This dissertation presents the results of an ethnoarchaeological study of Kaqchikel Maya ceremonies in the southwestern highlands of Guatemala. The Maya view the Earth as being animate and sacred. Within this earthscape exist places that are especially alive and powerful. These are sacred earthmarks. Ceremonies are performed at these locations to communicate with this animate world as well as provide the maintenance necessary to keep the relationship between the natural and supernatural in balance. These special places can be various geographic locations including caves, rockshelters, mountain tops, boulders, cliffs, rivers, and archaeological sites. Inquiries into Maya cosmology show that the earth is of central importance and questions assumptions concerning the multi level worldview of sky, earth, and underworld. Furthermore, this work challenges the long tradition among Maya researchers of associating caves with the underworld. Data for this dissertation was gathered over eight seasons of fieldwork that included visiting over 65 sites. At each site a ceremony was performed by a ritual specialist; the author directly participated in the majority of these ceremonies. Theoretically, the data and insights are used as a basis for constructing ethnographic models used as analogs in the interpretation and reconstruction of pre-contact ritual contexts, especially those found in caves. This research found that four phases were observed as part of the ceremonial process. These phases include a consultation phase, a preparation phase, a communication phase, and a termination phase. Of the various materials utilized many had pre-contact antecedents. Discussions are included on the use of brooms, sticks or staffs, and torches by the pre-contact and contemporary Maya. The study further documented that sacred sites are dynamic, constantly changing spaces often modified in the process of use. Altars are assembled, disassembled, and/or relocated. Sweeping, or altar activation, affects the depositional nature of these sites. Offerings are constructed at these sites utilizing a variety of materials to "feed" the ancestors and spiritual guardians found at these sacred portals. Numerous materials are used in a ceremonial offering for consumption. Materials used include: colored candles, numerous types of resin-based incense, sugar, chocolate, cigars, breads, herbs, flowers, perfumed liquids, and liquor. / text

The initial purpose of this study was to explore how tourism in Guatemala is affecting indigenous weavers, weaving practices, and the transmission of weaving knowledge and experience from the current generation of Guatemalans to the next. Through extended on-site study and interviews with weavers in three towns in Guatemala—San Antonio Aguas Calientes, Antigua, and Santiago Zamora—it was learned that weaving practices in Guatemala are much more culturally and socially complex than what is disclosed on the surface. This study revealed that the transmission of weaving practices between generations is influenced significantly by the growing effects of globalization. Not only is globalization shaping the emerging generation’s participation in weaving in Guatemala, but it was seen in this study that prevalent global ideas and practices are also molding education, clothing styles, entertainment, economics, technology, and social media within the current younger generation of Guatemalans. These growing influences on Guatemalan society contribute to a diminished interest in weaving and perceived need for weavers in this country, and are thus constricting the transmission of local Maya culture from past generations to the next. This research was a combination of the weavers’ stories and my own journey through the cultural complexities found in three Guatemalan towns in order to reveal a rich and purposed view of current cultural practices of weaving in Guatemala. / text

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In response to the highly exclusionary Guatemalan state and the genocide of Mayas during the 1980s, the paradigmatic currents of the Maya Movement have been engaging the state in their struggle for rights. Some have been negotiating from within the Guatemalan government by occupying bureaucratic positions within less powerful state ministries. Other Maya actors press for more favorable socioeconomic policies using social movement tactics. While most literature focuses on the above two currents as a dichotomy, I argue that a third current of Maya politics has the most political potential. One promising example emerged in the course of the land struggle of San Jorge La Laguna (1992-1999). A sector of rural Mayas (mostly poor farmers and teachers) began to look away from the state in their quest for empowerment. They became less concerned with rights granted from a distant state, and prioritized instead practices that reach towards community self-determination and ontological autonomy. This clearly represents a third current of Maya politics grounded in the social fabric of rural Maya communities and their values, social relations, and worldview. This current, which I call Tejido Social (social fabric), is also possibly present in other spaces in Guatemala and likely had existed in prior times but did not pronounce itself publicly until this period. I use Escobar’s theorization of postliberal, postcapitalist politics of relationality to analyze the significance of this third tendency of Maya politics. This study contributes to the theorization of emerging third current / Afro-indigenous movements in the Americas through an ethnographic approach which focuses on political interventions that are lived principles embedded in socio-political practice. / text

This dissertation presents an analysis of Preclassic period (1000 B.C. – A.D. 250) funerary attributes of three Maya sites in northern Belize, Central America: Colha, Cuello, and K’axob. The dataset is comprised of 133 interments from Colha, 131 interments from Cuello, and 98 interments from K’axob for a total of 362 Preclassic interments. Analysis has been conducted on a suite of 12 variables representative of this dataset and their interrelatedness: age, sex, artifact material type, artifact material form, cranial orientation, burial position or posture, functional designation of architecture in which an interment is placed, presence or absence of indications of burning, presence or absence of red mineral pigmentation, functional designation of artifacts, presence or absence of a cross motif, and presence or absence of a head cover (vessel covering the cranium). This research project has four main objectives: 1) provide a structured presentation of Preclassic interment data for Colha, Cuello, and K’axob, 2) present a thorough and cogent analysis of the interrelatedness of the suite of variables abovementioned, 3) document any significant trends and anomalies that are evidenced within the funerary attributes of these sites, and finally 4) to offer an interpretation of those patterns and deviations seen within the analysis as they relate to intrasite and intersite social differentiation and dynamics through the Preclassic. The analysis within this volume demonstrates that the elaboration and variation of interment attributes increase over time in Preclassic at the three sites of study. This is paralleled by a development of ritual and ceremonial architecture for public activities. Differential access to materials and forms is indicated throughout the Middle, Late and Terminal Preclassic, with the level of disparity between the apparent elite and non-elite increasing over time. Adult males are generally accompanied by higher numbers and a greater variety of goods than are females and subadults. This indicates a power and/or status differential between the two sexes and age groups, with male adults being the most highly esteemed individuals within the social stratification system. This study demonstrates the dynamic and multifaceted material representations with which Preclassic Maya of Northern Belize expressed their identity in death. / text

Yucatec Maya (YM) is an indigenous language of Mexico that features both phonemic tonal distinctions and phonemic vowel length. These features are primarily associated with the phonetic cues of pitch and duration, which are also considered the primary correlates of stress in language. Though scholars have noted the existence of stress or accent since it was first documented centuries ago, no detailed account of stress as either a separate or related entity to tone or length has been made. This dissertation presents a unique view into YM prosody by looking at loan word incorporation in conjunction with native speaker intuitions, and production data. A case study of Spanish loan words into Yucatec finds that when Spanish words are incorporated into the YM prosodic system, the initial syllable undergoes lengthening. Statistical analyses performed on data from native speaker intuitions and production data, however, find no concrete pattern of obligatory stress on the word level in Yucatec Maya words.

The primary goal of this dissertation is to present an outline of the culture history of the site of La Milpa and its immediate sustaining area through the elaboration and elucidation of a ceramic chronology and typology. However, an equally important aspect of this dissertation is a thorough critique of the type-variety/mode (T-V) system of classification upon which Maya ceramic analysis has been based over the last forty years. The analysis presented here was completed using a relational database (Microsoft Access). By using this database program, it became clear that it is necessary to rethink the basis and use of the type-variety system and how (or whether) it can be adapted as a tool for use in database driven analysis.

No description available.

This thesis presents the results of petrographic point counting analyses of Muna Slate ware, thepredominant slipped ceramic ware in the Northern Maya Lowlands during the Late and TerminalClassic Periods (600-1000 A.D.) of Maya prehistory. Recently, it was hypothesized that MunaSlate wares were centrally produced and distributed from the Puuc Hills site of Sayil (Smyth andDore 1994; Smyth et al. 1995). Given that Muna Slate wares may be considered utilitariansubsistence items (sensu Brumfiel and Earle 1987), this suggestion runs counter to severalarguments that ancient Maya utilitarian ceramics production is associated with outlyingcommunities and that their distribution is localized. In the research presented here, the model ofMuna Slate ware production presented for Sayil is evaluated in terms of ceramic ecology,economic theory and models of craft distribution, the culture-historical context of Muna Slateware use, and previous studies of ceramic production and distribution in the Maya Lowlands.Muna Slate wares from three sites in the northern Lowlands - Kiuic, Labná, and Ek Balam –were then analyzed in order to test the whether or not Sayil was the sole producer of theseceramics.

Variation in domestic architecture results from the agency households exercise in their daily lives. This study defines the domestic expression of the megalithic architectural style, based on data collected in and around the ancient Maya site of Ucí, Yucatan, Mexico, by comparing it to its expression in monumental structures. It also shows how the analysis and documentation of architectural variability away from the monumental core can locate more than just commoners and elites within the social organization of the Ancient Maya. This analyzes provides evidence for higher social status for households that possess megalithic architecture since they also possess larger platform volumes and more structures in a compound than non-megalithic groups. Concentration of megalithic platforms also indicate potential communities that often share similar orientation ranges. The diversity in style, size, and quality of stones in domestic settings provide archaeologists with clues to how these households differentially utilized their social, economic, and political resources reflecting the degree of power possessed by each household in relation to each other, the larger community, and beyond. The methodology used here can be replicated for other stone architectures, providing a means by which to differentiate households of similar construction on attributes other than size.