Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya

Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya PDF Author: Victoria Schlesinger
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 9780292777606
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
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.

Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya

Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya PDF Author: Victoria Schlesinger
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 9780292777606
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

The Archaeology of Mesoamerican Animals

The Archaeology of Mesoamerican Animals PDF Author: Kitty F. Emery
Publisher: Lockwood Press
ISBN: 1937040151
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 809

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Book Description
Recognition of the role of animals in ancient diet, economy, politics, and ritual is vital to understanding ancient cultures fully, while following the clues available from animal remains in reconstructing environments is vital to understanding the ancient relationship between humans and the world around them. In response to the growing interest in the field of zooarchaeology, this volume presents current research from across the many cultures and regions of Mesoamerica, dealing specifically with the most current issues in zooarchaeological literature. Geographically, the essays collected here index the different aspects of animal use by the indigenous populations of the entire area between the northern borders of Mexico and the southern borders of lower Central America. This includes such diverse cultures as the north Mexican hunter-gatherers, the Olmec, Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Central American Indians. The time frame of the volume extends from the earliest human occupation, the Preclassic, Classic, Postclassic, and Colonial manifestations, to recent times. The book's chapters, written by experts in the field of Mesoamerican zooarchaeology, provide important general background on the domestic and ritual use of animals in early and classic Mesoamerica and Central America, but deal also with special aspects of human-animal relationships such as early domestication and symbolism of animals, and important yet otherwise poorly represented aspects of taphonomy and zooarchaeological methodology. Spanish-language version also available (ISBN 978-1-937040-12-3).

The Ancient Maya

The Ancient Maya PDF Author: Sylvanus Griswold Morley
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804721301
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 940

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Book Description
"Comprehensive synthesis of ancient Maya scholarship. Extensive summary of the archaeology of the Maya world provides the historical context for a detailed topical synthesis of chronological and geographic variability within the Maya cultural tradition"--

An Archaeological Reconstruction of Ancient Maya Life at Pacbitun, Belize

An Archaeological Reconstruction of Ancient Maya Life at Pacbitun, Belize PDF Author: Terry G. Powis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781407356648
Category : Excavations (Archaeology)
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This volume presents the results of 35 years of archaeological research at the Maya site of Pacbitun, located in west central Belize. The site was continuously occupied from 900 BC to AD 800/900. Excavations focused on both the site core and periphery, with investigations centred around housemounds, workshops, causeways, caves, and other karst features. In the site core, we excavated at areas ranging from small domestic houses dating to the Middle Preclassic to large ceremonial architecture (e.g. courtyards, palaces, temples) and complexes (e.g. E Groups) dating to the Late/Terminal Classic periods. From a material culture perspective, we conducted extensive research on ancient Maya use of plants, animals, ground stone tools, musical instruments, and ceramics.

The Ancient Maya, 6th Edition

The Ancient Maya, 6th Edition PDF Author: Robert J. Sharer
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804748179
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 986

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Book Description
The rich findings of recent exploration and research are incorporated in this completely revised and greatly expanded sixth edition of this standard work on the Maya people. New field discoveries, new technical advances, new successes in the decipherment of Maya writing, and new theoretical perspectives on the Maya past have made this new edition necessary.

Secrets of Mayan Science/Religion

Secrets of Mayan Science/Religion PDF Author: Hunbatz Men
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9780939680634
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
An engaging study that reveals sacred teachings that the Mayan priesthood hid from Spanish conquistadores in Mexico in 1519. The author explores the scientific and spiritual principles underlying the ancient glyphs, numbers, and language of the Maya.

Popol Vuh P

Popol Vuh P PDF Author: Adrián Recinos
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806122663
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
This is the first complete version in English of the "Book of the People" of the Quiche Maya, the most powerful nation of the Guatemalan highlands in pre-Conquest times and a branch of the ancient Maya, whose remarkable civilization in pre-Columbian America is in many ways comparable to the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. Generally regarded as America's oldest book, the Popol Vuh, in fact, corresponds to our Christian Bible, and it is, moreover, the most important of the five pieces of the great library treasures of the Maya that survived the Spanish Conquest. The Popol Vuh was first transcribed in the Quiche language, ·but in Latin characters, in the middle of the sixteenth century, by some unknown but highly literate Quiche Maya Indian-probably from the oral traditions of his people. This now lost manuscript was copied at the end of the seventeenth century by Father Francisco Ximénez, then parish priest of the village of Santo Tomás Chichicastenango in the highlands of Guatemala, today the most celebrated and best-known Indian town in all of Central America. The mythology, traditions, cosmogony, and history of the Quiché Maya, including the chronology of their kings down to 1550, are related in simple yet literary style by the Indian chronicler. And Adrian Recinos has made a valuable contribution to the understanding and enjoyment of the document through his thorough going introduction and his identification of places and people in the footnotes.

The World of the Ancient Maya

The World of the Ancient Maya PDF Author: John S. Henderson
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801482847
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Theirs was one of the few complex societies to emerge in and to adapt successfully to a tropical-forest environment. Their architecture, sculpture, and painting were sophisticated and compellingly beautiful.

Animal Medicine

Animal Medicine PDF Author: Erika Buenaflor
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1591434122
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
• Includes an alphabetical guide to 76 animals, explaining each animal’s spiritual gifts, shapeshifting medicine, the realm they are associated with, and their symbolic meaning when they appear in a dream or vision • Details the trance journeying techniques and shapeshifting practices of ancient Mesoamerican shamanic traditions and modern-day curanderismo • Explores how to strengthen our connections with our spirit animal guides In this guide, Erika Buena or explores the animal mythologies, spirit journeying techniques, and shapeshifting practices of ancient shamanic traditions and modern-day curanderismo. She examines how indigenous Mesoamerican peoples used animals in their ceremonial healing and divination rites and explains the innate gifts and powers that different animals embody. She explores why certain animals are associated with and provide access to the nonordinary realms--the Underworld, Middleworld, and Upperworld--wherein deities, ancestors, supernatural beings, and medicine can be connected with or obtained. The author explores shapeshifting practices in detail and the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual benefits we can gain by engaging in shapeshifting practices. She also explores how to strengthen our connections with our spirit animal guides. Offering an alphabetical guide to 76 animals most prevalent in ancient Mesoamericanlegends, ceremonies, and medicinal rites, the author details each animal’s spiritual gifts, shapeshifting medicine, the realm they are associated with, and their symbolic meaning when they appear in a dream or vision. Providing multiple methods to connect with animals for spiritual guidance, self-empowerment, and healing, Buena or reveals how each of us can enrich our lives with ancient Mesoamerican wisdom for working with animal guides.

Singing to the Plants

Singing to the Plants PDF Author: Stephan V, Beyer
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 0826347312
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 477

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Book Description
In the Upper Amazon, mestizos are the Spanish-speaking descendants of Hispanic colonizers and the indigenous peoples of the jungle. Some mestizos have migrated to Amazon towns and cities, such as Iquitos and Pucallpa; most remain in small villages. They have retained features of a folk Catholicism and traditional Hispanic medicine, and have incorporated much of the religious tradition of the Amazon, especially its healing, sorcery, shamanism, and the use of potent plant hallucinogens, including ayahuasca. The result is a uniquely eclectic shamanist culture that continues to fascinate outsiders with its brilliant visionary art. Ayahuasca shamanism is now part of global culture. Once the terrain of anthropologists, it is now the subject of novels and spiritual memoirs, while ayahuasca shamans perform their healing rituals in Ontario and Wisconsin. Singing to the Plants sets forth just what this shamanism is about--what happens at an ayahuasca healing ceremony, how the apprentice shaman forms a spiritual relationship with the healing plant spirits, how sorcerers inflict the harm that the shaman heals, and the ways that plants are used in healing, love magic, and sorcery.