This study has focused on the conditions of indigenous entrepreneurs of production in the urban informal sector. In that sense, it is a first of its kind. Eleven Maya entrepreneurs in the city of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, in five different productive activities, were interviewed. In addition a control group of three Ladino entrepreneurs was established and some large formal enterprises were visited. Besides analyzing the general working situation of the Maya entrepreneurs, the study tested two hypotheses on ethnicity. The first put forward the assumption that Maya entrepreneurs use their ethnic network to promote their enterprises, the other that Maya entrepreneurs are active in certain activities of the informal sector and not in others, due to, for example, structural conditions in the ethnically stratified and segregated society of Guatemala. Neither of these hypotheses were substantiated by the data. However, while ethnic segregation was not observed among Ladino and Maya entrepreneurs of production, there is circumstantial evidence of a structural discrimination that forces many Mayans who do not succeed in establishing a productive enterprise, to try their luck in the less economically promising sector of commerce. Besides the ethnic aspects, the study gave conclusive evidence for answers to some of the questions directed towards the informal sector in general, among them, the question whether or not capital accumulation takes place and, eventually, to which extent. The annual capital accumulation among productive enterprises in the informal sector of the city of Quetzaltenango was modeled. The results indicate an accumulation per year of roughly $1.5 million. Recalculations with a sensible variation of some of the crucial assumptions, gave results within a band of $1.35 million - $1.65 million. The capital is accumulated by 258 enterprises, with four or more workers (including the owner), with a total work force of 1,320 workers, out of a total of 1879 enterprises of production. To this author's knowledge, no similar attempt of such an estimation has been reported in the literature before. The study offers calculations on the economic take-home earnings of some of the Maya entrepreneurs and identifies the mechanisms behind the entrepreneurial successes and failures. It concludes that it is necessary to distinguish between enterprises of production and enterprises of commerce due to their different natures. It presents data on the labor wages in the informal sector. It shows that the salaries are, first, closely related to the productivity of the individual worker, and, second, that, probably more often than not, they are tied to fluctuations in the demand of the market for the products of the enterprise. This means that the salary bracket within one economic activity may vary widely throughout the year. Other topics where the study offers new insight on entrepreneurial practice in the informal sector, are on lending conditions and the use of formal loans, on taxation, on the use of different management schemes and the potential of these, and on productivity and profitability within different economic activities. A list of the findings of the study is given at the end. / text

Grounded in the geographies of Chiapas, Mexico, the dissertation maps a cartography of Zapatista indigenous resistance practices and charts the production of decolonial political subjectivities in an era of neoliberal governance and low intensity conflict. It analyzes the relationship between local cultural political expressions of indigenous autonomy, global capitalist interests and neoliberal rationalities of government after more than decade of Zapatista struggle. Since 1996, Zapatista indigenous Mayan communities have engaged in the creation of alternative education, health, agricultural production, justice, and governing bodies as part of the daily practices of autonomy. The dissertation demonstrates that the practices of Zapatista indigenous autonomy reflect current shifts in neoliberal state governing logics, yet it is in this very terrain where key ruptures and destabilizing practices emerge. The dissertation focuses on the recolonization aspects of neoliberal rationalities of government in their particular Latin American post Cold War, post populist manifestations. I argue that in Mexico's indigenous regions, the shift towards the privatization of state social services, the decentralization of state governing techniques and the transformation of state social programs towards an emphasis on greater self-management occurs in a complex relationship to mechanisms of low intensity conflict. Their multiple articulations effect the reproduction of social and biological life in sites, which are themselves terrains of bio-political contention: racialized women's bodies and feminized domestic reproductive and care taking roles; the relationship between governing bodies and that governed; land reform as linked to governability and democracy; and the production of the indigenous subject in a multicultural era. In each of these arenas, the dissertation charts a decolonial cartography drawn by the following cultural political practices: the construction of genealogies of social memories of struggle, a governing relationship established through mandar obedeciendo, land redistribution through zapatista agrarian reform, pedagogical collective selfreflection in women’s collective work, and the formation of political identities of transformation. Finally, the dissertation discusses the possibilities and challenges for engaging in feminist decolonizing dialogic research, specifically by analyzing how Zapatista members critiqued the politics of fieldwork and adopted the genres of the testimony and the popular education inspired workshop as potential decolonizing methodologies. / text

No description available.

Chez les Mayas Actuels (MA), de nombreux symbolismes révèlent des symétries brisées qui laissent penser à une propriété du noyau de la matière, la rupture spontanée de symétrie. Ce travail, traite de la genèse et du maintien des Principes Fondateurs (PF) chez les MA. Un savoir, issu d’une certaine connaissance de la matière, porterait ces PF à travers le temps, par répétition, en se transmettant chez les MA au moyen de leurs Espaces de Représentation Symbolique. La Matrice de Référence Maya, une Matrice Ontologique du Savoir particulière, sous-tendrait leurs PF. L’exploration de leurs modes de vie montre comment ces PF nourrissent le moi en tant que substrat permanent et façonnent le sujet transcendantal. Les supports pédagogiques semailles du maïs, tissus et cérémonies traités révèlent l’existence d’un habitus particulier, la cosmovision des MA, et permettent de savoir où, pourquoi et comment s’accomplissent la genèse et le maintien de leurs PF. / At the Actual Mayas (MA), numerous symbolisms reveal broken symmetries that feel like a property of the core material, the spontaneous break of symmetry. This work, milking of the genesis and maintain of the Founding Principles (PF) at the MA. A knowing, stemming from certain knowledge of the material, would carry these PF through time, by repetition, and would passed on to the MA by means of their Spaces of Symbolic Representation.The Reference matrix Maya, an Ontological particular Matrix of the knowing,would underlie their PF. The exploration of their way of life shows how this PF is nourishing the self as permanent substratum and shape the transcendental subject. The teaching aids sowings of corns, tissues and ceremonies treated reveal the existence of a particular Habitus, the Cosmovision of MA, and allow to know where, why and how come true the genesis and the maintain of their PF.

The ancient Maya had strong ties to the sea. The trade, transportation and use of marine resources were important not only to coastal Maya communities, but also to the heavily populated cities that lay many miles inland. A review of zooarchaeological evidence recovered from excavations at the inland site of Caracol, Belize suggests that the inhabitants imported marine fish for food, marine shell for working into trade items, and sharks teeth and stingray spines for ritual use. This thesis examines the manner in which fish and other marine resources were used, procured and transported from the coast to the site of Caracol. The possibility that certain marine fish might have been transported alive to the site is explored. An examination of present day fishing and animal husbandry practices suggests that many species could have survived an inland trip in ancient times if transported under conditions that allowed for water exchanges and minimized stress. Marine resources had important economic and ritual significance to the people of Caracol. Understanding the methods by which these valuable items were transported and traded ultimately facilitates a greater understanding of the economic and socio-political relationships among these ancient polities.

A la suite d'une revue de l'historiographie sur les conflits agraires et les insurrections indiennes paysannes, l'objectif de ce mémoire est d'effectuer un bilan historiographique sur les origines de la guerra de castas au Yucatan en 1847. De 1940 à 1965, les intellectuels dits progressistes soutiennent que ce sont les changements économiques et les nouvelles structures agraires, amenés par les idées de progrès au XIXe siècle, qui exercent une pression considérable sur les communautés indiennes du Sud et de l'Est de la péninsule. Durant la décennie 1970, plusieurs révisionnistes expliquent principalement le conflit, soit par une opposition sociale de classes, soit par une lutte ethnique entre les Blancs et les Indiens. De 1985 à nos jours, les post-révisionnistes s'intéressent majoritairement aux problématiques qui s'articulent autour des mentalités des insurgés et du rôle des leaders intermédiaires qui mobilisent la paysannerie tandis que quelques-uns pratiquent une approche holistique. / Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2014

No description available.

This study presents the results of an analysis of the archaeological ceramics recovered from Maya sites on the island of Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico. The field work was conducted in 1972-1973 by the Harvard University-University of Arizona Cozumel Archaeological Project which had as it focus the investigation of several aspects of long distance trade in Postclassic Maya society. The objectives of the study were (1) to analyze, classify, and describe the Cozumel ceramic remains, (2) to further clarify the island's prehistory through interpretation of ceramic data and relationships, and (3) to evaluate the Cozumel Archaeological Project's port of trade model from the standpoint of the ceramic evidence. Chapter 1 provides background information on the setting, history, and archaeology of Cozumel and adjacent coastal areas and summarizes the Cozumel Archaeological Project's research design and field investigations. This is followed in Chapter 2 by a discussion of the techniques of ceramic analysis employed in the study, including a brief summary of the type-variety system of ceramic classification. Chapters 3 through 10 present detailed descriptions of the ceramic complexes, arranged chronologically. Each variety of each ceramic type is described, including paste characteristics, surface finish, decoration, form, and comparative data. The Cozumel ceramic record indicates settlement on the island from Late Preclassic (ca. 300 B.C.-A.D. 300) through Late Postclassic (ca. A.D. 1250-1500/1550) times. An overview of the prehistory of Cozumel is presented in Chapter eleven. Chapter twelve presents the results of an attribute analysis of slipped serving dishes and unslipped jars which was undertaken to test the port of trade model. The model hypothesizes that Cozumel underwent a shift from a decentralized port of trade in the Early Postclassic, characterized by heterogeneity in archaeological remains, to a centralized trading center in the Late Postclassic, characterized by homogeneity. While the attribute analysis demonstrated an increase in intersite similarity and ceramic homogeneity in the Late Postclassic, results for the Early Postclassic were inconclusive. Chapter fourteen briefly summarizes the study's results and conclusions. Although the port of trade model was not verified by the ceramic evidence, there is considerable evidence that Cozumel may have been the site of a Toltec trade outpost in Early Postclassic times.

The study of prehistoric Maya settlements has been hampered by simplistic views of cultural ecology, over generalized ethnographic analogy, and a lack of attention to both natural and cultural site formation processes. As a result, Mayanists have tended to expect very little variety in archaeological features and have assumed cultural uniformity over wide ranges of time and space. Traditional research designs support these assumptions. Current knowledge of Maya social organization suggests that more structural variety may occur in Maya archaeological sites than is ordinarily discovered. Some of this variation is evidenced by features not currently visible on the ground-surface. The Nohmul Settlement pattern project employed a "purposive" sampling design to search for settlement variation over time and space. Several assumptions about surface-subsurface relationships were tested. Surface indications were not found to outline subsurface variety. Excavating at intervals from site center in both visible and "invisible" features, showed that the Nohmul community was affected by both centralizing and decentralizing influences and grouped into residential clusters resembling neighborhoods. The degree of centralization and the location of the clusters, as well as some of their characteristics, changed notably over Nohmul's 2500 year occupation.

The importance of language and bilinguality in the development, perpetuation, and "degeneration" or change of culture is a central theme throughout this treatise. Original pictorial representations of Mayan hieroglyphic sculpture are included as examples, and represent artistic styles and language variations of written Cholan and Yucatec. Modern Cholan and Yucatecan languages are important in the decipherment of Mayan hieroglyphic writing, because these two languages were the languages of the ancient hieroglyphs. Bilinguality as a positive factor Is considered in the florescence and duration of the central lowland Mayan area. The impact of Spanish language on indigenous languages of Mesoamerica is traced from 1519 to the present. Special consideration and speculation is given to the role of Yucatec and Chol as "divine" non secular languages in the florescence of Mesoamerican cultures. This thesis is a continuation and development of undergraduate anthropologic field work undertaken in Mesoamerica during the 1970s. / Graduation date: 1994