This dissertation is a theoretical and experimental investigation of number marking in Yucatec Maya, a language in which number marking has different properties than better known Indo-European languages with inflectional plural marking and obligatory number agreement. The primary goal of this thesis is to propose a formal syntactic analysis of plural marking in Yucatec Maya in the nominal and verbal domains. I do this by examining the distribution and interpretation of the plural morpheme and by proposing an analysis within a Minimalist framework. The secondary goal is to investigate how the formal representation of plural marking interacts with real-time sentence processing mechanisms. I do this through timed translation experiments (and a picture description experiment) with bilingual speakers of Yucatec Maya and Spanish, two languages in which the formal representation of number marking and agreement differs. These experiments are tests of the formal syntactic analyses proposed in this thesis, and they examine the effect of language-particular syntax on sentence processing mechanisms. In the nominal domain, I argue that the plural marker is adjoined to the Determiner Phrase, rather than heading a Number Phrase, following the syntax of plural marking proposed by Wiltschko (2008). It merges as an adjunct to the DP, lacking the ability to change the label of the element with which it merges. This analysis explains the distributional and interpretational properties of plural marking as well as the otherwise peculiar lack of morphosyntactic persistence in certain conditions in an experimental translation task. I also propose an analysis of plural marking in the verbal domain and its relationship to word order. In verb-initial clauses, the aspect-mood particle is the main predicate in T⁰ which is φ-deficient. There is no Agree for number between the plural-marked full DP and verb due to the absence of C⁰ (Chomsky 2008). For DP-initial clauses, a DP bearing plural morphology moves to the CP domain, triggered by a topic or focus feature. The uninterpretable number feature on C⁰ probes via T⁰ for an interpretable valued feature in its domain (Chomsky 2001). This analysis predicts asymmetric number agreement in Yucatec Maya, which is tested experimentally.

This dissertation is an ethnographic work describing how foodways have become central to identity negotiation in a Maya village that has recently been impacted by evangelical conversion and tourism. This village is in the region of Quintana Roo, Mexico best known for its involvement in the Caste Wars of Yucatán and historic resistance to assimilation to Mexican identity. However, in recent years, the demand for inexpensive labor in the hotel zone of the Caribbean coast of Quintana Roo has led to improved infrastructure and transportation to these villages. With this improved infrastructure has come increased outside interaction including the establishment of evangelical churches and day labor buses. These combined influences of religion and labor changes have led to new ways of negotiating identity that had not previously existed in village life here. Because life in this village had always centered on subsistence farming and its associated food getting and food making tasks, the option for wage labor and evangelical religion have provided a support system for those unable or unwilling to participate in traditional forms of subsistence. The new social structures are often negotiated using food and foodways as a declaration of belonging or resistance. My work provides vignettes describing these processes of identity negotiation at the national, regional and familial levels. / text

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This project is concerned with obstetric complications and cesarean births in a Yucatec Maya community that has recently began interacting with global market economies and Western biomedicine. ​This research engages with maternal health, reproductive biology, colonial histories, and the global trend of increasing cesarean births. The Yucatec Maya are a short statured population [average adult female height 2010 = 143.2 cm] with historically low obstetric complications and maternal mortality. In the last 30 years, CS rates have risen to account for 25% of all births in this community. Because extreme short stature for population has been linked to obstructed labor and birth complications, this project was designed to determine if stature is impacting the rising rate of CS. Reproductive outcomes and obstetric complications were modeled against height in 3 age cohorts of mothers using one-way ANOVA with a Bonferroni-post hoc test and univariate general linear models. No statistical evidence was found to indicate that stature is related to reproductive outcomes or obstetric complications; however, there is an association between short stature and likelihood of cesarean birth. The dramatic change in birth mode in this population may be attributed to increased availability of biomedical resources, doctor-driven perceptions of indigenous women, and low capacity of rural public hospitals to serve numerous patients in labor.

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.

This ethnographically informed dissertation focuses on the ways rural Yucatec Maya women, midwives and state health care workers participate in the production of childbirth and maternal health care practices. It further addresses how state health programs influence the relationships and interactions between these groups. Although childbirth practices in Yucatan have always been characterized by contestation, negotiation and change, their intensity and speed have significantly increased over the last decade. Drastic changes in the maternal health of rural indigenous communities in Mexico and throughout the world are directly connected to intensified state interventions that favor biomedicine over traditional health systems. In rural Yucatan, state health programs such as Oportunidades and Seguro Popular support a biomedical approach to birth by distributing medical resources to government clinics/hospitals and encouraging program participation of poor women through conditional cash incentives. This dissertation seeks to interrogate changing childbirth practices in a rural indigenous community in Quintana Roo, MX to gain a deeper understanding of the complex politics that shape local understandings and approaches to childbirth. It further explores how shifting social relations and political alliances are created within the context of reproductive health. This ethnography highlights how Yucatec Maya women envision a productive, yet negotiated, relationship with the state that allows them control of their prenatal and maternal health while engaging with state health programs. Focusing on the cultural production of childbirth in a rural community in southwestern Quintana Roo, this research seeks to explore the dynamic ways in which indigenous communities are reproduced over time through moments of engagement and contestation with the state. The Maya women in this dissertation exist at the margins of the Mexican government’s concerns, policies, and resources. Yet, even at the margins the influence and power of state ideology and policies intimately affect the lives of rural indigenous women. The core argument of this dissertation is that these women, who rely on traditional and historical experience, create strategies for survival and social reproduction despite their marginalized position within the Mexican state. This research draws from over a decade of fieldwork. Predissertation fieldwork took place during the summer months of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, and 2010. I completed my dissertation fieldwork from January to October of 2013. During that time, I conducted 60 formal and informal interviews and a small survey. Additionally, a large portion of my research took place with a local family that consisted of female healers and health educators, whom I extensively interviewed and conducted hundreds of hours of participant observation. The family was the locus of authoritative knowledge in the community and they provided vital insights into community life and local understandings and approaches to reproductive health. This dissertation follows the Latin American tradition of using testimonios to articulate—and reflexively examine—the layered meanings and intersecting politics that shape changing childbirth practices in rural Yucatan.