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The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Volume II: Mesoamerica, gives a comprehensive and authoritative overview of all the important native civilizationsof the Mesoamerican area, beginning with archaeological discussions of paleoindian, archaic and preclassic societies and continuing to the present.Fully illustrated and engagingly written, the book is divided into sections that discuss the native cultures of Mesoamerica before and after their first contact with the Europeans.The various chapters balance theoretical points of view as they trace the cultural history and evolutionary development of such groups as the Olmec, the Maya, the Aztec, the Zapotec, and the Tarascan. ... Read more

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In this book are the religious ideas of the Mayas, their belief in the Supreme Intelligence; in the immortality of the soul, and in succesive lives on earth before returning to the great Source whence all emanate; their rites and ceremonies as gathered from traditions of the natives, the fresco paintings, and the books of ancient Maya authors.Also is a list of the Maya names and their meanings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

worst piece of garbage
This book contains so many falsehoods! I was present in San Antonio Aguas Calientes when the events described ... what was written is ABSOLUTE GARBAGE ... do not waste your money! The editor should have made an effort to verify the information submitted!

Case histories of an ethnic tragedy....
Rather than a comprehensive book about modern guatemala or a human rightsthesis this is an anthropological study of violence.

There are 10different case histories all written by different people who are among thetop guatemalan scholars. In these case histories is information andanalysis that isn't available in most books and it covers some areas of thecountry not always touched on by scholars. The whole thing is held togetherby an exellent 35 page introduction and a final chapter of conclusion witha wonderful chronology of events. Over all an exellent book for seriousstudents but maybe not for beginners.

This is a study about the mayanpeople that provides exellent incites from the perspective of socialanthropologists and ethnographers as opposed to activists or journalists.The contributors have spent enormous amounts of time with their subjectsand know them well.

.............socks ... Read more

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Interested in language?
This description of the Caddo verb delves into some very interesting linguistic topics, including polysynthesis, agentive person marking (split intransitivity), absolutive person marking, the specification of an indefinite "defocusing" person, noun incorporation, and realis vs. irrealis modality.

Melnar ably demonstrates the wonderful richness of the Caddo verb (e.g. she describes 23 morphological position classes and 26 pronominal forms divided into realis and irrealis sets).However, despite this morphological complexity, Melnar manages to achieve remarkable technical clarity.For example, she identifies 123 Caddo markers of tense, aspect, and mood.Not only are all of the relevant concepts of these markers defined (e.g. andative, cislocative, durative, hortative, prioritive, etc.), at least one example of each marker's use is provided!

While this book is primarily geared toward linguists (and would make a great reference book for grammatical description - the index is very complete and there is ample cross-referencing), it also provides an invaluable insight to the logical expression of a conceptional system that is little documented and largely disappearing (and thus is of considerable interest to anthropologists, psychologists, and anyone interested in what it means to be human).If you adhere to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (that there is a systematic relationship between the grammatical categories of the language a person speaks and how that person both understands the world and behaves in it), you will appreciate Melnar's contribution to our understanding of Native American world-views - and humanity in general. ... Read more

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This sumptuous new book reveals more than 300 fabric "paintings" made and worn by the women of the Kuna, a tribe of indians that live on the coral islands off Panama's Atlantic coast. Lively, varied, original and full of humor, Mola art has an astonishing relationship with tradition but in many ways looks contemporary and is prized by museums and private collectors throughout the world. The lavish images reveal the setting, lifestyle, gestures and beauty of the Kuna women practising their art. French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss has praised Michel Perrin's brilliant demonstration of the links between Mola textile art and Kuna ritual and body decoration. Perrin depicts the significant events that took place during his field research and shares with us his discussions with the Kuna women and their opinions about techniques and aesthetics. The book also includes excerpts from myths and traditional accounts about the rituals, animals, plants, and objects that have stimulated the imagination and inspired the Kuna women to create these magnificent design
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the ultimate praise of kuna arts
My wife is a fiber artist and I am the webmaster of her site. We own nearly 4.000 books and we have gladly added Magnificent Molas by Michel Perrin to our collection. It is difficult to imagine that anyone could do better than Perrin. His Magnificent Molas is a remarkable book in every sense: illustrations, text, layout and printing are all of highest level and come together in a well documented and passionate praise of the magnificent textile art of the kuna indians and their culture. It is even well written, so it makes pleasure to read. This book is a must for those who are interested primitive and textile arts.
Gösta & Agostina Zwilling, Verona, Italy ... Read more

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What does it mean to be Maya in the modern world? Focusing on a Guatemalan town, this case study explores the cultural, political, and economic changes of this society over time.

This case study of a highland Guatemala town examines what it means to be Maya in a rapidly changing and globalized world. In providing an historical synopsis of the Kaqchikel Maya from pre-Columbian through Colonial times to the present day, this volume focuses on the use of language, dress, and crafts as emblems of ethnicity, nationality, and political allegiance. Tecpán considers the dynamics of ethnic boundaries in light of the use of the Kaqchikel language versus Spanish, the growing role of Protestantism and the revitalization of traditional Maya religion versus Catholicism, and traditional subsistence agriculture in the face of an expanding reliance on export crops. It examines in particular the role of weaving and other indigenous crafts in linking Tecpánecos to larger economic and political orbits and for defining local, regional, and national identities. As a result, this accessibly written book demonstrates that even traditional Maya cultural forms are actively constructed in the context of intense global connections. ... Read more

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Very Insightful
I found this book to be very insightful into understanding the historic and social context of Tecpan.I was going to be visiting the town and wanted to learn more about it.

Tecpan is a relatively unimpressive town on the surface, but this book helps you see all the currents and change happening under the surface.I found it fascinating to personally seek out examples of the changing culture that the author writes about.Highly recommended.

An Ethnography of Mayan Everyday Life in an Age of Global Corporatism
Professor Fischer of Vanderbilt University and Carol Hendrickson of Marlboro College have combined their several but separate and different participant observations of the Maya in Guatemala to produce this ethnographic case study of Tecpan, a Guatemalan highland town in the region of Chimal Tenango situated about 30 miles northwest of Guatemala City.Much of Fischer's contributions are based on his graduate studies during the 1990s under the auspices of Tulane University's Kaqchikel Language and Culture School, especially from 1993-94 when he and his future
wife Mareike Sattler "lived and worked in Tecpan, based in a two-room former Mennonite school house".Hendrickson's ethnographic researches go back to the 1970s, when "Guatemalan civil war was entering its most intense stage.She also lived and studied in Tecpan from 1980-81.Both authors have returned numerous times since then to stay current in their observations of theactivities of the Tecpanecos.

The global context of the author's case study is U.S. foreign policy that supports rightwing dictatorships in Central American countries that pretend towards legitimacy via fraudulent elections, while open destablising democratically-elected governments such as the Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954.Because the Catholic Church is pro-democracy, Catholics are often targets of rightwing violence.U.S. intervention in Guatemala is a constant problem, just as it is in the neigbouring countries of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Grenada, Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras - or the rest of the world for that matter.For example, during Hendrickson's ethnographic studies of the late '70s and early '80s, Guatemala was ruled by CIA-installed dictators - General Romeo Lucas Garcia (who ruled from '78-'81) and his successor General EfrainRios Montt.These CIA-installed dictators killed tens of thousands of indegenous Mayans at the behest of their bosses in Washington, District of Criminals.Tecpan did not escape U.S.-generated violence: a Catholic priest was murdered, the town hall bombed, and more than 20 clandestine graves were later uncovered.As a result of past and continuing U.S. intervention, Guatemala is a society of poor people ruled by a U.S.-backed wealthy elite - 2% of the landowners own 70% of the land (and that's the land best suited to agriculture).Fischer and Hendrickson show that this inequality has an ethnic component - none of the U.S.-backed wealthy elite are indigenous people.

The first several chapters of this ethnography provide the reader with an historical context: chapter 1 provides a general introduction to Tecpan; chapter 2 provides the socio-political history of Tecpan, including U.S.-sponsored violence; chapter 3 provides some history of the indigenous Mayan and of the Kaqchikeles who live in Tecpan; chapter 4 discusses the effects of the devastating 1976 earthquake and the subsequent civil war.It is from these chapters, that the reader learns of the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi on April 26, 1998, two days after his Human Rights Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala published a report entitled "Guatemala: Never Again", which clearly demonstrated "that the overwhelming majority of massacres in the highlands during the early 1980s were the work of government forces".The Bishop's killers were Guatemalan army officers Captain Byron Lima and Sergeant Jose Villaneuva, and accomplice Reverand Orantes, who all received prison terms, while their "intellectual authors of the murder . . . to be found higher up in the army's chain of command" such as Captain Byron Lima's father Colonel Bryon Lima escaping prison terms but not prosecution.

Chapter 5 is titled Kaqchikel Hearts, Souls, and Selves: Competing Religions and Worldviews.We learn that with the arrival of the Spanish not only came the misnomer "Indian" for the Native Mayans but also came Catholicism as state religion, although "Protestants - generally British - entered the Spanish/Catholic landscape of colonial Guatemala on occasion".In 1873, President Justo Rufino Barrios "stripped Catholicism of its status as state religion" and by 1947 there were three Southern Baptist churches.To Tecpanecos, Catholicism means drinking and smoking are accepted religious practices whereas Protestantism is opposed to these practices in addition to dancing.The drinking and smoking are often viewed as necessary crutches to surviving the haunting memories of the U.S.-sponsored "La Violencia"of the '70s and early '80s and that sometimes continues to reoccur as in the assassination of Bishop Girardi.

Chapter 6 looks at the inter-relations of dress and language in the on-going construction of identies in local culture.Chapter 7 examines local agriculture and carnation factory farm that ships globally.This is followed by a short conclusion that wraps up the Tecpan Mayan in the contemporary world: the growing pan-Mayan movement for indigenous rights and self-determination, a culture-based non-violent approach.But just across the border in Mexico, is another Mayan movement for indigenous rights called the Zapatista movement led by non-Mayan former university professor Rafael Guillen Vicente who wears a black ski mask and calls himself Subcomandante Marcos, and thus has become a symbol of Mayan Resistance: resistance is the key to success.

In conclusion, the authors did a competent job of participant observation of Mayan identity struggles in the face of U.S.-sponsored global corporatism.To flesh out the Mayan resistance movement in Guatemala would require covert participant observation, which would be difficult for the authors as non-Mayans to carry out.As a result, the rest of the Mayan story will have to await the work of future historians.In larger context, the plight of Guatemalans as the victims of U.S.-sponsored state terrorism is more than disturbing. It is a story where you can take out the word "Guatemala" and replace it with the word "Pakistan", "Syria", or "Iraq" and it loses none of its consistency.The CIA does not reinvent the wheel - their modus operandi is pre-packaged and transferable to any third world country.This book should be read along with "The 'Terrorism' Industry" by Edward Herman and Gerry O'Sullivan (1989).

... Read more

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Maya people have lived for thousands of years in the mountains and forests of what is now Guatemala, but they lost control of their land and became serfs and refugees when the Spanish conquered them in the sixteenth century. Under both the Spanish and the Guatemalan non-Indian elites, they suffered enforced poverty and thereby served as a resident source of cheap labor for non-Maya projects, particularly agricultural production. Following the CIA-induced coup that toppled Guatemala's elected government in 1954, their misery was exacerbated by government accommodation to United States' 'interests', which promoted crops for export and reinforced the need for a source of cheap and passive labor. This widespread poverty was most intense in northwestern Guatemala, where 80 per cent of Maya children were chronically malnourished, and forced a continuing migration to the Pacific coast. The self-help aid that flowed into the area in the 1960s and 1970s raised hopes for justice and equity that were brutally suppressed by Guatemala's military government. This military reprisal led to a massive diaspora of Maya throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America.This collection describes that process and the results. The chapters show the dangers and problems of the migratory/refugee process and the range of creative cultural adaptations that the Maya have developed. It provides the first comparative view of the formation and transformation of this new and expanding transnational population, presented from the standpoint of the migrants themselves as well as from a societal and international perspective. Taken together, the chapters furnish unique and ethnographically grounded perspectives on the dynamic implications of uprooting and resettlement, social and psychological adjustment, long-term prospects for continued links to a migration history from Guatemala, and the development of a sense of co-ethnicity with other indigenous people of Maya descent. As the Maya struggle to find their place in a more global society, their stories of quiet courage are representative of many other ethnic groups, migrants, and refugees today. Author note: James Loucky is a Professor teaching anthropology, Latin American studies, and international studies at Western Washington University. Marilyn M.Moors is Professor emerita from Montgomery College, National Coordinator of the Guatemala Scholars Network, and an adjunct professor teaching anthropology and gender at Frostburg State University. ... Read more

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Wonderful reference guide!
This is a wonderful book to pick if you are looking for a great selection of symbols, from a variety of tribes and regions.The pictures are intricate and rich in detail.Included next to each symbol are an explanation, a story, or legend for a more informative reading.There is also a section on totem animals with a brief explanation on how to find your own totems.And in case you don't know which particular region a tribe is from, the author has included a rough map in the back for this purpose.I would also recommend "Authentic Indian Designs", edited by Maria Naylor. ... Read more

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The simple question 'How did the Maya come up with a calendar that had only 260 days?' led Vincent Malmstrom to discover an unexpected 'hearth' of Mesoamerican culture. In this boldly revisionist book, he sets forth his challenging, new view of the origin and diffusion of Mesoamerican calendrical systems - the intellectual achievement that gave rise to Mesoamerican civilization and culture. Malmstrom posits that the 260-day calendar marked the interval between passages of the sun at its zenith over Izapa, an ancient ceremonial center in the Soconusco region of Mexico's Pacific coastal plain. He goes on to show how the calendar developed by the Zoque people of the region in the fourteenth century B.C. gradually diffused through Mesoamerica into the so-called 'Olmec metropolitan area' of the Gulf coast and beyond to the Maya in the east and to the plateau of Mexico in the west. These findings challenge our previous understanding of the origin and diffusion of Mesoamerican civilization.Sure to provoke lively debate in many quarters, this book will be important reading for all students of ancient Mesoamerica - anthropologists, archaeologists, archaeoastronomers, geographers, and the growing public fascinated by all things Maya. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

life a detective novel
The author never jumps to conclusions, but slowly, gathering the clues to lay out a history of the Mayan calendar. It is up to you to decide whether his logic is correct, I could not find any flaws. As the book goes you pick up plenty of astronomical, geographical and historical facts. Very engaging.
The book has gone out of print, but is now posted in a digital format on the author's website. Still it is sad that it did not get wider attention.

Wonderful journey into Mesoamericas past!
Vincent Malmstrom has written a wonderfully entertaining book stuffed full of facts on the Mesoamerican systems of calendrical accounting.I had no idea the history of their calendars went so far back, nor that they were so widely used by such a great number of civilizations.His theories fill inwhere the facts leave off, as most studies on ancient cultures must, andthe facts support his hypotheses. Malmstrom's theories on the origin of thecalendar are quite different in some aspects than those of scholars beforehim -- one major difference is that he does not believe the Olmec developedthe calendar.I don't want to ruin any surprises for a reader -- and thereare some for those who accept the commonly supported theories of the Olmecas the "father" of all subsequent Mesoamerican civilizations --so I will stop with just one more comment:If you have any interest inMesoamerica or the cultures of the Zoque, Olmec, Zapotec, Maya, Mixtec,Toltec or Aztec, GET THIS BOOK! ... Read more

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The Book of the Fourth World offers detailed analyses of texts that range far back into the centuries of civilised life from what is now Latin- and Anglo-America. At the time of its 'discovery', the American continent was identified as the Fourth World of our planet. In the course of just a few centuries its original inhabitants, though settled there for millennia and countable in many millions, have come to be perceived as a marginal if not entirely dispensable factor in the continent's destiny. Today the term has been taken up again by its native peoples, to describe their own world: both its threatened present condition, and its political history, which stretches back thousands of years before Columbus. In order to explore the literature of this world, Brotherston uses primary sources that have traditionally been ignored because they have not conformed to Western definitions of oral and written literature, such as the scrolls of the Algonkin, the knotted strings (Quipus) of the Inca, Navajo dry-paintings, and the encyclopedic pages of Meso-America's screenfold books. ... Read more

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Even before the arrival of Europeans to the Americas, the practice of taking captives was widespread among Native Americans. Indians took captives for many reasons: to replace--by adoption--tribal members who had been lost in battle, to use as barter for needed material goods, to use as slaves, or to use for reproductive purposes. From the legendary story of John Smith's captivity in the Virginia Colony to the wildly successful narratives of New England colonists taken captive by local Indians, the genre of the captivity narrative is well known among historians and students of early American literature. Not so for Hispanic America. Fernando Opere redresses this oversight, offering the first comprehensive historical and literary account of Indian captivity in Spanish-controlled territory from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

Originally published in Spanish in 2001 as Historias de la frontera: El cautiverio en la America hispanica, this newly translated work reveals key insights into Native American culture in the New World's most remote regions. From the "happy captivity" of the Spanish military captain Francisco Nunez de Pineda y Bascuñan, who in 1628 spent six congenial months with the Araucanian Indians on the Chilean frontier, to the harrowing nineteenth-century adventures of foreigners taken captive in the Argentine Pampas and Patagonia; from the declaraciones of the many captives rescued in the Rio de la Plata region of Argentina in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, to the riveting story of Helena Valero, who spent twenty-four years among the Yanomamo in Venezuela during the mid-twentieth century, Opere's vibrant history spans the entire gamut of Spain's far-flung frontiers. Eventually focusing on the role of captivity in Latin American literature, Opere convincingly shows how the captivity genre evolved over time, first to promote territorial expansion and deny intercultural connections during the colonial era, and later to romanticize the frontier in the service of nationalism after independence. This important book is thus multidisciplinary in its concept, providing ethnographic, historical, and literary insights into the lives and customs of Native Americans and their captives in the New World. ... Read more

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In this provocative and passionate book, Dan Russell argues that Aboriginal self-government is an attainable objective best achieved through a constitutional amendment, not through treaties, as has been the preoccupation of provincial and federal governments since 1982. He claims that reliance on treaties as an instrument of self-government is misguided and doomed to failure. He supports this claim by examining the notion of "tribal sovereignty" practised in the United States and describing how tribal communities there exercise self-governing authority.

Russell goes on to discuss the obstacles to self-government in Canada. What should be the relationship of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to Aboriginal governance structures? How can Aboriginal women's rights be incorporated within future forms of Aboriginal governments? How can collective rights mesh with individual rights guaranteed by the Charter? And how can the recommendations in the final report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples ever be reconciled to hopes for self-government?

A People's Dream offers an original perspective on one of the foremost issues facing Canadians today. Thought-provoking and at times controversial, it will be of interest to policy makers, lawyers, students of Native studies, and anyone interested in issues of Aboriginal self-government. ... Read more

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Former Student
I have not read this book. I had Dr. Bowne for cultural anthropology at Ole Miss, and he was an excellent instructor. Buy this book. ... Read more

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In the heart of Washington, D.C., a centuries-old landscape has come alive in the twenty-first century through a re-creation of the natural environment as the region's original peoples might have known it. Unlike most plantings that surround other museums on the National Mall, the landscape around the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is itself a living exhibit, carefully created to reflect indigenous ways of thinking about the land and its uses.

Abundantly illustrated,The Land Has Memory offers beautiful images of the museum's natural environment in every season as well as the uniquely designed building itself. Essays by museum staff and others involved in the museum's creation provide an examination of indigenous peoples' long and varied relationship to the land in the Americas, an account of the museum designers' efforts to reflect traditional knowledge in the design of individual landscape elements, detailed descriptions of the 150 native plant species used, and an exploration of how the landscape changes seasonally. The Land Has Memory serves not only as an attractive and informative keepsake for museum visitors, but also as a thoughtful representation of how traditional indigenous ways of knowing can be put into practice. ... Read more

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In recent years, the view has emerged that the Inuit were coerced by the Canadian government into abandoning life in scattered camps for centres of habitation. In "Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers", David Damas demonstrates that for many years government policies helped maintain dispersed settlement, but that eventually concerns over health, housing, and education and welfare brought about policy changes that inevitably led to centralization. Damas shows that while there were cases of government-directed relocation to centres, centralization was largely voluntary as the Inuit accepted the advantages of village living. In examining archives, anthropological writings, and the results of field research from an anthropological perspective, Damas provides fresh insights into the policies and developments that led to the centralization of Inuit settlement during the 1950s and 1960s. ... Read more

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The Western Great Lakes region was once home to many Algonkian-speaking nations, including the Anishinabe, Menominee, Sauk, and Fox. For hundreds of years, these people thrived in the Great Lakes woodlands, relying on nature's bounty for their survival. This fascinating new book describes cultural similarities and differences between these nations, their homes, hunting and farming practices, and the importance of family. ... Read more

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