Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya

Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya

Author: Victoria Schlesinger

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 9780292777606

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A growing interest in all things Maya brings an increasing number of visitors to prehistoric Maya ruins and contemporary Maya communities in Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, western Honduras, the Yucatán Peninsula, and the southern areas of Chiapas and Tabasco, Mexico. For these visitors and indeed everyone with an interest in the Maya, this field guide highlights nearly 100 species of plants and animals that were significant to the ancient Maya and that continue to inhabit the Maya region today. Drawing from the disciplines of biology, ecology, and anthropology, Victoria Schlesinger describes each plant or animal's habitat and natural history, identifying characteristics (also shown in a black-and-white drawing), and cultural significance to the ancient and contemporary Maya. An introductory section explains how to use the book and offers a concise overview of the history, lifeways, and cosmology of the ancient Maya. The concluding section describes the collapse of ancient Maya society and briefly traces the history of the Maya region from colonial times to the present.


Maya Pilgrimage to Ritual Landscapes

Maya Pilgrimage to Ritual Landscapes

Author: Joel W. Palka

Publisher: UNM Press

Published: 2014-06-15

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 0826354750

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Pilgrimage to ritually significant places is a part of daily life in the Maya world. These journeys involve important social and practical concerns, such as the maintenance of food sources and world order. Frequent pilgrimages to ceremonial hills to pay offerings to spiritual forces for good harvests, for instance, are just as necessary for farming as planting fields. Why has Maya pilgrimage to ritual landscapes prevailed from the distant past and why are journeys to ritual landscapes important in Maya religion? How can archaeologists recognize Maya pilgrimage, and how does it compare to similar behavior at ritual landscapes around the world? The author addresses these questions and others through cross-cultural comparisons, archaeological data, and ethnographic insights.


The Forest of the Lacandon Maya

The Forest of the Lacandon Maya

Author: Suzanne Cook

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-03-15

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 1461491118

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The Forest of the Lacandon Maya: An Ethnobotanical Guide, with active links to audio-video recordings, serves as a comprehensive guide to the botanical heritage of the northern Lacandones. Numbering fewer than 300 men, women, and children, this community is the most culturally conservative of the Mayan groups. Protected by their hostile environment, over many centuries they maintain autonomy from the outside forces of church and state, while they continue to draw on the forest for spiritual inspiration and sustenance. In The Forest of the Lacandon Maya: An Ethnobotanical Guide, linguist Suzanne Cook presents a bilingual Lacandon-English ethnobotanical guide to more than 450 plants in a tripartite organization: a botanical inventory in which main entries are headed by Lacandon names followed by common English and botanical names, and which includes plant descriptions and uses; an ethnographic inventory, which expands the descriptions given in the botanical inventory, providing the socio-historical, dietary, mythological, and spiritual significance of most plants; and chapters that discuss the relevant cultural applications of the plants in more detail provide a description of the area’s geography, and give an ethnographic overview of the Lacandones. Active links throughout the text to original audio-video recordings demonstrate the use and preparation of the most significant plants.


Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology

Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology

Author: Daphna Havkin-Frenkel

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2018-09-24

Total Pages: 524

ISBN-13: 1119377277

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An updated guide to the production, science, and uses of vanilla Vanilla is a flavor and fragrance in foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and a wealth of other products. Now in its second edition, the Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology provides a comprehensive and updated review of the science and technology used in these items’ production and supply. Featuring contributions from an international range of experts, this revised edition covers a multitude of topics, including agricultural production, global markets, analytical methods, sensory analysis, food and fragrance applications, organic farming and fair trade, botanical diseases, and novel uses. The Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology, Second Edition is a vital resource for producers, distributors, and scientists involved in vanilla’s growth and utilization, and offers readers: A guide to the cultivation, extraction, analysis, DNA sequencing, and marketing of vanilla Information on the production of vanilla in a range of countries such as Mexico, Australia, Costa Rica, and India Guidelines on the quality control of vanilla beans and extracts Information on fair trade and the future of vanilla


Anthropology

Anthropology

Author: Raymond Scupin

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2019-12-20

Total Pages: 1907

ISBN-13: 1544363176

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Now with SAGE Publishing! Using state-of-the-art research, Anthropology: A Global Perspective introduces students to the four core subfields of anthropology and applied anthropology. Integrating material from each subfield, this comprehensive text is founded on four essential themes: the diversity of human societies; the similarities that tie all humans together; the interconnections between the sciences and humanities; and a new theme addressing psychological essentialism. Authors Raymond Scupin and Christopher R. DeCorse demonstrate how anthropologists use research techniques and methods to help solve practical problems and show students how anthropology is relevant to improving human societies. This supportive textbook is grounded in the belief that an enhanced global awareness is essential for people preparing to take their place in the fast-paced, interconnected world of the twenty-first century. The extensively revised Ninth Edition includes a new chapter on gender and sexuality, features a dramatically new look with new photos and figures, and has been updated to reflect the most recent findings in the field. This title is accompanied by a complete teaching and learning package.


Cultural Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology

Author: Raymond Scupin

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2019-12-10

Total Pages: 966

ISBN-13: 1544363117

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Now with SAGE Publishing! Cultural Anthropology: A Global Perspective delves into both classic and current research in the field, reflecting a commitment to anthropology’s holistic and integrative approach. This text illuminates how the four core subfields of anthropology—biological anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology—together yield a comprehensive understanding of humanity. In examining anthropological research, this text often refers to research conducted in other fields, sparking the critical imagination that brings the learning process to life. The Tenth Edition expands on the book’s hallmark three-themed approach (diversity of human societies, similarities that make all humans fundamentally alike, and synthetic-complementary approach) by introducing a new fourth theme addressing psychological essentialism. Recognizing the necessity for students to develop an enhanced global awareness more than ever before, author Raymond Scupin uses over 30 years of teaching experience to bring readers closer to the theories, data, and critical thinking skills vital to appreciating the full sweep of the human condition. This title is accompanied by a complete teaching and learning package.


Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities

Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities

Author: Karen Bassie-Sweet

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2014-10-22

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 0806185198

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The K’iche’ Maya creation story preserved in the sixteenth-century manuscript Popol Vuh describes the origin of the world and its people in a setting long assumed to be the Guatemalan central highlands. Now a scholar with a deep knowledge of Maya history shows that all of these mythological events occurred at specific locations and that this landscape was the template for the Maya worldview. Examining the primary Maya deities, Karen Bassie-Sweet links geographic features to gods and beliefs. She reconstructs key elements of the Popol Vuh to argue that the three volcanoes around Lake Atitlan were the three thunderbolt gods and that the lake was the center of the world. She also shows that the Maya view of the creation of humans is centered on corn and examines core beliefs about the corn cycle to propose that the creation myth was established much earlier in Maya history than previously supposed. Generously illustrated, Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities is a detailed ethnohistorical analysis of Maya religion, cosmology, and ritual practice that convincingly links mythology to the land. A comprehensive treatment of Maya religion, it provides an essential resource for scholars and will fascinate any reader captivated by these ancient beliefs.


In Gods We Trust

In Gods We Trust

Author: Scott Atran

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2004-12-09

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 019988434X

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This ambitious, interdisciplinary book seeks to explain the origins of religion using our knowledge of the evolution of cognition. A cognitive anthropologist and psychologist, Scott Atran argues that religion is a by-product of human evolution just as the cognitive intervention, cultural selection, and historical survival of religion is an accommodation of certain existential and moral elements that have evolved in the human condition.