Maya
Settlement Shifts and Agrarian Ecology in Yucatán, 1800–2000
Rani T. Alexander
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, New Mexico State University
Scholars attribute the persistence of “traditional” Maya
agriculture on the Yucatán peninsula to patterns of dispersal,
drift, and flight, which allowed farmers to maintain productivity and
to resist the worst exigencies of the colonial and nationalist regimes.
In this paper, I explore the material consequences of Maya mobility tactics
in Yaxcabá, Yucatán.
Using documentary and archaeological evidence, I argue that land reform
policies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries systemically altered
Maya mobility, thereby reshaping the cultural landscape. Changes in settlement
systems and archaeological site structure reveal a dynamic rather than “tradition-bound” agrarian
ecology, responsive to shifts in the global economy.
KEY WORDS: Maya agriculture; Settlement mobility; Yucatán (Mexico)
A
Reappraisal of Ancient Maya Cave Mining
James E. Brady
Department of Anthropology, California State University, Los Angeles
Dominique Rissolo
Waitt Institute for Discovery
Throughout the world caves are often important sacred landmarks whose dark
zones tend to be restricted spaces reserved for religious rituals. The
function and meaning of activities conducted within these spaces are categorically
different than physically similar activities conducted at the surface.
Archaeology has been slow to integrate this fact into the analysis of cave
features. Recently discovered evidence of extractive activities within
Maya caves allows us to reevaluate previous work on cave mines. We suggest
that the extraction was always small in scale and that the material extracted
was most likely used in ritual. We then examine several surface mines where
tunnel mining was used to extract a relatively undifferentiated matrix.
Evidence suggests that a prime concern in the excavation was the creation
of an artificial cave.
KEY WORDS: Cave mining; Caves; Geophagy; Maya cave use
Oaxacan
Wood Carvings in the World of Fine Art: Aesthetic Judgments of a Tourist
Craft
Michael Chibnik
Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa
In recent years, certain ethnic and tourist arts have become highly
valued by collectors, gallery owners, and museum curators in the
United States, Canada, and Europe. This paper examines the extent
to which economically successful woodcarvers in the Mexican state
of Oaxaca have been able to gain the attention of the gatekeepers
and tastemakers of the art world. The woodcarvers confront formidable
obstacles in their efforts to have their work accepted as fine
art. The recent invention of Oaxacan wood carving may make the
craft seem inauthentic. Because carvings are usually made by a
group of related family members, even some of the most aesthetically
pleasing pieces cannot be attributed to an individual artist. The
relatively low standard of living of most woodcarvers prevents
them from adopting an “art
for art’s sake” philosophy
emphasizing experimentation, originality, and lack of concern for
commercial possibilities.
KEY WORDS: Art; Aesthetics; Economics; Networks; Oaxaca; Wood carvings
The
Role of Gender in the Adoption of Agriculture in the Southern Southwest
Barbara J. Roth
Department of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, University of Nevada
The transition from hunting and gathering to farming is considered
to be one of the major behavioral changes that occurred in prehistory.
Recently, researchers in the American Southwest have recognized that
the adoption of agriculture by hunter-gatherers was part of a complex
decision-making process. In this paper, I argue that one of the ways
to get at the “how” and “why” of
the adoption of agriculture is to start by looking at who did the adopting.
Using ethnographic data from hunter-gatherers and farmers in arid lands
and data from recent excavations at early farming villages on the floodplain
of the Santa Cruz River, I explore the idea that gender was a critical
variable in the decision-making process leading to the adoption of
agriculture in the southern Southwest.
KEY WORDS: Agricultural transition; American Southwestern Archaic; Gender
studies; Hunter-gatherers
Transnational
Spaces through Local Places: Mexican Immigrants in Albuquerque (New Mexico)
Cristóbal Mendoza
Dpto. de Sociología, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana,
Iztapalapa, San Rafael
Even though a large part of empirical research has focused on particular
localities, literature on transnational migration has neglected the role
of place in the construction or permanence oftransnational ties between
Mexico and the United States. This article explores how relevant the place
(i.e., constructions and representations of places, as well as developing
a sense of place) is to understanding migration processes and decisions
among Mexican immigrants in Albuquerque (New Mexico). Methodologically,
the article is based on qualitative research in the Mexican community in
Albuquerque, and it focuses on analysis of immigrants’ mental
maps and spatial discourses. The article concludes that immigrants identify
with places at macro (national) as well as micro levels. At the macro level,
ideas on Mexico and the United States are key to understanding immigrants’ intentions
regarding length of stay. Yet the strongest senses of place are found at
the micro level. Here, identification with public spaces is associated
with radical changes in the immigrants’ lives.
KEY WORDS: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Mexican migration; Mexico; Place;
Sense of place; Transnational migration; USA
Book
Reviews
Colin P. Groves: The Red Ape: Orangutans
and Human Origins, Revised and Updated
by Jeffrey H. Schwartz
Lawrence G. Straus: Los Grabados Levantinos
del Barranco Hondo
by Castellote (Teruel), Pilar Utrilla and Valentín Villaverde,
eds.
Marilyn A. Masson: The Postclassic to Spanish-Era Transition in Mesoamerica: Archaeological
Perspectives
by Susan Kepecs and Rani T. Alexander, eds.
Judith Francis Zeitlin: Unconquered Lacandon Maya: Ethnohistory and Archaeology
of Indigenous Culture Change
by Joel W. Palka
Rani T. Alexander: Animals and the Maya in Southeast Mexico
by E. N. Anderson and Felix Medina Tzuc
Severin Fowles: A Space Syntax Analysis of Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico:
Community Formation in the Northern Rio Grande
by Jason S. Shapiro
Jack M. Broughton: Camels Back Cave
by Dave N. Schmitt and David B. Madsen, eds.
Dell Upton: Structure and Meaning in Human Settlements
by Tony Atkin and Joseph Rykwert, eds.
Keith Brown: Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation-State
by Michael Herzfeld
Gary H. Gossen: Maya Intellectual Renaissance: Identity, Representation,
and Leadership
by Victor Montejo
Frances F. Berdan: Feather Crown: The Eighteen Feasts of the Mexica Year
by Gordon Brotherston
Cynthia Radding: Usos del Documento y Cambios Sociales en la Historia
de Bolivia
by Clara López Beltrán and Akira Saito, eds.
Diane Nelson: Intercultural Utopias: Public Intellectuals, Cultural Experimentation,
and Ethnic Pluralism in Colombia
by Joanne Rappaport
Alcida Rita Ramos: Ruins of Absence, Presence of Caribs: (Post)Colonial
Representations of Aboriginality in Trinidad and Tobago
by Maximilian C. Forte
Thomas B. Stevenson: Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Mediation
by
Steven C. Caton
Hilary Scothorn: Pacific Pattern
by Susanne Küchler and Graeme
Were
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