Product Description
Since the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century, the Maya population of Guatemala has been forced to adapt to extraordinary challenges. Under colonial rule, the Indians had to adapt enough to satisfy the Spanish while resisting those changes not necessary for survival, applying their understanding of the world to the realities they confronted daily. Despite the major changes wrought in their way of life by centuries of submission, the Maya have managed to regenerate, and thus maintain, their self-identity.Among the major challenges they have faced has been the imposition of outside religions. Quiché Rebelde examines what happened when Acción Católica came into the Guatemalan municipio of San Antonio Ilotenango, Quiché, to convert its inhabitants.Ricardo Falla, a Guatemalan Jesuit priest and anthropologist, analyzes the movement's origins and why some people became part of it while others resisted. He shows how religion was used as another tool to readapt to the changing environment--natural, economic, political, and social. His work is the first major empirical study of how change occurred in a Maya community with no serious loss of Maya identity--and how the process of conversion is related to more general processes of cultural change that actually strengthen ethnic identity. ... Read more

Product Description
Even after US-sponsored death squads have done their worst in Guatemala, the Jacalteco people remain. Scattered in the US and Canada they are surviving. This work examines their ability to maintain their identity, culture and society. It also refutes myths about nations natives, particularly "native" Central Americans, or the Maya and portrays them, not as placed, physically stable, and innocent, but as movers - refugees, travellers and innovators. ... Read more

Product Description
In this first book-length treatment of Maya intellectuals in national and community affairs in Guatemala, Kay Warren presents an ethnographic account of Pan-Maya cultural activism through the voices, writings, and actions of its participants. Challenging the belief that indigenous movements emerge as isolated, politically unified fronts, she shows that Pan-Mayanism reflects diverse local, national, and international influences. She explores the movement's attempts to interweave these varied strands into political programs to promote human and cultural rights for Guatemala's indigenous majority and also examines the movement's many domestic and foreign critics.

The book focuses on the years of Guatemala's peace process (1987--1996). After the previous ten years of national war and state repression, the Maya movement reemerged into public view to press for institutional reform in the schools and courts and for the officialization of a "multicultural, ethnically plural, and multilingual" national culture. In particular, Warren examines a group of well-known Mayanist antiracism activists--among them, Demetrio Cojt!, Mart!n Chacach, Enrique Sam Colop, Victor Montejo, members of Oxlajuuj Keej Maya' Ajtz'iib', and grassroots intellectuals in the community of San Andr s--to show what is at stake for them personally and how they have worked to promote the revitalization of Maya language and culture. Pan-Mayanism's critics question its tactics, see it as threatening their own achievements, or even as dangerously polarizing national society. This book highlights the crucial role that Mayanist intellectuals have come to play in charting paths to multicultural democracy in Guatemala and in creating a new parallel middle class. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Indigenous Movements
As a graduate studuent who has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Guatemala, I found this book to very insightful.In my view, Kay Warren does a commendable job of addressing and discussing the politics of thePan-Maya movement and its actions and arguments since the signing of thepeace accords.Furthermore, she describes the role of the foreignanthropologist in the Maya culture and the critiques given by Pan-Mayaactivists towards the discipline of anthropology.For example, Warrenrelates the statements of the well-known Pan-Mayanist, Sam Colop (82). Warren concludes that the underlying question is; "What are you doingin Guatemala to benefit the Maya people?"This is particularlyrelevant to any social scientist, let alone those working inGuatemala.

Of particular interest is Warren's discussion on 'transformingselves'; the belief that certain individuals possess the capacity tophysically transform themselves into an animal.She provides an excellentargument on why this belief resurfaced during the civil war, a period ofextreme distrust.The bibliography is extensive and Warren's knowledgeof critical theory, anthropology, history, Guatemalan (and, one might add,Peruvian) ethnography and political studies is considerable.This bookcould serve as a starting point for anyone interested in the currentsituation in Guatemala.

The only shortcoming I found is that the chaptersdo not flow smoothly.This is most likely due to the fact that some of thebook was derived from previously written articles.

Nevertheless, I foundit to be an enjoyable read and strongly recommend it to anyone interestedin Guatemala and the Maya culture. ... Read more

Product Description
The Maya are the single largest group of indigenous people living in North and Central America. Beginning in the early 1980s, hundreds of thousands of Maya fled the terror of Guatemalan civil strife to safety in Mexico and the U.S. This ethnography of Mayan immigrants who settled in Indiatown, a small agricultural community in south central Florida, presents the experiences of these traditional people, their adaptations to life in the U.S., and the ways they preserve their ancestral culture. For more than a decade, Allan F. Burns has been researching and doing advocacy work for these immigrant Maya, who speak Kanjobal, Quiche, Mamanâ, and several other of the more than thirty distinct languages in southern Mexico and Guatemala. In this fist book on the Guatemalan Maya in the U.S, he uses their many voices to communicate the experience of the Maya in Florida and describes the advantages and results of applied anthropology in refugee studies and cultural adaptation.

Burns describes the political and social background of the Guatemalan immigrants to the U.S. and includes personal accounts of individual strategies for leaving Guatemala and traveling to Florida. Examining how they interact with the community and recreate a Maya society in the U.S., he considers how low-wage labor influences the social structure of Maya immigrant society and discusses the effects of U.S. immigration policy on these refugees. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

....Guatemalans In Florida
Good book if thats what your wanting to read, I bought this book thinking it had to do with the Caste War in the Yucatan when i was adding a bunch of books to my cart about the war. If your wanting to learn about Maya people now living in America, you would probibly be pretty happy with this book. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Social Justice, published by Crime and Social Justice Associates on September 22, 2003. The length of the article is 7790 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Defending the pueblo: indigenous identity and struggles for social justice in Guatemala, 1970 to 1980.
Author: Betsy Ogburn Konefal
Publication: Social Justice (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2003
Publisher: Crime and Social Justice Associates
Volume: 30Issue: 3Page: 32(16)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Maya people have lived for thousands of years in the mountains and forests of what is now Guatemala, but they lost control of their land and became serfs and refugees when the Spanish conquered them in the sixteenth century. Under both the Spanish and the Guatemalan non-Indian elites, they suffered enforced poverty and thereby served as a resident source of cheap labor for non-Maya projects, particularly agricultural production. Following the CIA-induced coup that toppled Guatemala's elected government in 1954, their misery was exacerbated by government accommodation to United States' 'interests', which promoted crops for export and reinforced the need for a source of cheap and passive labor. This widespread poverty was most intense in northwestern Guatemala, where 80 per cent of Maya children were chronically malnourished, and forced a continuing migration to the Pacific coast. The self-help aid that flowed into the area in the 1960s and 1970s raised hopes for justice and equity that were brutally suppressed by Guatemala's military government. This military reprisal led to a massive diaspora of Maya throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America.This collection describes that process and the results. The chapters show the dangers and problems of the migratory/refugee process and the range of creative cultural adaptations that the Maya have developed. It provides the first comparative view of the formation and transformation of this new and expanding transnational population, presented from the standpoint of the migrants themselves as well as from a societal and international perspective. Taken together, the chapters furnish unique and ethnographically grounded perspectives on the dynamic implications of uprooting and resettlement, social and psychological adjustment, long-term prospects for continued links to a migration history from Guatemala, and the development of a sense of co-ethnicity with other indigenous people of Maya descent. As the Maya struggle to find their place in a more global society, their stories of quiet courage are representative of many other ethnic groups, migrants, and refugees today. Author note: James Loucky is a Professor teaching anthropology, Latin American studies, and international studies at Western Washington University. Marilyn M.Moors is Professor emerita from Montgomery College, National Coordinator of the Guatemala Scholars Network, and an adjunct professor teaching anthropology and gender at Frostburg State University. ... Read more

Product Description
Between A.D. 800 and 1000, during what is known as the Classic Maya Collapse, unrelenting drought caused the deaths of millions of Maya people and initiated a cascade of internal collapses that destroyed their civilization. Linking global, regional, and local climate change, the author explores how atmospheric processes, volcanism, ocean currents, and other natural forces combined to create a climate that pried apart the highly complex civilization of the tropical Maya Lowlands in the ninth and tenth centuries. Drawing on knowledge of other prehistoric and historic droughts, The Great Maya Droughts is a compelling study of the relationship of humans to their natural and physical environment. The author develops a new, scientific explanation of why the Classic Maya failed to adjust their behavior and culture to the climatic conditions, and why civilizations in general sometimes collapse in the face of radical environmental change.

“The Great Maya Droughts is certain to set off a major debate among Maya scholars, but it’s also likely to be seen as a benchmark for applying “hard” science principles to what has been seen as a “soft science.”—Dan R. Goddard, San Antonio Express-News

“The book is a major contribution in its own right in its use of massive amounts of climatic data. It is also an answer to what is perhaps the most interesting problem in Maya archaeology: the fall and lack of recovery of a great culture.”—R. E. W. Adams

“I have little doubt that the work will become a classic in the literature of culture history and climatic studies as well.” George Stuart, Archaeologist, Retired, National Geographic Society ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Speedy Seller
The book arrived as promised in like new condition.I am very pleased with the delivery and the sale process.

Definitely worth it for those with a desire to learn.
Although The Great Maya Droughts by Richardson Gill is a very impressive collection of information, it's not quite what I had expected.Given the title I had expected an archaeological account of recent finds and what they tell of the decline of Maya civilization.Instead the bulk of the book, eleven chapters of it, deals with a wide variety of scientific information having to do with a number of fields: physics, oceanography, complexity theory, meteorology, geology, hydrology, paleoclimatology, and volcanology among them.Not until the last two chapters of the book, and then mostly in summary form, does the author really discuss the archaeological data.For the average reader interested in the Maya and/or in general archaeology this might be a thirty dollar disappointment.Some of the material is rather complex, and although one might be able to work ones way through it on just the explanations the author gives of each topic, it would probably appeal more to those who already have at least some background in these areas.This having been said, though, I have to admit that I loved the book.

The author's primary goal is to introduce the theme of what he terms an energy failure as the cause of the Maya demise.To do this he approaches his topic as a physical scientist.Modern archaeology has come a long way since W. M. Flinders Petrie and A. Layard, and there is as much "hard" science involved in this discipline as digging in the sand.In fact with funds for excavations difficult to comeby these days, there is probably far less digging in the sand going on now than there was in the past.Gill seems to be a model of the new archeologist/scientist.Steeped in what E. O. Wilson calls "consilience," the author calls upon data from a variety of fields to supply him with the building blocks he needs to reinforce his thesis.

At first I was a little skeptical of this type of approach, even though I know a fair amount about most of Dr. Gill's supporting subjects.By the time he got to a discussion of the shifting of the ecotomes in Europe during the Roman period (p. 16), I was totally hooked.I had just read a book covering the rise and fall of the Roman occupation in Gaul, and Gill's discussion of it in his work made perfect sense.With his treatment of human culture and its limitations in terms of thermodynamics and its evolution in terms of self organizing criticality, he had completely reeled me in.Like others, I had considered the decay of the Maya centers to be a "multifaceted" problem.Human culture and behavior being as complex as they are-or seem to be-a multidimensional answer to the problem seemed logical.As Gill presents it, however, there is nothing so logical-or so simple-as the destruction of the human animal by a lack of water.As he points out, a person can live for months without eating but only days without water.

The book is well worth the effort, even for those with limited knowledge of the included topics, as long as he/she has the desire to learn something new and isn't afraid of a little work.Furthermore, the bibliography is a mine of useful resources, both books and periodicals.Some are a little old, 1970-1980s, but many are more current.Of the books that I've read from the author's list: Per Bak's How Nature Works is fun, as is Sigurdsson's Melting the Earth. Jered Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel is wonderful, a "must read" sort of book. Both Decker and Decker's Volcanoes and Bullard's Volcanoes of the Earth, though a little old, are interesting and easy to read.Of the journals American Scientist, Archaeology, Nature, Science, and Scientific American should be readily available in most college and urban public libraries. Those like Geology, The Holocene, Hydrobiologia, Hydrology, the Journal of Human Evolution, Journal of Paleoceanography, and Quaternary Research may be available in some university libraries or in their individual department libraries.

For THOSE WRITING PAPERS on archaeology, history, meteorology/climatology, anthropology, ecology, etc.this book would make an instructive source for "how-to-do-it with science."It would make an excellent source of quotes in support of your own themes, a good source for bibliographical material, and a good bibliographical entry for your own paper.

Not an easy book to get through.Certainly not for those who just want an overview of the Maya.Definitely worth it for those with a desire to learn.

Informative and very readable book about an important topic
This book's central thesis is that Classical Maya civilization collapsedas a result of a drought in Mesoamerica extending throughout the 9thcentury AD.This particular drought was the local manifestation ofNorthern Hemisphere weather patterns that the author asserts have beenrepeated frequently over shorter time periods for thousands of years, eveninto this century, and which nearly always produce drought inMesoamerica.

Once you accept the author's evidence for Mesoamericandroughts and their regularity, that evidence provides a parsimoniousexplanation for the end of Classical Maya civilization. After reading thisbook, I think many people will accept the evidence and the explanation.

More complex hypotheses, including overpopulation, warfare between Mayancity-states, external invasion, disease, over centralization, exhaustion ofa stable environment, and peasant revolt are not needed to explain thecollapse. This does not mean that such factors, if they existed, did notinfluence the course of the collapse, just that the collapse would havehappened because of the drought whether or not other factors existed.

Tosupport his thesis, which is clearly stated clearly at the beginning of thebook, Dr. Gill takes the reader on a tour of a multitude of scientificdisciplines. Each discipline studied adds information about the importance,frequency, possible causes and consequences of drought in Mesoamerican andon civilization and population trends throughout the world. Any one ofthese tours alone is worth the price of the book, since they are extremelywell written and provide the foundation for further study on each topiccovered.

In a chapter titled "Geology, Hydrology, and Water," the authordescribes the geology and hydrology of the Yucatan and the Maya highlandsand the major drainage basins, and provides an extensive discussion of thewater supply problem and how it was managed in the pre-Columbian period.The basic geology is the standard stuff: seasonal rainfall, permeablelimestone, karstic drainage, deep underground fresh water usuallyinaccessible, except in the north through cenotes and along the east costfrom freshwater lakes or lagoons.But, this chapter also explained how theMaya adapted to this environment. For example, the author describes naturalsurface depressions used as water reservoirs and known as aquadas.TheMaya paved many of these small depressions and some were provided withchultunes, bell shaped chambers excavated below the aquada bottom tocapture additional water when the aquada was filled. (A single chultuncould hold 30,000 liters of water, enough to comfortably supply drinkingand cooking water for twenty-five people for one year).

In fact, Mayancity-states and even smaller settlements were designed with watermanagement a primary consideration, with central reservoirs, residentialreservoirs, canals, and the terrain and pavement of the city itself allengineered to facilitate the collection and storage of water during the wetseason. This was important, because, as explained in a chapter on"Paleoclimatology," small-scale (relative to the great final calamity)droughts were endemic to the Maya area as shown both by Maya watermanagement strategies and more recent evidence from sediment recovered fromthe bottom of lakes.Records during the Spanish colonial period point tofurther famines on a regular basis after the conquest.In fact, during thecolonial period, population looses from drought in the Yucatan ranged up to30 or 40%.

In another chapter titled "Volcanoes and Weather" Dr. Gillargues that there is a strong correlation between the eruptions of largevolcanoes around the world, and the worldwide weather patterns that lead todrought in Mesoamerica.This particular chapter not only provided evidenceto support this correlation, but evidence that the volcanoes may have beena forcing mechanism for those weather patterns. Volcanoes and weather are atopic of some interest to me, and until I read this book, I had troublefinding a good introduction to the study of volcanoes, and to therelationship between volcanoes and weather. Now I have.

To save space andmy own energy, I am not going to discuss the chapter on "ThermohalineCirculation." Except, I will say that that I learned enough in that onechapter on North Atlantic deep water formation and three dimensional oceancirculation models for all of the world's oceans to help me understand anarticle on the subject recently published in the journal Nature. I willalso skip lightly over the early chapter titled "Self-Organization" whichdiscusses, among other things, the overall flow of energy in acivilization, and the important roll of exporting entropy to theenvironment by a civilization to reduce the potentially disruptive entropyin the civilization. I will also skip lightly over the chapter titled"Famine and the Individual" which describes how famine can rapidly lead tothe complete collapse of social norms and the massive disruption of"normal" energy flows in any civilization.

Probably the most important orchallenging single assertion Dr. Gill makes is changing the timing of thecollapse of Chichen Itza. Traditionally dated around 1150 AD, and cited asan example of the ability of some Maya cities to survive the Classicalcollapse, the author re-dates this event to the 9th century based partly onre-interpretation of inscribed calendar dates attributed to the periodafter the collapse.This particular assertion is probably one of the mostcontroversial in the book and is critical to the author's basic thesis.Isuspect that it will be the focus of considerable argument.In support ofthis claim, the author provides a new interpretation of the relationshipbetween Chichen Itza and the Toltecs, which itself is probably worth a fairamount of discussion.

I strongly recommend this book to just about anyonewith an analytical mind.If you are interested in the general flow of Mayacivilization this book has a lot to offer. If you are generally interestedin the interplay between climate and civilization, this book also has a lotto offer. If you are just somewhat interested in topics such as globalmeteorology, volcanoes, tree-ring records in Europe and America, or thedebate between uniformitariansm and neocatastrophism in the early study ofgeology, you will still find useful information that is readily accessible.

Awesome Anthropologic Insight
Dr. Gill has truly broken new ground with this startling theory on thedemise of the Mayan Empire. Why no-one heretofore considered drought as theprimary cause of the Mayan disappearance now seems remarkable. His premisedebunks the previous and long-held concepts on the mysterious demise ofthese ancient people and literally re-writes a major chapter in the historyof Mexico. Thank you, Dr. Gill for finally shedding light on this darktopic and providing a conclusive answer to what has long been a nebulousand even divisive black hole in the anthropologic annals of North America. ... Read more

Product Description
To study the settlement process of undocumented migrants, Jacqueline Hagan examines one of Houston's Maya communities, the approximately 900 Maya from a township in the Department of Totonicapan, Guatemala. She traces this Maya community from its genesis in 1978, when a few men left the township in search of economic opportunity, to the complex effects of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). Based on several years of living and participating in the Totonicapan Maya community in Houston and a visit to the Guatemalan home community, Hagan's research combines interviews, community participation, and observation to evaluate immigration policy. Hagan shows that these immigrants do not passively accept U.S. immigration policy, but instead interpret it and base their actions on their own agenda within the context of their local community. The results, often quite unexpected by national policy makers, question popular myths about the settlement of immigrant communities. The author discusses the different settlement experiences of men and women and the effects of IRCA on family and community structure.Analyzing how legal status influences settlement behavior and international networks, she finds that strong community-based networks and social ties with a home community lead to successful adaptation. Jacqueline Maria Hagan is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Houston. ... Read more

Product Description
Living and working among the Tz’utujil Maya people of Santiago Atitlán in highland Guatemala for some fifteen years, Vincent Stanzione has observed, photographed, and participated in their ritual and ceremonial life, which he describes with unique authority in this account of the continuities in Mayan culture from pre-Columbian times to the present. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Gorgeous!
This is a really amazing book. What a wonderful synthesis of knowledge on ancient and modern Maya! Highly reccommended!

Maya Peoples Live Through Myth and Ritual
Stanzione presents an insightful, respectful, dynamic account of his experiences among these Maya people by combining approaches from religious studies and anthropology. The book is also graced with beautiful and revealing black and white photographs and drawings of the everyday ritual practices in and around Santiago Atitlan. Especially important is Stanzione's reporting of contemporary versions of Maya mythology about the creation of the world, the lives of plants, the sexual relations of deities-all in relation to Christian practices and sacred stories that are important to the Maya. Readers interested in religious change, syncretism and transculturation as well as the ways the Maya suffer and resist state violence and the attacks of missionaries will find this book a very valuable resource. ... Read more

Product Description
Reveals the Mayan calendar to be a spiritual device that describes the evolution of human consciousness from ancient times into the future.

• Shows the connection between cosmic evolution and actual human history.

• Provides a new science of time that explains why time not only seems to be speeding up in the modern world but actually is getting faster.

• Explains how the end of the Mayan calendar is not the end of the world, but a path toward enlightenment.

The prophetic Mayan calendar is not keyed to the movement of planetary bodies. Instead, it functions as a metaphysical map of the evolution of consciousness and records how spiritual time flows--providing a new science of time.

The calendar is associated with nine creation cycles, which represent nine levels of consciousness or Underworlds on the Mayan cosmic pyramid. Through empirical research Calleman shows how this pyramidal structure of the development of consciousness can explain things as disparate as the common origin of world religions and the modern complaint that time seems to be moving faster. Time, in fact, is speeding up as we transition from the materialist Planetary Underworld of time that governs us today to a new and higher frequency of consciousness--the Galactic Underworld--in preparation for the final Universal level of conscious enlightenment. Calleman reveals how the Mayan calendar is a spiritual device that enables a greater understanding of the nature of conscious evolution throughout human history and the concrete steps we can take to align ourselves with this growth toward enlightenment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

Mayan Calendar
Very detailed.Deep!Have no fear - 2012 is going to be a[nother] Global Change... hopefully, for the better.We all have the awareness.

The Mayan Calendar & the Transformation ofConsciousness by Carl Johan Calleman
This book is a must read! & read it before 2011-2012 arrives, you'll be glad you did!!

I read this book first, not realizing that Dr Calleman have written another book on the subject before this book. However, I read his first book later & I liked this one better. I think it was easier to understand.

When I read the book the first time, I had to get used to the Mayan terms that he uses.However, the more I read & looked at his graphs, charts, diagrams the more impressed I became. The more I realized that 'wow! this guy has done it!'.This book rang true, felt true, it rang a bell!When I finished it the first time, I went right back to the beginning and re-read it again, this time underlining parts that were important. Researching history & comparing it to his own research on his 'Matrix', comparing dates & the more I read & researched the more I was convinced that he hit the bulls eye when it comes to interpreting the Mayan Calendar & its true message. So to my surprise when I finished it the second time I started re-reading it again!!!!! Is like I wanted to make sure that I did not miss anything, understood everything he explained; I did some more comparing w/ history, etc etc, & of course, I highlighted some more!! I have never done that w/ any books I have ever read before!!And I am a reader!!

About 6 months later I re-read it again.This was around the year 2007-2008.Now w/ 2011-2012 approaching, I took it out & I'm going to read it again!!:) Call me nuts. In between I have kept up reading all his articles, & there are gobs of them!!! And I also read his first book, & his last book, also very good.My favorite so far has been this one.

Realize this, we are co-creators, the end of time approaching we'll have a decision to make; to co-create or be a slug & fall behind!!

I had to laugh to see some people here putting this book down, Ha! they must be thick minded!! or shallow! Either that or people that do not like Calleman put them up to it!!They're a joke! Read this book for yourself, have an open mind, make your own decision!!. I am not saying that he's the only one that is 'right' about the Mayan Calendar, I think that is very likely that 'most' authors that have sincerely researched the MC have a 'piece' of the truth to its true meaning.Maybe there is going to be 'also' an alignment!! etc etc.Whether its 2011 or 2012 does not matter, in fact, I think is 'BOTH'!! Because it might be that it all gets 'started' in 2011 to end in 2012, when you look at Calleman's matrix you see how each Underworld lasts a certain amount of time, so perhaps there is an overlap. He even mentions that there are overlaps between these Underworlds!.

READ THIS BOOK!! YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF!!
The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness

Challenging but significant reading
This is an in-depth review of the Mayan calendar and its implications for our current time - for those interested in our Spiritual life on this earth, this is an important and well explained perspective from the Mayan calendar.It is relevant to today.

Very happy with the book.
The book was received in a short period of time in new condition.
I am thrilled with the book.

The right book for the coming years
This book eliminates the guess and gives our journey meaning- towards higher consciousness. Thank you Calle,
Hans ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An importantbook
I'm sorry to hear the allegation that some people didn't receive the credit they deserved for the book; however, it'simportant to keep in mind that we're only hearing one side of the story from Arturo Arias' review.Moreover, even if one accepts the worst regarding what Arias is saying, it seems to me that if he was concerned about Menchu's message getting circulated, he would've noted the importance of "Crossing Borders" and not sabotage the book by focusing exclusively on this scandal.He could've recognized the importance of getting Menchu's words translated, and that "Crossing Borders" is a vital contribution to our knowledge of communities under assault from military forces, corporatists, and various extractive industries.Mayan Indians and oppressed indigenous people around the world can hardly afford to have their concerns ignored due to battles between academics.Hopefully, people will not let the tag of "intellectual theft" dissuade them from purchasing this book, which covers more pressing issues such as the on-going theft indigenous people experience on a massive and lethal scale.
If others deserve credit for the book, they should take it up with Verso and it can be remedied in future editions; but let's not commit another crime by ignoring "Crossing Borders" due to Arias' "review."With all the suffering of indigenous people, the efforts of David Stoll to dismiss "I, Rigoberta" and Arias' review to dismiss "Crossing Borders" seem a bit misplaced.They're the sorts of smears one would expect from the Pentagon's psy-ops personnel, PR firms like the Rendon Group, or the Guatemalan military.
Regarding the "Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People" that Menchu discusses in the book, "Cultural Survival" magazine is an excellent resource for keeping current on the development and effects of that document. www.cs.org

Another important resource regarding Rigoberta Menchu and the struggles of indigenous people is the DVD, "When the Mountains Tremble."There may exist some circumstance that would enable Stoll or Arias to dismiss this award-winning film, but hopefully they'll find better things to do.

Ann Wright stole the work of Dante Liano and Gianni Minna
A message from Arturo Arias

Dear Central Americanists:

I utilizethis network to inform you of a recent intellectual theft suffered by thedistinguished Guatemalan writer Dante Liano, presently teaching at theUniversity of Milan (despite his name, he is not Italian). Dante is an oldfriend of Rigoberta Menchu, and along with Italian journalist Gianni Minna,decided with her to write her second book. They play the role played byElizabeth Burgos in the first, with the added touch that it was all donewith Rigoberta's complicity, unlike what happened in the first book. In theSpanish edition, titled "Rigoberta: La nieta de los mayas" it isexplicit that the book is "por Rigoberta Menchu, con la colaboracionde Dante Liano y Gianni Mina." There is a prologue by Gianni Minaexplaining their collaboration, and a small section called"agradecimientos" by Rigoberta herself, in which she thanksexplicitly Dante Liano "Especialmente para respetar o al menosacomodar correctamente el uso de las reglas literarias en el idiomaespanol. Hicimos con Dante Liano un enorme esfuerzo para conciliar lamanera de vivir, pensar, entender y expresar un gran pedazo de mi vida enQ'iche... algo muy grande que nos ayudo para que la lluvia de palabrasculminara en una meta, fue el hecho de que nacimos en una misma tierra,compartimos las mismas raices y nuestros suenos atraviesan los mismoscaminos" (26). However, in the English edition recently published byVerso, neither Mina'swork nor Liano's is recognized at all. If you look atthe edition, the translator, Ann Wright, speaks as if she was thecompilator, takes credit for the work, and nowhere at all mentions the workof either Liano or Minna. I quote a private message from Liano:

Porejemplo, mientras estaba en Chicago me entere (a traves de Beverley) que ellibro de Rigoberta habia salido sin mi nombre ni el de Mina. Fuimos conRaul a comprar el libro y casi caigo muerto cuando, al revisarlo, comprobeque no solo no estabamos en la portada, como el contrato decia, sino que noestabamos absolutamente por ninguna parte. Borrados. La traductora, lasenyora Ann Wright, tiene el tupe de echarse un prologo para explicar sus"dificultades" (!) para traducir y para transcribir el texto,comosi lo hubiera hecho ella. Me basto darle una ojeada para darme cuentaqueera una vil traduccion de lo que yo habia redactado. Lo unico que hicieronfue hacer un montaje diferente. Al llegar aqui puse a Gianni Mina enconocimiento del asunto y este monto en colera... Rigoberta dice que a ellano le consultaron ningun cambio y que, en efecto, ella se atiene alcontrato.

This is intellectual theft, pure and simple, from both AnnWright and Verso, making invisible the efforts of a major Guatemalan writerand a close friend and collaborator of Rigoberta's, against her own will.Please circulate this information as much as possible throughout yournetworks, so that the intellectual world becomes aware of this act ofpiracy and discredits both Verso and Ann Wright.

Arturo Arias ... Read more

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In 1979, a Kekchi Maya Indian accidentally discovered the entrance to Naj Tunich, a deep cave in the Maya Mountains of El Peten, Guatemala. One of the world's few deep caves that contain rock art, Naj Tunich features figural images and hieroglyphic inscriptions that have helped to revolutionize our understanding of ancient Maya art and ritual. In this book, Andrea Stone takes a comprehensive look at Maya cave painting from Preconquest times to the Colonial period. After surveying Mesoamerican cave and rock painting sites and discussing all twenty-five known painted caves in the Maya area, she focuses extensively on Naj Tunich. Her text analyzes the images and inscriptions, while photographs and line drawings provide a complete visual catalog of the cave art, some of which has been subsequently destroyed by vandals. This important new body of images and texts enlarges our understanding of the Maya view of sacred landscape and the role of caves in ritual. It will be important reading for all students of the Maya, as well as for others interested in cave art and in human relationships with the natural environment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Underground Maya
THE UNDERGROUND MAYA

In 1979, the Naj Tunich cave in Guatemala was discovered and found to contain a wealth of ancient Mayan paintings and hieroglyphic writing.This discovery, and the National Geographic cover article that followed (Stuart GE, Aug. 1981, p. 220), prompted a surge of interest in Mesoamerican cave art and cave archeology.One might have expected the ancient Mayas to shun caves, which were entrances to the dangerous underworld in Mayan mythology, and dwellings of hazardous supernatural beings, but possibly these very features made caves important landmarks of the "sacred geography" of Mesoamerican culture.

New World cave paintings are scanty in comparison with the better-known and much more extensive Paleolithic cave art of Europe.Nevertheless, there are about 40 known Mesoamerican painted caves, ranging in date from the Archaic to the Colonial Periods; 25 of these are discussed in this book.Dr. Stone's focus, however, is on the Naj Tunich cave, and its extensive Late Classic Mayan painting (A.D. 692-771).

Dr.Stone presents a quite readable discussion of Mesoamerican cave painting, and describes, at least in a cursory way, many of the known sites.She then presents a catalog of the Naj Tunich paintings, illustrated by drawings and photographs.Many of the photographs predate the extensive and tragic vandalism that occurred in 1989.Twelve color plates are included, although the use of colored pigment was seemingly minimal at Naj Tunich; overall the book is extensively and seemingly comprehensively illustrated.

Other than painting, exactly what the Mayans did, barefoot by the flickering light of torches, within those caverns is unknown.Presumably much activity was of a ritual character. However, a few drawings are of an erotic nature, which is evidently unusual in Mayan art.The author's speculation about these perhaps tells us as much about the author as about anything else; she pictures a male-only assembly (page 145), removed from public (and female) observation, leering and chuckling lewdly at bawdy drawings and performances.This postulated behavior is lacking (perhaps regrettably) in most such assemblies of which I have been a part, but, hey, it could happen.But reading all such speculations invariably recalls stories of future archeologists digging up our civilization and concluding that we worshipped a deity named Coca-Cola.

Interestingly, Michael D. Coe (in "Breaking the Maya Code") says that some of the Naj Tunich paintings depict "realistic homoerotic encounters." Either Dr.Coe was wrong or some editing has occurred; certainly no such encounters are illustrated or described.If there is indeed some bowdlerization of the cave's described content, it is a pity.A contemporary Mayan guide once told me that the great Mayan cities had been abandoned because of the scandalous homosexual behavior of the ruling classes. Perhaps this was intended to shock the credulous gringo, but there could a grain of distant truth in it.Further, a homophobic or puritanical response to homoerotic drawings might in part account for the deliberate, systematic, and vicious vandalism that destroyed or defaced so much of the cave's fragile artwork.

If you believe that the hieroglyphic inscriptions explain the cave's ritual or recreational use, or that the ancient Mayan written language has been fully deciphered, you should read, or try to read, Chapter 7.In this chapter, which discusses the cave's hieroglyphic writing, the text plummets into a welter of Yucatec words and toponyms, logographs, suffixes, and other technicalities that are doubtless useful and illuminating to a select few.I admit to abandoning the chapter after a few pages; I'd have preferred some best-guess translations accompanying the hieroglyphic texts.I have a suspicion that some of these would translate along the lines of, "FRED JONES WAS HERE 1999 UCLA SUCKS BIGTIME!" or perhaps, "THIS WAY TO EXIT."

In summary, this is one of those books that sits on a slightly precarious boundary between a scholarly monograph and a "popular" art book.I expect it is worthwhile in both worlds.Overall, and despite the dreaded Chapter 7, the book is excellently written, well illustrated, and beautifully produced.It forms an excellent addition to any collection of Mesoamerican art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

worst piece of garbage
This book contains so many falsehoods! I was present in San Antonio Aguas Calientes when the events described ... what was written is ABSOLUTE GARBAGE ... do not waste your money! The editor should have made an effort to verify the information submitted!

Case histories of an ethnic tragedy....
Rather than a comprehensive book about modern guatemala or a human rightsthesis this is an anthropological study of violence.

There are 10different case histories all written by different people who are among thetop guatemalan scholars. In these case histories is information andanalysis that isn't available in most books and it covers some areas of thecountry not always touched on by scholars. The whole thing is held togetherby an exellent 35 page introduction and a final chapter of conclusion witha wonderful chronology of events. Over all an exellent book for seriousstudents but maybe not for beginners.

This is a study about the mayanpeople that provides exellent incites from the perspective of socialanthropologists and ethnographers as opposed to activists or journalists.The contributors have spent enormous amounts of time with their subjectsand know them well.

.............socks ... Read more

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This is a vital, worthwhile book that fills an important need and is very much in phase with current anthropological thinking. . . . This anthology will be particularly rewarding to readers interested in traditional indigenous communities and the insight gleaned from a detailed consideration of cloth and clothing." --American Anthropologist"The essays in this book are informative and a pleasure to read. Collectively they make the reader want to journey to Mesoamerica and the Andes to view in person the cloth and clothing of the indigenous communities." --Latin American Anthropology ReviewIn this volume, anthropologists, art historians, fiber artists, and technologists come together to explore the meanings, uses, and fabrication of textiles in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia from Precolumbian times to the present. Originally published in 1991 by Garland Publishing, the book grew out of a 1987 symposium held in conjunction with the exhibit "Costume as Communication: Ethnographic Costumes and Textiles from Middle America and the Central Andes of South America" at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University. ... Read more

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Intensive excavations in settlement areas within greater Tikal generated far more than an understanding of the complex gradations of social classes at this lowland Maya site. Identification of a specific architectural pattern associated with relatively small shrines on the eastern side of certain residential groups, and of a distinctive mortuary program, provides a means by which a "plaza plan" can be predicted using good site maps alone. This discovery enabled archaeologists to predict locations for high-status burials in residential as well as in ceremonial areas.

Application of these findings at sites beyond Tikal has been demonstrated to be successful throughout the region and even beyond the Maya heartland. Identification of this "plaza plan" also has led us to recognize nine other architectural group plans at Tikal, providing a model for planning excavation strategies and developing theories of cultural change at Tikal and other Maya sites.

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"This is an important book because there has been a need for an authoritative survey of medical practices in Mesoamerica. This has been an active research area, with widely dispersed reports, and this synthesis will fill a definite need. . . . The various authors are the recognized authorities in their field."--Bernard Ortiz de Montellano, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Wayne State UniversityHealing practices in Mesoamerica span a wide range, from traditional folk medicine with roots reaching back into the prehispanic era to westernized biomedicine. These sometimes cooperating, sometimes competing practices have attracted attention from researchers and the public alike, as interest in alternative medicine and holistic healing continues to grow. Responding to this interest, the essays in this book offer a comprehensive, state-of-the-art survey of Mesoamerican healers and medical practices in Mexico and Guatemala. The first two essays describe the work of prehispanic and colonial healers and show how their roles changed over time. The remaining essays look at contemporary healers, including bonesetters, curers, midwives, nurses, physicians, social workers, and spiritualists. Using a variety of theoretical approaches, the authors examine such topics as the intersection of gender and curing, the recruitment of healers and their training, healers' compensation and workload, types of illnesses treated and recommended treatments, conceptual models used in diagnosis and treatment, and the relationships among healers and between indigenous healers and medical and political authorities. ... Read more