The investigation analyses the grammatical and semantic properties of a number of commonly occurring time words in Lakandon Maya, the least described of the four existing Yukatekan languages spoken in southern Mexico and in parts of Guatemala and Belize. Lakandon Maya has around 800 speakers who live in one of two settlements in the southeastern lowlands of Chiapas, Mexico. The language materials that the analysis rests on were collected by the author in the field as part of a documentation effort supported and funded by the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP) at SOAS, University of London. In Lakandon Maya, deictic time words such as 7uhch ('before', 'long ago') and ka7chik ('before', 'previously') have pragmatically dependent features of meaning that relate to the indexical ground rather than the before-after relations relevant to time reference proper. The salient meaning in the two forms can best be described in terms of knowledge asymmetries between the speech participants. However, such modal-like semantics do not exclude the forms from being considered as operators of time reference since they are only used in specific temporal contexts. The results of the investigation point to a shift in meaning in the forms that cannot be anticipated from the available literature on other Yukatekan languages. There, cognates of the investigated forms have been described solely as temporal operators with simultaneous, anterior, and posterior meaning. The investigation argues for a separation between time words that uses the speech situation as the sole point of reference and time words that denote a relation between two events. This separation is defined in terms of speaker-dependent and event-dependent time reference. These concepts are analogous to absolute and relative time reference but should be considered as separate due to the pragmatic motivations that underlie the function and use of the forms.

This dissertation presents data to support the continuity of warfare throughout the Maya lowlands, and adjacent regions. I discuss the current problems with the archaeology of warfare, the continuity of conflict beginning with the Late Preclassic through the Terminal Classic. Additionally, I emphasize the influence that Teotihuacan had during the Early Classic throughout Mesoamerica, while in some areas there is evidence of diplomatic and economic relations, there is also clear evidence of forced relations at other sites. Conflict is identified on the archaeological record through the heterarchical analysis of a variety of data encompassing defensive features, settlement patterns, epigraphy, iconography, and forensic data. I examine data from San Jose Mogote, Monte Alban, Montana, Izapa, Kaminaljuyu, and sites located within the northern, central, and southern lowlands. The primary goal is to present a cohesive series of war-related events per lowland zone, and chronological time period. Some of the primary questions deal with how land use, and economic trade relations transform political relations and alliances throughout time. Additionally, how do changes in political alliances affect trade routes? By recognizing the important role warfare played in the lowlands, we also recognize how these events affected the elites and their interaction with other polities, and most importantly how these events affected the commoner populace. In the process of investigating conflict throughout the Preclassic and the Classic periods, we can attempt to pinpoint continuities, political and economic changes, and the sociopolitical responses undertaken by polities in a time of war. / text

Premise of the Study: There is growing interest in understanding plant–plant interactions via pollen transfer at the community level. Studies on the structure and spatial variability of pollen transfer networks have been valuable to this understanding. However, there is high variability in the intensity of sampling used to characterize pollen transfer interactions, which could influence network structure. To date, there is no knowledge of how sampling effort influences the richness of pollen on stigmas and thereby transfer interactions observed, nor how this may vary across species and study sites. Methods: We use rarefaction curves on 16 species to characterize the relationship between sampling effort (number of stigmas analyzed) and the richness of pollen transfer interactions recorded. We further assess variability in this relationship among species, plant community types, and sites within a single plant community. Key Results: We show high among-species variation in the amount of sampling required to sufficiently characterize interspecific pollen transfer. We further reveal variability in the sampling effort-interaction richness relationship among different plant communities and even for the same species growing in different sites. Conclusions: The wide heterogeneity in the sampling effort required to accurately characterize pollen transfer interactions observed has the potential to influence the characterization of pollen transfer dynamics. Thus, sampling completeness should be considered in future studies to avoid overestimation of modularity and specialization in pollen transfer networks that may bias the predicted causes and expected consequences of such processes for plant–plant interactions.