The ancient Zapotec city of Monte Albán, in Oaxaca, Mexico, has been a focal point of numerous archaeological studies. It has long been presumed that grave offerings included a number of botanical elements such as maize. Nonetheless, studies of mortuary offerings and public activities have focused on architecture, ceramic assemblages, and human remains—not botanical residues. In this study, I examine botanical remains from vessels and sediment samples collected from mortuary contexts and sites of public rituals to provide novel information on those meaningful rites from three different angles. First, I examine the connections between the use of plants in temporally limited events (rituals) with medium-term phenomena (economic, political, social, etc.) taking place at Monte Albán. This study demonstrates the potential for future paleoethnobotanical studies targeting mortuary contexts and public rituals to provide novel information regarding ancient lifeways and beliefs. Second, in this study, I consider the relationship between botanical mortuary offerings and the social status of interred individuals at the Zapotec site. This allowed me to determine that there were no clear relationships between status of the deceased and plants placed plant offerings. Finally, I examine the relationship between private mortuary rituals and public rituals that took place at Monte Albán’s Main Plaza through the analysis of plant residues. This allows me to examine the key similarities and differences in those rituals that appear to have had different purposes. Indeed, as I argue in the following chapters, mortuary offerings were likely used to create a connection between the living and the dead, while public offerings allowed the inhabitants of Monte Albán to petition gods, spirits, and different supernatural entities. / Thesis / Doctor of Social Science

This thesis examines how travelers evaluate and process mass media news stories about local events. Thanks to its colonial architecture, white sand beaches, and indigenous history, the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca receives millions of foreign and domestic visitors each year. Between 2006 and through 2009 Oaxaca has received a great deal of negative international media coverage, including stories of street riots, drug violence, and the fall out of the H1N1 flu virus. The overall impact of these unfavorable reports, and the resulting decline in the local tourism industry, has been predictable and severe. This thesis is based on anthropological research that I conducted in Oaxaca during June and July, 2009. I interviewed 26 American tourists about issues related to mass-media, personal travel experiences, and the interplay between international news coverage of local events and trip destination selection and planning. My research suggests that interviewees generally approach these media stories unfavorably and with a hefty sense of skepticism. Their reactions may reflect a wider trend in American society whereby mainstream and commercial mass media sources are viewed as increasingly untrustworthy or inaccurate

The Adlerian psychological model has long been used in Western Europe and in the United States and Canada as a framework for understanding individual behavior and for conducting family counseling. The model is based on values of equality, mutual respect and cooperation. Parents are taught techniques and attitudes which will facilitate responsible and cooperative behavior in their children and induce more positive relationships among family members. The field of Anthropology has provided a multitude of studies examining family life in less-technologically complex societies. However, the Adlerian model, which provides a paradigm for interpreting interpersonal relationships, has never been used by researchers. This study utilized Adlerian theory in examining child-behavior, parent-child relationships and parenting attitudes among Zapotec Indians in a remote mountainous area of Oaxaca, Mexico. The people of the village in this study numbered 350 and were engaged in subsistence-agriculture. Open-ended interviews were conducted with adults concerning cooperation at the village and family levels and the cooperative and non-cooperative behavior of their children. Intensive observations were conducted in six families, during which all behaviors of children in each family along with consequent reactions of adults, were logged. Behaviors were then categorized as cooperative or non-cooperative according to certain criteria and tallied for each child. The sample contained 19 children who demonstrated cooperative behaviors, 83% of the time. Nine of the children fell into the 90-100% cooperative behavior range. Children carried out, to a lesser degree, most of the adult work tasks. In addition, they regularly served as caretakers for younger siblings. Parental attitudes elicited through the interviews reflected a preference for giving counsel or advice over physical punishment, a toleration of differences in children, a willingness to allow children to work at their own pace and an understanding of the adult "role" in child misbehavior. Adler's basic premise was that when children are allowed to belong to the family group in a constructive meaningful way, they do not need to find a place of significance through destructive means. This premise was confirmed by this study. Zapotec children begin around the age of three to participate in the family's daily work tasks. They seem to cooperate out of a recognition of the necessity of their contribution rather than as a result of any autocratic parenting behaviors on the part of adults. Since all work is valued, children grow-up in an atmosphere which allows and needs their constructive input.

The purpose of this study in 2002-2003 was to explore the relationships between individual and community empowerment and community development as reported by five government officials of the City of Oaxaca, Mexico, and by three community leaders, two NGO representatives, and three residents of Rinconada, an urban neighborhood on the outskirt of Oaxaca City. This study documents the dynamics of the Committee for Urban Life (COMVIVE), a community development program founded under the principle of resident participation. More specifically, this study describes the ways by which residents of the developing community of Rinconada were empowered by COMVIVE to participate substantially in community development initiatives.The Case Study research methodology was used to identify the setting, the unit of analysis, and the informants. Ethnographic procedures such as interviews, participant observation, and analysis of documents were used to collect, analyze, and report the evidence. Further analysis of the evidence was done with the help of ATLAS.ti, a computer program that allowed faster retrieval of interview information.The evidence presented suggests that the COMVIVE principles, structure, and process contributed to residents' empowerment to take action for community development. The COMVIVE program and its coordinators recognized and used the community organizational structure as the basis for resident participation, provided residents with a network of agencies and experts to access information and resources to undertake their projects, formed partnerships with residents and local NGOs, facilitated democratic decisions, provided tools to make development processes transparent and democratic, had a direct contact with residents, and facilitated residents participation in the decision-making process.The evidence also suggests that resident empowerment for community development is much more that involvement. It entails residents' control of their projects and responsibility to obtain appropriate information for decision making. In the context of low-income human settlements, having appropriate information is important for residents as they take actions to improve their living environments. Additional studies about empowerment for environmental improvement would add value to this study and inform practitioners to help plan and implement meaningful development programs. / Department of Educational Leadership

The global coffee industry is in a state of crisis. Small-scale producers are those most seriously impacted by the crisis, facing the challenges of a precarious and changing market, despite limited resources. In Oaxaca, Mexico, a prominent response among indigenous small-scale farmers has been to join independent coffee producer unions. Within theses unions there is currently a move to encourage organic coffee cultivation among campesinos, so that these groups might niche market their coffee. This niche, or "conscience", market is shaped by the "organic coffee discourse" which emphasizes the themes of environmental protection, social justice and indigenity. By examining the relationship between organic coffee production (as an economic strategy for marginal producers) and its discourse (which mobilizes consumers in wealthy countries) we will see the impetus behind organic coffee production as it ranges from Oaxaca's indigenous farmers, their producer unions, and consumers.

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In the context of open struggle between a neoliberal state and popular social movements in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, this thesis seeks to explore how neoliberalism also works more subtly through state-sponsored community forestry. Using the concepts of "development discourse" and the Foucauldian conception of government, this thesis sheds light on the power networks that run through the language, practice and process of community forestry in a community with a well-established forestry enterprise. Neoliberal government is found to be present in the practice of community forestry, in discourse calling for change to governance structures in the community, identities of comuneros, as well as in environmental discourse. The exploration of this web of government also contributes to a greater understanding of relationships between state institutions, professionals and community members involved in community forestry.

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