This project presents an historical and sociological vision of indigenous Maya/Mam spirituality. The historical damage caused by the European invasion continues as modern exploitation that is causing a mass exodus towards the north. The project describes the survival of the Maya/Mam now living in the Metro District of The United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, and attempting to combine their new Christian faith with their ancestral spirituality preserved for more than 500 years. To include the generation of indigenous people born in the Diaspora takes transformative leadership. Key words: indigenous, Maya/Mam, spirituality, leadership.

The use of Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) technology is revolutionizing Maya archaeology, as it penetrates through thick vegetation prevalent in Maya environments, uncovering the structures and features below. At the site of El Mirador in the Petén Department of Guatemala, lidar data has been analyzed using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map features, such as residential buildings and quarries, that other technologies like satellite imagery have missed. El Mirador is a large site dating to the Preclassic through Post Classic periods (1000 BCE to 1500 BCE) and is argued to have the largest monumental architecture built by the Lowland Maya, but the nature of socioeconomic and political coordination at the site is poorly understood. Through analysis of quarry and residential structure volumes outlying areas of El Mirador at various distances from the city center, this research seeks to understand more about the nature of coordination at the site in terms of limestone production. Buffer zones of 150m and 300m were created around a central residence group in each selected area. This research shows that zones closer to the city center produced a greater volume of limestone than those further away; however, the quarries within each buffer zone did not produce enough stone even for the structures within their immediate zone. The total quarry volumes in the 150m buffer zones are greater than the combined volumes in the area between the 150m and 300m buffers, indicating a measure of coordination from each central structure group. Further research of quarrying at residential groups could help uncover the nature of supra-household coordination at Preclassic sites where the exact nature of elite involvement in quarrying is still not completely understood.

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