In 1938, the Carnegie Institution of Washington published the results of ethnoarchaeological research conducted in Guatemala and southern Mexico by North American archaeologist Robert Wauchope. This seminal work, titled Modern Maya Houses: A Study of Their Archaeological Significance, aimed to understand the significance of traditional Maya houses (known in the study region as casas de paja) for the identification and interpretation of ancient dwelling remains in archaeological excavations. At the time, Wauchope documented only ten distinct house types among six of the 28 Maya language (cultural) groups. Due to its narrow scope, Wauchope’s investigation focused more on the physical properties of house construction and less on the social behaviours and beliefs generating the architectural forms. In recognition of Wauchope’s survey remaining incomplete, the primary aim of this dissertation has been to ethnographically record and comparatively analyse the remaining casas de paja in contributing to a greater cross-cultural understanding and theory of the entire repertoire of Maya house architectures. In combining both architectural and anthropological method, the author was able to make a number of important research findings; most notably that a pan-Maya, and pre-Columbian, semantic relationship existed between individual house types, indexing a shared cultural history and proto-Maya house architecture that possibly originated as early as 4,000 years prior to present times. In addition to the architectural documentation of house traditions, the author also investigated the processes of house transformation and change in the 70 years since Wauchope’s original survey. The rapid rate of built environment transformation in both Guatemala and Mexico over those intervening years underscores the importance of recording these cultural traditions before they pass. In contemporary times the few remaining chozas or casas de paja stand as historical reminders to a time past but not forgotten and embody traditional knowledge related to cultural beliefs and behaviours, which are intimately linked to the land, materials and climate of the region. Chapter 1 of the dissertation introduces the study region and establishes the primary aims and objectives of the research. Chapters 2 and 3 present the theoretical background and methodological approach governing the research project while Chapter 4 gives an historical overview of Maya house traditions. Chapters 5 and 6 are devoted to the ethnographic findings of the regional survey and Chapter 7 discusses Maya house change in the years since Wauchope’s 1930s investigation. Chapter 8 details the contribution which the ethnographic investigation makes to Euromerican architectural theory in relation to non-Euromerican material and cultural histories in contributing to a world cross-cultural architectural canon and scholarship. In coming to a greater understanding of a past (pre-Columbian) and present (Maya casas de paja) subject, the thesis calls for an understanding, appreciation and acceptance of non-Euromerican architectural forms by Euromerican academics and practitioners in moving toward a greater acceptance of a diversity of human needs in the creation of social, cultural and built environments. The overall significance of this thesis lies in the position that the sustainability of lifestyle practices, and allocation of wisdom, skills, and the fulfilment of human needs, as embodied in building ‘traditions’, are of major relevance to current and future generations.

Studies in zoo-archaeological Neolithic contexts is the study of early animal domestication in relation to humans transitioning into a more sedentary species. Research and documentation are vital for reconstructing the mechanisms behind the threshold event. In this thesis, teeth of Suidae have been documented, analysed and compared osteologically and interpreted cross-culturally. In addition, aDNA, isotope, coat colour and physical mammal size affecting factor studies are presented to contextualise this thesis. Primary osteological methods are Mandibular Wear Stage (MWS), Linear Enamel Hypoplasia (LEH) recordings and lower jaw third molar (M3) length measurement. These methods can detect biometric domestication markers. The analysed Suidae teeth are from the Middle Neolithic site of Ajvide, Gotland, Sweden. A collection of modern wild boar act as Control sample. These teeth are compared primarily with known domestic pig teeth sample statistics from the British Late Neolithic site of Durrington Walls, Wiltshire, United Kingdom. Results indicate that the Middle Neolithic Pitted Ware culture (PWC) on Gotland hunted during winter and kept limited numbers of captive wild boars as totemic animals (pets) possibly bound to land and ancestry. However, an exact reconstruction of the PWC pig pet keeping practices are uncertain due to human-pig relationships being highly dynamic. Intensified pig hunting, not pet keeping should be considered early domestication. Domestication carries with it detectable biometric markers, which seem to be rare in the Neolithic. The cross-cultural comparisons on traditional pig ‘low-intensity husbandry’ can attest to a human-pig relationship of hunter-gatherers keeping captive wild animals. The pig was not a staple food for the PWC and thus not intensively hunted, rather pigs were rare ritualistic commodities and likely highly praised. Perpetuating this human-pig relationship could have been maintained by PWC ‘big men’ that engaged in socio-political lavish giveaways at festivities and funerals, thus ‘hogging wealth’, but never domesticated the pig. / Studier i neolitiska zoo-arkeologiska sammanhang är undersökningar av tidig domesticering av djur i förhållande till mänsklighetens övergång till en mer stillasittande art. Forskning och dokumentation är avgörande för att rekonstruera mekanismerna bakom övergången. I denna uppsats har svintänder dokumenterats, analyserats och jämförts osteologiskt och tolkats tvärkulturellt. Studier i aDNA, isotop, pälsfärg och fysiska storleksfaktorer hos däggdjur presenteras också för att kontextualisera denna uppsats. Primära osteologiska metoder är tandslitage i underkäke (MWS), linjär emaljhypoplasi (LEH) och underkäkens tredje molar (M3) mätningar. Dessa metoder kan finna biometriska domesticeringsmarkörer. De analyserade svintänderna kommer ifrån den mellanneolitiska lokalen Ajvide, Eksta socken, Gotland. En samling moderna vildsvin agerar kontrollmaterial. Dessa tänder jämförs i första hand med kända domesticerade stenåldersvin från den Brittiska senneolitiska lokalen Durrington Walls, Wiltshire, Storbritannien. Resultaten indikerar på att den mellanneolitiska gropkeramiska kulturen (GRK), jagade på Gotland under vinterhalvåret och tog tillfånga ett begränsat antal svin som husdjur (totemdjur). Troligen togs svin tillfånga av olika ’hus’ till följd av att svinet var bundet till land och förfäder. En exakt rekonstruktion av GRKs svinhållningspraktik är dock osäkert på grund av att människo-svin relationer är dynamiska. Intensifierad svinjakt, inte tillfångatagandet av enstaka djur bör betraktas som tidig domesticering. Domesticering medför speciella biometriska markörer som är ovanligare i neolitisk tid. De tvärkulturella jämförelserna i traditionell "lågintensiv svinhållning" kan intyga på ett sådant förhållande mellan jägare-samlar grupper och vildsvin. Även om svinet inte var en basföda åt GRK, och därmed inte intensivt jagade, var svinen sällsynta ritualistiska handelsvaror och troligen högt värdesatta. Gropkeramiska "stormän" kan ha varit de drivande bakom denna praktik. Dessa ”stormän” engagerade sig i sociopolitiska aktiviteter, festligheter och begravningar, och därmed hade "hamstrat välstånd", men domesticerade aldrig svinet.