Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Anthropology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-278).

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [68]-70).

Thesis (Ph. D. in Anthropology)--Vanderbilt University, Dec. 2008. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Before 1968, Blue Creek Village was comprised of Mayan Indians living their traditional way of life, growing corn, beans, and rice, caring for their homes and family. The years following 1968, Blue Creek Village began to see development and change. Between the years of 1968-1971, a road, Catholic Church and an ecotourism site were built, the International Zoological Expedition (IZE). Three years later a primary school was built (1974-75) and finally in 1978 an agriculture building was built. Only 9% of the people living in Blue Creek Village had no formal schooling. Two generations of the Blue Creek Village people experienced and were affected by developmental changes occurring in their community.During the summer of 1999 (May 13 - August 8), I studied the Mayan Indians to determine how ecotourism, education, and gender influence the cash income earned by the Mayan people and how education is influenced by ecotourism, gender, age, individual, family/generational or community decisions. Blue Creek Village, Belize, was chosen as the site of study because Mayan Indians lived a traditional lifestyle and it was adjacent to an ecotourism location, the IZE Blue Creek Rainforest Preserve in the Maya Mountains. Ethnographic interviews and participant observations were used to obtain responses and demographic data of the local Mayan people. From these responses the statistical analysis revealed that education does influence the cash income of the local Mayan people in Blue Creek Village. Prior to the IZE Rainforest Preserve, the Mayan men's only source of cash income was through rice production, and women were unable to earn cash. The cash earned from the visiting tourists assisted families by providing cash income to pay for an education for their children. / Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management

Classic Maya civilization which flourished A.D. 250- 900 fell from causes unknown. This study traces the evidences and interpretations of those who sought to explain the downfall. Discussion begins with treatment of the ideas of pre-archaeological travellers to the region and then shifts to the twentieth century. Themes of internal collapse are explored, first focusing on such catastrophes as earthquakes and epidemics, followed by an examination of Maya gricultural technology and its possible failure. The fifth chapter, on internal violence and external influences as causes of Maya collapse, analyzes theories of peasant revolt, wars between autonomous Maya city-states., and the strong possibility of outright invasion by other aboriginal peoples.

This dissertation is concerned with the role material culture played in transformation and/or retention of Maya authority, just prior to and after Spanish contact (A.D. 1100-1800s). The primary research data used to discuss this transition was derived from the author's analysis of precolumbian and colonial artifacts from the Ciudadela Structure (YUC 2) in Tíhoo/Mérida, Yucatán-an assemblage originally collected by John Goggin in 1956 and 1957 and currently housed at the University of Florida-Florida Museum of Natural History. As one of the last standing structures in the Maya site of Tíhoo, now buried beneath the Spanish capital city Mérida, the Ciudadela collection represents a rare glimpse into a significant, yet understudied, Type 1 archaeological site. Included in this project are a general examination of Maya studies in the Northwestern Yucatán Corridor and the results of my preliminary classification and viii discussion of materials represented in the YUC 2 assemblage. I t is important to note that as a part of this project, I created the first comprehensive catalogs for the YUC 2 Ciudadela collection, entitled FMNH YUC 2: Catalog of Artifacts, FMNH YUC 2: Ceramic Stylistic Catalog and FMNH YUC 2: Non-Ceramic Catalog. Results of the archaeological component of this study illustrated that there was little change in production of indigenous pottery after the fall of Mayapan (ca. A.D. 1441-1461), as inhabitants of precolumbian Tâihoo continued to use preexisting wares from their former capital, particularly those within the Mayapan Red Ware and Mayapan Unslipped Ware classifications, well into the Colonial period. In the Post-Colonial period, a significant change in wares occurred as native inhabitants incorporated foreign ceramic types into their society. / Ceramics from Spain, Italy, and England, and porcelains from China and Japan, combined with colonial Mexican Majolica and preexisting Mayapan wares, illustrate the interaction of native inhabitants with European immigrants and their import goods. Although the YUC 2 collection supported the transformation of material culture after Spanish contact, the Maya, through religious practices, militaristic resistance, and oral/written traditions, were able to retain significant aspects of their precolumbian power into the colonial era and beyond. / by Rhianna C. Rogers. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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 topic of my dissertation is the architectural symbolism of the Maya ballcourt. The typical Mesoamerican ballcourt is a sunken playing surface that is situated between two parallel mounds that form a cleft in the earth, resembling the cleft Mountain of Creation. In fact, the ballcourt was an architectural analog of the Mountain of Creation and they shared a number of associations. In Chapter 1 I discuss previous research on the ballgame pertinent to my arguments. Chapter 2 is an analysis of a particular ballgame between a bird and a deer that I interpret as metaphorical of the hunt, sacrifice, and the vision quest. Chapter 3 is a summary of the concept of the sacred mountain in various locations around the world with an emphasis on Central America. In Chapter 4 the discussion focuses on the pattern as it appears in its most complete form at Y axchilan. The connection between dance and the cleft in the Mountain of Creation is analyzed in Chapter 5. First Father and his importance regarding creation, the ballgame, and the ballcourt is the emphasis of Chapter 6. Elements of the pattern as they appear at Copan and Piedras Negras is the topic of Chapter 7. Within Chapter 8 I discuss elements of the pattern as they appear outside the Maya area at Teotihuacan, El Tajin, Tenochtitlan, and in various central Mexican codices. I conclude that the association between the ballcourt and the cleft Mountain of Creation, which began at the Olmec site of La Venta, permeated the cosmology of later civilizations, with the Maya serving as the prime example. Elements of this cosmo-political pattern were so widespread as to make it abundantly clear that this overall pattern served as the ideological foundation of Mesoamerican civilization from the time of the Olmec until the coming of the Spaniards. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--McMaster University, 2003. / Advisor: L. Finsten. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-163). Also available via World Wide Web.