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Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Life-Giving Stone: Ethnoarchaeology Of Maya Metates [Review], Jennifer P. Mathews
The Life-Giving Stone: Ethnoarchaeology Of Maya Metates [Review], Jennifer P. Mathews
Jennifer P Mathews
This volume attempts to get at the interpretations of the archaeological record from the back-end by studying the modern Maya metate life cycle, including procurement, production, acquisition, use and discard. The author spent two years in Guatemala conducting ethnographic research with metate producers and users in three Maya communities. It is through this rich research that he greatly expands our understanding of metates by providing background of their complexity through several avenues. For example, he documents contemporary gifting traditions, noting that families still give metates as wedding gifts to couples, even as their use decreases with the presence of electric …
Wetland Manipulation In The Yalahau Region Of The Northern Maya Lowlands, Scott L. Fedick, Bethany A. Morrison, Bente Juhl Andersen, Sylviane Boucher, Jorge Ceja Acosta, Jennifer P. Mathews
Wetland Manipulation In The Yalahau Region Of The Northern Maya Lowlands, Scott L. Fedick, Bethany A. Morrison, Bente Juhl Andersen, Sylviane Boucher, Jorge Ceja Acosta, Jennifer P. Mathews
Jennifer P Mathews
Manipulation of wetlands for agricultural purposes by the ancient Maya of southern Mexico and Central America has been a subject of much research and debate since the 1970s. Evidence for wetland cultivation systems, in the form of drained or channelized fields, and raised planting platforms, has been restricted primarily to the southern Maya Lowlands. New research in the Yalahau region of Quintana Roo, Mexico, has recorded evidence for wetland manipulation in the far northern lowlands, in the form of rock alignments that apparently functioned to control water movement and soil accumulation in seasonally inundated areas. Nearby ancient settlements date primarily …
Cenotes As Conceptual Boundary Markers At The Ancient Maya Site Of T’Isil, Quintana Roo, México, Scott L. Fedick, Jennifer P. Mathews, Kathryn Sorensen
Cenotes As Conceptual Boundary Markers At The Ancient Maya Site Of T’Isil, Quintana Roo, México, Scott L. Fedick, Jennifer P. Mathews, Kathryn Sorensen
Jennifer P Mathews
Ancient Maya communities, from small village sites to urban centers, have long posed problems to archaeologists in attempting to define the boundaries or limits of settlement. These ancient communities tend to be relatively dispersed, with settlement densities dropping toward the periphery, but lacking any clear boundary. At a limited number of sites, the Maya constructed walled enclosures or earthworks, which scholars have generally interpreted as defensive projects, often hastily built to protect the central districts of larger administrative centers during times of warfare (e.g., Demarest et al. 1997; Inomata 1997; Kurjack and Andrews 1976; Puleston and Callender 1967; Webster 2000; …
Radiocarbon Dating Of Architectural Mortar: A Case Study In The Maya Region, Quintana Roo, Mexico, Jennifer P. Mathews
Radiocarbon Dating Of Architectural Mortar: A Case Study In The Maya Region, Quintana Roo, Mexico, Jennifer P. Mathews
Jennifer P Mathews
The use of radiocarbon dating to analyze mortar and charcoal inclusions within mortar or plaster is a useful way to date the construction of architecture, particularly when options for other chronometric methods are limited. In the Yalahau region of northern Quintana Roo, Mexico, members of the Yalahau Regional Human Ecology Project have faced challenges in dating buildings made of large blocks of stone in the Megalithic architectural style. The Megalithic style poses serious problems for any analysis, as excavating into structures with stones weighing several tons can be dangerous, expensive, and time consuming. Additionally, there are no associated sculptures, texts …
Preliminary Evidence For The Existence Of A Regional Sacbe Across The Northern Maya Lowlands, Scott L. Fedick, Dawn Reid, Jennifer P. Mathews
Preliminary Evidence For The Existence Of A Regional Sacbe Across The Northern Maya Lowlands, Scott L. Fedick, Dawn Reid, Jennifer P. Mathews
Jennifer P Mathews
Ancient road systems have often been used by archaeologists to reconstruct interaction and political ties among prehistoric settlements. Roads built by the ancient Maya offer many insights into the political geography of the area, particularly in the northern lowlands where hieroglyphic texts are rare. This study examines ethnohistoric, historic, and archaeological data that suggest that a regional road, some 300 km in length, once spanned the northern lowlands from the modern location of Mérida to the east coast facing the island of Cozumel. The political implications of such a road, if it once existed, are discussed.
Houses In A Landscape: Memory And Everyday Life In Mesoamerica [Review], Jennifer P. Mathews
Houses In A Landscape: Memory And Everyday Life In Mesoamerica [Review], Jennifer P. Mathews
Jennifer P Mathews
Using the material remains found in and around ancient Maya domestic spaces in three settlements in Honduras, Hendon examines how aspects of everyday life, rather than ritual and commemoration, transform these shared spaces into ‘places of memory’. She argues that social memory is a reconstructive process and that human groups re-envision the past in light of present circumstances. Social memory – or what she refers to as ‘memory communities' – would have involved an interaction with the remains of the dead, buried within the context of their social spaces. In other words, memory is an active process that binds people …