Finite-state morphological modeling has been used in natural language processing for many years particularly when dealing with lower resource languages. The present study details the development of an open-source finite-state morphological model for the Q'eqchi' Maya language using Helsinki Finite-State Technology (HFST) and the Giellatekno infrastructure. This project represents the first comprehensive morphological analyzer for Q'eqchi' and sets a foundation for future work in data annotation for this language. The resulting transducer consists of 4,439 lexemes, 2,610 states and 9,558 transitions and covers between 75% and 85% of tokens in a Q'eqchi' corpus. The success of this project lays the groundwork for future work in improved automatic corpus annotation in Q'eqchi', as well as suggesting further success in the development of similar utilities for other Mayan languages.

Not available / text

Not available / text

Paleoecology has been only in recent decades applied to Mesoamerica; this thesis provides new records of paleoenvironmental changes in Guatemala. Paleoecological reconstructions are developed based mainly on pollen in the Lachuá lowlands and Purulhá highlands of the Las Verapaces Region. For the first time, quantitative vegetation and climate analyses are developed, and plant indicator taxa from vegetation belts are identified. Changes in vegetation are explained partially by elevation and climatic parameters, topography, drainage divides, and biogeography. Pollen rain and indicator plant taxa from vegetation belts were linked through a first modern pollen rain analysis based on bryophyte polsters and surface sediments. The latter contain fewer forest-interior plant taxa in both locations, and in the highlands, they contain higher local pollen content than in the lowlands. These calibrations aided vegetation reconstructions based on fossil pollen in sediment records from the Lachuá and Purulhá regions. Reconstructions for the last ~2000 years before present (BP) were developed based on fossil pollen from cores P-4 on a floodplain in Purulhá, and L-3, a wetland in Lachuá. Core P-4 suggests that Mayan populations developed a system of agricultural terraces in a former paleolake-swamp environment, which was abandoned at the time of the Spanish Conquest (~400 BP). Core L-3 indicates the abandonment of Mayan “Forest Gardens” at the time of the early Postclassic. These gardens likely prevailed during the Classic period (~300-1100 yrs BP) at the outskirts of the ancient city of Salinas de los Nueve Cerros. Following abandonment, forest recovery took place for about 800 yrs. Cultural factors are found to be more important in determining vegetation dynamics in this region, since no clear evidence of climate forcing was found. The P-4 and L-3 cores provide likely evidence that Mayan populations were, contrary to other evidence, innovative landscape managers. Scenarios in the Las Verapaces Region have been drastically modified in recent times (e.g. after the European Conquest), as suggested by pollen evidence in the top of both P-4 and L-3 cores, possibly due mostly to modern large scale natural resources exploitation, which represent environmental threats greater than any seen in the last ca. 2000 years.

No description available.

Paleoecology has been only in recent decades applied to Mesoamerica; this thesis provides new records of paleoenvironmental changes in Guatemala. Paleoecological reconstructions are developed based mainly on pollen in the Lachuá lowlands and Purulhá highlands of the Las Verapaces Region. For the first time, quantitative vegetation and climate analyses are developed, and plant indicator taxa from vegetation belts are identified. Changes in vegetation are explained partially by elevation and climatic parameters, topography, drainage divides, and biogeography. Pollen rain and indicator plant taxa from vegetation belts were linked through a first modern pollen rain analysis based on bryophyte polsters and surface sediments. The latter contain fewer forest-interior plant taxa in both locations, and in the highlands, they contain higher local pollen content than in the lowlands. These calibrations aided vegetation reconstructions based on fossil pollen in sediment records from the Lachuá and Purulhá regions. Reconstructions for the last ~2000 years before present (BP) were developed based on fossil pollen from cores P-4 on a floodplain in Purulhá, and L-3, a wetland in Lachuá. Core P-4 suggests that Mayan populations developed a system of agricultural terraces in a former paleolake-swamp environment, which was abandoned at the time of the Spanish Conquest (~400 BP). Core L-3 indicates the abandonment of Mayan “Forest Gardens” at the time of the early Postclassic. These gardens likely prevailed during the Classic period (~300-1100 yrs BP) at the outskirts of the ancient city of Salinas de los Nueve Cerros. Following abandonment, forest recovery took place for about 800 yrs. Cultural factors are found to be more important in determining vegetation dynamics in this region, since no clear evidence of climate forcing was found. The P-4 and L-3 cores provide likely evidence that Mayan populations were, contrary to other evidence, innovative landscape managers. Scenarios in the Las Verapaces Region have been drastically modified in recent times (e.g. after the European Conquest), as suggested by pollen evidence in the top of both P-4 and L-3 cores, possibly due mostly to modern large scale natural resources exploitation, which represent environmental threats greater than any seen in the last ca. 2000 years.

This thesis is a guidebook to the complex networks of representations in the Cob Mayan Jungle Adventure and Cob Mayan Village tours in Mexicos Mayan Riviera. Sold to tourists as opportunities to encounter an authentic Mayan culture and explore the ancient ruins at Cob, these excursions exemplify the crossroads at which touristic and Western scientific discourses construct a Mayan Other, and can therefore be scrutinized as staged post-colonial encounters mediated by scriptural and performative economies: the Museum of Maya Culture (Castaneda) and the scenario of discovery (Taylor). Tourist and Maya are not discrete identities but rather inter-related performances: the Maya become mysterious and jungle-connected while the tourist plays the modernized adventurer/discoverer. However, the tours foundations ultimately crumble due to uncanny and partial representations. As the roles and narratives that present the Maya as indigenous Other fracture, so too do those that construct the tourist as authoritative consumer of cultural differentiation.

Manos and metates are ubiquitous at archaeological sites in Mesoamerica. Unfortunately, grinding stones are understudied, and thus, not much is understood about them. Understanding that archaeology is based on the use of analogy to infer past life-ways, little work has been done to create analogies specifically for manos and metates. The purpose of this thesis is to study modern grinding stones used by Mayans living in Guatemala to better understand manos and metates used by ancient peoples. I worked for two field seasons in Guatemala recording the life histories of manos and metates used by the Q'eqchi' and K'iche', two contemporary Mayan groups. I conducted surveys with 97 people which highlighted the history of their grinding stones, associated cultural beliefs, their physical descriptions, and metate use-location. I also interviewed several men who manufacture manos and metates at two of the few existing metate quarries in Guatemala. After analyzing the information gathered, I determined many new ways to interpret manos and metates found within the archaeological record. Some of the implications of my study are the identification of wear patterns and the behaviors that cause these patterns. I also show that manos and metates can be multi-generational and are often passed from one generation to the next. Taboos that determine how people handle and use grinding stones as well as other cultural beliefs are discussed in my thesis. I also compare the use-location of manos and metates among the modern Maya to help interpret the locations of these tools among the Maya of the pre-Columbian site Cerén, El Salvador. Other contributions of this study include a correlation between the size and function of manos and metates and many ethnographic implications such as the manifestation of gender roles through grinding stones and the gradual loss of cultural traditions due to economic development. Finally, this study has preserved information on the production and use of manos and metates. These traditional utilitarian tools will soon be abandoned by the Mayans of Guatemala and further study may not be possible.

In the coverage of the Mayan Train in the Southeast of Mexico, national newspapers have either ignored Indigenous peoples as the main stakeholders affected by this project or portrayed them as victims and enemies of modernization. The purpose of this study is to analyse how the Mexican newspapers, La Jornada & Reforma, have omitted or ‘othered’ Indigenous communities in their coverage of the Mayan Train between March and June 2022. Fifteen articles from each newspaper were chosen to be analysed to show how most of them collectivize Indigenous peoples into a minority that is represented as ignorant and in need. The language used to describe Mayan pueblos in these articles reduces Indigeneity to ideas related to the past, poverty and violence, among other concepts which evidence an ideological disconnection between environmental issues and Indigenous concerns. These media omissions and language choices do not only contribute to the othering of the Mayan identity and individuality which are already threatened by this project, but to a racist and discriminatory treat against them. This thesis aims to bring up questions about the representation of Indigenous peoples in national news media articles, as well as to think about how the rebuilding of these could help influence public mindset to incorporate Indigenous communities in environmental concerns in Mexico.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:21:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana Ines Nones.pdf: 3468399 bytes, checksum: d8aafee904ceb6d14c7de639e74a9edf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-12 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / In this writing I report the daily life and the socio-historic conditions of the Mayan youth in the municipality of Ixcan, Guatemala. I experienced the young diversity through the exchange of aspirations, challenges and personal pursuits. I witnessed, through the subtlety of the social relations, the tension, the care, and the relations between the different generations. This exercise demanded time as the interpersonal relationships require the perception of the bonds of belonging, the interweaving of the cultural relations and the creativity to survive during the times of historic and social changes. The historic conditions generated movements of disorder/reorder in the life of the Mayan people and resounds on the different experiences of the youth. The history of the youth interweaves with the history of their forbearers. The process of Spanish colonization, imposed other ways of life to the Mayan people, and the dream of the land, that was usurped during the thirty six years of the civil war, made of Ixcan, a place that represented the hope, an experience of horror and traumas. The violence of the conflicts destabilized and dissipated the social fabric, shaking familial, social, and communal relationships. Its images and noises impregnated the mind of the youth. The participation and the youth protagonism, after the Peace Deal in 1996, were of surmountable importance in the reestablishment of the peace that was extremely sought after. Today the media delineates new interconnections in the different youth outlooks / Nessa dissertação relato a vida cotidiana e as condições sócio-históricas da juventude Maia do Município de Ixcán, Guatemala. Percebi a diversidade juvenil no intercâmbio de aspirações, buscas e desafios e nas sutilezas das relações sociais nas quais presenciei tensões, afetos, relacionamentos entre as gerações. Esse exercício demandou tempo porque a relação com o outro requer a percepção dos laços de pertencimento, da trama das relações culturais e da criatividade para a sobrevivência nos períodos de mudanças históricas e sociais. As condições históricas geraram movimentos de desordenamento/reordenamento na vida do povo Maia e ressoam nas diferentes vivências dos jovens que se entremeiam com a história de seus antepassados. O processo de colonização espanhola impôs ao povo Maia outros modos de vida. O sonho da terra foi usurpado durante os trinta e seis anos da guerra civil. Ixcán, que representava esperança, tornou-se uma experiência de horror e traumas. A violência do conflito desestabilizou e dissipou o tecido social, estremeceu relações familiares, sociais, comunitárias. As imagens e os ruídos impregnaram-se nas mentes dos jovens. A participação e o protagonismo juvenil, após os Acordos de Paz em 1996, foram importantes no restabelecimento da paz tão almejada. Hoje os meios de comunicação delineiam novas interconexões nos diversos modos de ser jovem