to land use and history, and a plant and tree biodiversity survey. We use computational methods including simulation and Bayesian modeling to analyze the relationship between spectral diversity, forest diversity, and landscape disturbance. Our key result, replicated in both villages, is that the highest level of spectral diversity (a proxy for forest diversity) is associated with an intermediate level of forest disturbance. In conclusion, we suggest that concepts from complex adaptive systems can provide an important conceptual framework for understanding how ecosystem enhancement can emerge from customary Indigenous land use practices.

“There Was a Time of Dancing”—Visual Memory of the Maya Uprising in Guatemala, 1980–1981

Guatemala’s imagery of the war has been mostly construed from the standpoint of state militarism and violence. In the 1980s photos of rebellious Maya villages scarcely appeared in international publications, all of which were forbidden in Guatemala. Using a historical anthropological approach, visual memory, and ethnography of the Maya highlands, this essay delves into the photography of Megan Thomas and Luis Felipe González, two militants of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor who, in 1980 and 1981, took pictures of Mam and Akateko Maya villages during the uprising. Through fieldwork in San Miguel Acatán and Guatemala City, interviews with former indigenous and non-indigenous insurgents, conversations with the photographer Megan Thomas, and archival research in Guatemala and Mexico, this essay proposes to rethink the war in highland Guatemala through visual materials, spoken stories, and indigenous memories.

The violence of disavowing Indigenous governance: exposing the colonial politics of "development" and FPIC in the Caribbean

After decades of community mobilizing and a protracted legal battle, Maya villages in southern Belize won a watershed Indigenous land rights victory in the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2015. Since then, the state has criminalized environmental defenders, violated communal land rights, and is argued by Maya activists and alcaldes (village leaders) to be operating in discriminatory bad faith. Accordingly, this Grassroots article casts critical light on a recent flashpoint conflict between the Government of Belize and Maya of Toledo District related to Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). The article is directly informed by both the grounded knowledge of an autonomous movement engaged in frontline resistance, and participatory research that is rooted in a politics and spirit of "accompliceship." The structural analysis we offer from an explicitly anticolonial standpoint is instructive about the historical-imperial processes, social forces, and economic logics that underpin conventional approaches to both "development" and the state's duty to consult local communities. Ultimately, the article reveals the forms of political conflict and environmental degradation that continue to emerge globally at the conjuncture of capitalist development, (postcolonial) state power, and struggles for Indigenous self-determination.er, and struggles for Indigenous self-determination.

Genetic diversity of Huaya India (Melicoccus oliviformis Kunth), a neglected Neotropical fruit crop

Currently, some species of Sapindaceae are important fruit crops worldwide. The Huaya India (Meliccocus oliviformis, Sapindaceae) is a neglected Neotropical fruit tree consumed locally in the Maya Lowlands of Mexico, where it exists in both wild and domesticated forms. Our objective was to evaluate the genetic diversity of the Huaya India in its possible domestication area and thus generate knowledge that serves as the basis for a commercial management. A total of 450 individuals collected from 15 natural vegetation sites and 15 Maya villages, were characterized using nine microsatellite loci and population genetics approaches were applied. STRUCTURE, Neighbor-Joining and PCoA analyses suggested the existence of three main groups: 1) one composed by 14 natural vegetation sites, 2) one integrated by 10 Maya villages plus one natural vegetation site, 3) one composed by five Maya villages. At the species level, genetic differentiation was high (FST = 0.562) and gene flow was low (Nm = 0.395); between genetic groups, differentiation was low and gene flow was high. Genetic diversity was low at the level species (HE = 0.19) and higher in the group composed for only natural vegetation sites. When we considered only two groups (natural vegetation sites vs Maya villages) to explore a possible bottleneck as a consequence of human management, the natural vegetation sites showed higher, and significant, genetic diversity (HE = 0.231) than the Maya villages (HE = 0.152). This study can serve as a basis to develop management strategies for Huaya India in the Maya Lowlands of Mexico, but without compromising its conservation.

Using commodified representations to ‘perform’ and ‘fashion’ cultural heritage among Yucatec Maya women (Mexico)

ABSTRACT The east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula has been a popular tourist destination for many years. To capture the gaze of tourists, promotional tourism literature of Cancún, the Riviera Maya, and the Grand Costa Maya feature common imagery used to promote other tropical environs. To set this destination apart, representations of Mayan Culture, such as archaeological ruins and ‘timeless’ Mayan villages, are used. As the tourism industry seeped its way inland to Valladolid, Maya women from Xocén now have more direct interaction with tourists. With the commodification of various aspects of contemporary Maya culture, Maya women use these representations to sell their heritage to tourists for financial gain. As these commodified aspects are essential components to Maya women’s lives, such as the 'iipil (traditional dress) and the daily work they do in their homes, Maya women can ‘perform’ and ‘fashion’ their heritage to reflect the modern tastes of tourists and themselves. Maya women play an active role in changing these outdated representations of their culture by asserting their modernity and in this process, reap some financial benefit, as well as promote and preserve their heritage.

Profile of the visitor of the Mayan communities of the Maya Ka'an tourist brand, in Quintana Roo, Mexico

This qualitative study aims to determine the visitor's characteristics of the Mayan villages, members of the tourism brand called “Maya Ka'an” in Quintana Roo, Mexico. This is in order to contribute to the project so that it can focus its efforts towards a specific segment positioning interested in cultural and natural attractions that the area offers. Due to special features of each integrated in this study communities and the fact that this is a first approximation in an attempt to characterize the customer, it was determined using a convenient sample and applying instruments over 6 months for further analysis.

Kin Ties and Market Integration in a Yucatec Mayan Village

The importance of kin relationships varies with socioecological demands. Among subsistence agriculturalists, people commonly manage fluctuations in food availability by relying on family members to share resources and pool labor. However, the process of market integration may disrupt these support networks, which may begin to carry costs or liabilities in novel market environments. The current study aims to address (1) how kin are distributed in household support networks (2) how kin support varies as households become more engaged in market activities, and (3) how variation in kin support is associated with income disparities within a Yucatec Maya community undergoing rapid market integration. Using long-term census data combined with social networks and detailed household economic data, we find that household support networks are primarily composed of related households. Second, households engaged predominantly in wage labor rely less on kin support than agricultural or mixed economy households. Finally, kin support is associated with lower household net income and income per capita. Understanding how kin support systems shift over the course of market integration and in the face of new opportunities for social and economic production provides a unique window into the social and economic drivers of human family formation.

Trees, shrubs, and forests at Joya de Cerén, a Late Classic Mesoamerican village

The Late Classic Maya village of Joya de Cerén's extraordinary preservation caused by the Loma Caldera volcanic eruption around 650 CE allows for a unique opportunity to understand what plant species ancient Mesoamerican farmers utilized in their daily lives for food consumption, medicinal applications, fuel, and construction purposes. While Cerén has unusually good preservation of earthen-made household structures, gardens, and extensive outfields growing maize, manioc, and numerous weedy species, this article will review the collection of anthracological remains recovered from excavations at the site since 1978. Wood charcoal recovered via flotation samples taken throughout the archaeological site reveal the surrounding ecosystems that Cerén villagers would have exploited to regularly obtain their wood resources. Additionally, various fruit trees were cultivated within the village center, as evidenced by limb, trunk and fruit impressions preserved as plaster casts. The data collected from the long history of archaeobotanical research at Cerén suggests that these ancient rural agriculturalists practiced sustainable land management strategies and incorporated a diverse assemblage of tree species into their daily practices. The ancient agriculturalists effectively coped with an ever-changing landscape and opportunistically established their settlement in a biodiverse setting that had plentiful resources from a range of ecosystems available for their daily needs.

THE SOUNDSCAPE IN THE REPLICA OF THE CERÉN TEMAZCAL

AbstractArchaeologists have relied almost exclusively upon sight among the five human senses to investigate architecture, features, and artifacts. In recent decades researchers have explored how ancient people may have experienced sound, because it was an essential component of lived experiences in ancient societies. Natural and culturally constructed spaces had acoustical properties that enhanced social, political, economic, and ritual events. This article investigates through the lens of archaeoacoustics the large domed earthen temazcal that residents constructed at Joya de Cerén during the seventh century a.d. Its uniqueness at this Classic-period Maya village in El Salvador has attracted considerable interest due to its exceptional preservation and distinct shape. Fortunately, in 2012, architects were able to construct a precise replica for public access. Through the years, visitors entering the replica have noted how significantly their voices were altered, once inside. To evaluate scientifically these observations, two recordings of sound were made and analyzed acoustically. The earthen dome morphology causes “preferred frequencies” to be sustained for a long time, while nonfavored frequencies diminish quickly. The predominant resonance is at 64 hertz, a tone so low that basso profundo singers can barely achieve it. The internal morphology greatly accentuates voices of mature males, but not those with higher pitches, such as mature females or children. The acoustical environment may have been utilized by men for divination, education, curing, rites of passage, and other functions, some of which have not been previously considered. The nature of the lived experience in a socially charged performance space is explored here with new insights regarding how the sweatbath was vital to all in the community.

Crafting grassroots’ socio-environmental governance for a coastal biosphere rural community in Campeche, Mexico

Campeche, Mexico's, northern coastal zone constitutes part of a National Biosphere Reserve known as Los Petenes. Small rural communities skirt this saltwater marsh wetlands protected area. Flanking Los Petenes' eastern edge, the Mayan village Tankuche's economy revolves around small plot slash-and-burn agriculture and seasonal work at local fisheries located 30 km to the west. As a particular freshwater springs peten within a saltwater marshland niche, El Remate, sustains Tankuche's people, and acts as a sacred space and recreational hub to an ever increasing local and regional tourism, particularly during holidays. The social-environmental-system (SES) abusive relationship between El Remate and Tankuche has strained equilibrium thresholds for the past thirty years. In 2010 Campeche's state government intervened with a participatory action research program to build basic infrastructure and restore El Remate's environment. This governmental mediation process triggered a transformative environmental governance practice that placed local decision-making procedures at the forefront to create a uniquely innovative management scenario rarely documented in developing countries. This article illustrates the entire process using a key multi-leveled, multi-scaled administrative model. The authors project roles involved building local community management skills while conserving social wellbeing and environmental health. We discuss some minor obstacles while creating this singular transformative governance prototype and analyze process results to foster local and greater regional implications. Transformative environmental governance programs positively address underlying challenges, while at the same time fully recognizing vulnerability conditions' viable thresholds that coalesce to promote more complete social participation and local empowerment, while, at the same time building organizational aptitudes and competence in EGA associations that generate developmental retro-alimentation processes.

The social construction of difference for the reproduction of inequality: Maya youth in Yucatán

ABSTRACT We propose to analyze how difference is constructed in order to produce diverse inequalities along the lines of ethnicity, social class, generation, and gender, in Yaxcabá, a Maya village in Yucatán. We show how the people of Yaxcabá differentiate themselves ethnically through the use of surnames associated with either Maya or Spanish descent. This interethnic classification system emerges from a collective imaginary that employs a supposed cultural difference to reproduce social, economic, and symbolic inequalities. These are then used to justify discriminatory practices by Yaxcabá people who claim Spanish origin against other community members who are identified as of indian origin. These practices are expressed through a complex social organization between family groups, linking and confronting different collective, essentialized, and stigmatized identities, which serve to establish social and prestige positions. We show how other inequalities are compiled on top of this ethnic differentiation, such as generational inequality and gender inequality. Women of Maya origin suffer a compounded inequality, rooted in Mayan language and culture, which subordinates them to men. All of this motivates young men and women to desire to change their social situation.

Estrategias comunitarias de resolución de problemas matemáticos en una comunidad maya en Yucatán

Este artículo está basado en un trabajo de campo de seis meses realizado en la región maya de México, y busca explorar la manera en que se instruyen las matemáticas en una escuela secundaria maya de Yucatán. Estudiamos los enfoques de la comunidad para resolver problemas, específicamente los problemas matemáticos, ya que en esta región los resultados de exámenes estandarizados en matemáticas son bajos, y las tasas de deserción son altas. Sin embargo, los enfoques que históricamente se utilizan en la comunidad para resolver problemas están llenos de recursos y activos culturales que pueden apoyar la enseñanza de las matemáticas y el desarrollo de habilidades afines en las escuelas de la comunidad. Por tal motivo, primero ilustramos la tensión que existe entre los conocimientos matemáticos de la comunidad y la escuela. En segundo lugar, buscamos expandir la definición sobre lo que se considera conocimiento matemático. Finalmente, describimos dos estrategias de la comunidad para resolver problemas matemáticos que conllevan la autonomía y la mentalidad de improvisación.

“When you were that little…”

Abstract In this article, I analyse how conventional height-specifier gestures used by speakers of Yucatec Maya become incorporated into Yucatec Maya Sign Languages (YMSLs). Combining video-data from elicitation, narratives, conversations and interviews collected from YMSL signers from four communities as well as from hearing nonsigners from another Yucatec Maya village, I compare form, meaning and distribution of height-specifiers in gesture and sign. Co-speech gestures that depict the height of upright entities – performed with a flat hand, palm facing downwards – come to serve various linguistic functions in YMSLs: a noun for human referents, a verb GROW, a spatial referential device, and an element of name signs. Special attention is paid to how height-specifier gestures fulfil a grammatical purpose as noun-classifiers for human referents in YMSLs. My study demonstrates processes of lexicalisation and grammaticalisation from gesture to sign and discusses the impact of gesture on the emergence of shared sign languages.

The Milpa Game: a Field Experiment Investigating the Social and Ecological Dynamics of Q’eqchi’ Maya Swidden Agriculture

We investigated the coupled social and ecological dynamics of swidden agriculture through a common property resource field experiment framed as a game with realistic social norms and ecological dynamics. We tested the hypothesis that community social norms related to labor reciprocity and graduated sanctioning may encourage sustainable swidden cultivation. We played the game with 150 people from two Q’eqchi’ Maya villages in southern Belize where swidden agriculture is common. We found that when the game mimics local social norms related to agricultural labor exchange, clearing requests decrease and a statistical analysis indicates that players sanctioned one another in order to decrease resource use and increase sustainability. We validated our results using qualitative methods, post-game surveys, and interviews, and we conclude that cultural and social norms related to labor exchange improve the sustainability of swidden agriculture.

Risk factors and prevalence of symptoms of sexually transmitted infections in Rural Mayan Villages in Guatemala

In this study, we identify and describe the risk factors and symptoms that are suggestive of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in rural Mayan villages of Guatemala. We used the World Health Organization's syndromic guidelines for diagnosis and management of STIs to design questionnaires and to identify STI symptoms among indigenous Mayans who presented to mobile clinics in villages served by Guatemala Village Health (GVH). Symptoms that include abdominal pain or pain on urination, genital discharge, itching and sores were highest among younger participants. Lack of male participation in sexual health matters constitutes an important determinant of risk of exposure.

Community Engagement around the Maya Archaeological Site of Ceibal, Guatemala

The Ceibal-Petexbatún Archaeological Project has built long-standing relationships in the area around Ceibal, Guatemala, particularly in the Q’eqchi’ Maya village of Las Pozas. Both Q’eqchi’ and ladino (non-indigenous) people in the region face serious, systemic problems, including a loss of access to land and an absence of economic opportunities. The ancient Maya sites in the area have been damaged by deforestation and looting. Project archaeologists seek to improve economic conditions in local communities while encouraging the preservation of cultural heritage. Here, we describe past microfinance and classroom outreach projects conducted in Las Pozas and discuss future initiatives that could make archaeological heritage more beneficial to multiple communities.

Landscape management and polyculture in the ancient gardens and fields at Joya de Cerén, El Salvador

The Late Classic Maya village of Joya de Cerén’s extraordinary preservation by the Loma Caldera eruption circa 660 CE allows for a unique opportunity to study ancient Mesoamerican landscape management and agricultural practices. Various fruit trees, annual and root crops, fiber producers and other useful plants were cultivated within the village center, creating productive house-lot gardens. Extensive agricultural outfields of maize, manioc, squash, common beans, and numerous weedy species also have been documented through intensive paleoethnobotanical recovery methods and demonstrate the practice of multi-cropped or polyculture farming during Prehispanic times. The assorted array of economically useful species reveals the diversity of foodstuffs readily accessible to the inhabitants on a daily basis that were not simply the annual crops planted within the outfields. The long history of paleoethnobotanical research at this exceptionally preserved site provides the opportunity to not only understand what plant species the ancient inhabitants of this village utilized in their daily lives but also how the villagers perceived, managed, and manipulated their landscape in order to ensure a diverse and nutritional diet.

Designing and Implementing a Bilingual Early-Literacy Program in Indigenous Mexico Villages: Family, Child, and Classroom Outcomes

Globally, there is great interest in enhancing young children’s literacy development as a route to improving worldwide literacy. To contribute to this area of interest, this paper reports findings from a multi-pronged early-literacy program designed to improve the print-knowledge of young children in Yucatec Mayan villages. The school-based Club de Lectura Solyluna provided 16 culturally relevant bilingual (Spanish/Maya) children’s books to caregivers during four workshops. The sample of 567 mothers and their preschool-aged children (n = 567) were enrolled in 28 preschool classrooms, which also received teacher trainings, children’s books, and establishment of a school-based library. Outcomes were examined with respect to overall parent participation and uptake of workshop materials, features of the home-literacy environment, and children’s gains in print knowledge in both Mayan and Spanish. The study findings show positive outcomes across all outcomes evaluated with the exception of growth in children’s Mayan print-concepts skills. The program description and findings should be of relevance to efforts to implement early-literacy programming with indigenous villages in lower- and middle-income countries.

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.