Ce livre propose une plongée richement illustrée au cœur du Guatemala, "pays au mille visages", sur les traces des anciennes civilisations précolombiennes. Une dizaine de sites archéologiques – olmèques, mayas, toltèques, aztèques – sont passés au crible, dont certains, comme Tikal et Quirigua, sont inscrits sur la liste du patrimoine mondial de l’Unesco.
This volume contains Spanish official documents, depositions by prisoners, documents relating to Nuño da Silva, etc., translated and edited. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1914. Owing to technical constraints the contemporary engraved portrait of Sir Francis Drake which appeared in the original edition of the book is not included.
Assemblies of rectangular stone pillars, or stelae, fill the plazas and courts of ancient Maya cities throughout the lowlands of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras. Mute testimony to state rituals that linked the king's power to rule with the rhythms and renewal of time, the stelae document the ritual acts of rulers who sacrificed, danced, and experienced visionary ecstasy in connection with celebrations marking the end of major calendrical cycles. The kings' portraits are carved in relief on the main surfaces of the stones, deifying them as incarnations of the mythical trees of life. Based on a thorough analysis of the imagery and inscriptions of seven stelae erected in the Great Plaza at Copan, Honduras, by the Classic Period ruler "18-Rabbit-God K," this ambitious study argues that stelae were erected not only to support a ruler's temporal claims to power but more importantly to express the fundamental connection in Maya worldview between rulership and the cosmology inherent in their vision of cyclical time. After an overview of the archaeology and history of Copan and the reign and monuments of "18-Rabbit-God K," Elizabeth Newsome interprets the...
'Translated from the Portuguese Text First Published in 1812 A.D. by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon, in Vol. II of its Collection of Documents regarding the History and Geography of the Nations beyond the Seas', edited and annotated. With a translation of chapter 2, the history of Rander, from Narmashankar's 'Principal events of Surat'. Continued in Second Series 49. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1918. Owing to technical constraints part of Diego Ribero's Map of the World, 1529, known as the Second Borgian Map, is not included.
In English translation. For further documents, see Second Series 71, 99 and 111. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1929. Owing to technical constraints it has not been possible to reproduce the "Portion of a map by Diego Homem showing Central America and the West Indies, 1568" which appeared in the first edition of the work.
For the ancient and modern Maya, the landscape is ruled by powerful entities in the form of geographic features like caves, mountains, springs, and abandoned cities—spirits who must be entreated, through visits and rituals, for permission to plant, harvest, build, or travel their territories. Consequently, such places have served as points of domination and resistance over the millennia—and nowhere is this truer than in Guatemala’s Northern Transversal Strip, the subject of Brent K. S. Woodfill’s War in the Land of True Peace. This strategic region with its wealth of resources—fertile soil, petroleum, and the only noncoastal salt in the Maya lowlands—is the site of some of the most sacred Maya places, and thus also the focus of some of the signal struggles for power in Maya history. In War in the Land of True Peace Woodfill delves into archaeology, epigraphy, ethnohistory, and ethnography to write the biographies of several of these places, covering their histories from the rise of the Preclassic Maya through the spread of transnational corporations in our time. Again and again the region, known since Spanish conquest as Vera Paz, or True Peace, has seen incursion by a ...
Translated from the Icelandic edition of Sigfús Blöndal and edited by the translator. The volume covers his life and travels, 1593-1622, in Iceland, England, Denmark, White Sea, Faroes, Spitzbergen, Norway. Continued, with new editors, in Second Series 68. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1923. Owing to technical constraints it has not been possible to reproduce Wije's View of Copenhagen in 1611 which appeared in the first edition of the work.
From the Rawlinson MS. A. 315 in the Bodleian Library, with facsimile of original t.-p.: Itinerarium mundi, that is A memoriall or sundry relations of certain voiages,journeies ettc. ... By: Peter Mundy. With an appendix of extracts from the writings of seventeenth-century travellers to the Levant. Continued in Second Series 35, 45, 46, 55, and 78. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1907.
Chichén Itzá es fruto de la genialidad de los arquitectos y astrónomos mayas. Asombra la perfección formal y simbólica que estos sabios supieron imprimir a las edificaciones de esta ciudad del Yucatán maya consagrada al dios Kukulkán, cuya enigmática pirámide domina todo el conjunto.
Desde sus inicios la fotografía en México ha sido un género artístico dominado por no indígenas y la cultura indígena una constante temática dentro de la misma. No fue hasta los 1990s cuando surgieron los primeros grupos de fotógrafos indígenas profesionales que además de tener gran éxito en México, lograron atención y reconocimiento a nivel internacional. Con sus trabajos enriquecen la visión de los fotógrafos no indígenas conocida hasta entonces y dan nuevo rumbo a la presencia del mundo indígena en la fotografía mexicana. En esta tesis doctoral decidí poner en directa comparación ambos grupos de artistas para así subrayar las similitudes y disparidades en sus trabajos. Para este propósito seleccioné un grupo lo suficientemente representativo dentro de la abundante producción fotográfica no indígena y, en el caso de los indígenas, escogí a los fotógrafos más conocidos del país. Como parte esencial del proceso de investigación, conduje más de cincuenta entrevistas tanto a fotógrafos indígenas como no indígenas, y así también a diversos personajes del medio cultural mexicano. En ello descubrí cuáles son los grupos étnicos más fotografiados ...
"Carlos Pallán Gayol nos ofrece en este volumen un resumen de la historia de los mayas. En él, descubrimos que no existió un imperio maya como tal, sino que más bien, había distintas poblaciones mayas que andaban a la gresca un día sí y otro también."(Web Paperblog) "Les invito a que se adentren a través de este libro, Breve Historia de los Mayas, dentro de la selva y junto a la entretenida lectura de la obra de Carlos Pallán Gayol observen a la deslumbrante y pura luz de America Central todo el devenir de la cultura Maya, su sabiduría y misteriosa mitología, el esplendor de los reyes y reinas, guerreros y sacerdotes que vivieron en majestuosas ciudades dentro de feraces selvas tropicales, la mística que desprenden sus ancestrales jeroglíficos."(Blog Historia con minúsculas) La epopeya de la mayor civilización de Mesoamérica, que persiste con sus señas de identidad en la actualidad. Un pueblo que levantó inmensas pirámides sin conocer la rueda. La civilización maya fue una de las más importantes de Mesoamérica, sus impresionantes pirámides y construcciones siguen maravillando al mundo, todavía más si se tiene en cuenta que fueron construidas sin usar...
In 'Guatemala, the Country of the Future' by Charles M. Pepper, readers are immersed in a comprehensive exploration of Guatemala's history, culture, politics, and potential future. Pepper's narrative is rich in detail and provides a nuanced understanding of this Central American nation's complexities. His writing style is engaging and informative, making the book accessible to both scholars and general readers interested in international affairs. The book is situated within the context of post-colonial studies and Latin American literature, offering a unique perspective on Guatemala's place in the global landscape. Pepper's analysis delves into issues such as indigenous rights, political instability, and economic development, providing a well-rounded account of the country's challenges and opportunities. Charles M. Pepper, a seasoned journalist and researcher with a specialization in Latin American studies, brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his exploration of Guatemala. His expertise in the region is evident throughout the book, offering readers a trustworthy and insightful guide to understanding this complex nation. Pepper's passion for social justice and human...
At its peak, the Maya civilization consisted of two million people populating over forty cities. While Europe languished in darkness after the fall of Rome, the Maya were advancing irrigation and terracing techniques in agriculture, pioneering the use of the zero in mathematics, and creating accurate astronomical tables. Yet, much about this great culture is unknown, as scholars struggle to decipher Mayan texts. This compelling volume examines the Maya civilization in accessible chapters with supplemental maps, timelines, and charts to support student research. Relevant topics discussed in this edition include the rise of the Mayans, the lives of the nobility and commoners during the classical period, achievements in science, engineering, and writing, the spirit realm and cosmology, and elements of Mayan culture in modernity.
Papers from the 1987 Maya Weekend conference at the University of Pennsylvania Museum present current views of Maya culture and language. Also included is an article by George Stuart summarizing the history of the study of Maya hieroglyphs and the fascinating scholars and laypersons who have helped bring about their decipherment. Symposium Series III University Museum Monograph, 77
This five-volume set presents some 1,000 comprehensive and fully illustrated histories of the most famous sites in the world. Entries include location, description, and site details, and a 3,000- to 4,000-word essay that provides a full history of the site and its condition today. An annotated further reading list of books and articles about the site completes each entry. The geographically organized volumes include: * Volume 1: The Americas * [1-884964-00-1] * Volume 2: Northern Europe * [1-884964-01-X] * Volume 3: Southern Europe * [1-884964-02-8] * Volume 4: Middle East & Africa * [1-884964-03-6] * Volume 5: Asia & Oceania * [1-884964-04-4]
The artificial shaping of the skull vault of infants expresses fundamental aspects of crafted beauty, of identity, status and gender in a way no other body practice does. Combining different sources of information, this volume contributes new interpretations on Mesoamerican head shaping traditions. Here, the head with its outer insignia was commonly used as a metaphor for designating the “self” and personhood and, as part of the body, served as a model for the indigenous universe. Analogously, the outer “looks” of the head and its anatomical constituents epitomized deeply embedded worldviews and longstanding traditions. It is in this sense that this book explores both the quotidian roles and long-standing ideological connotations of cultural head modifications in Mesoamerica and beyond, setting new standards in the discussion of the scope, caveats, and future directions involved in this study. The systematic examination of Mesoamerican skeletal series fosters an explained review of indigenous cultural history through the lens of emblematic head models with their nuanced undercurrents of religious identity and ethnicity, social organization and dynamic cultural shift. The...
Guatemala holds a dual image. For more than a century, travel writers, explorers, and movie producers have painted the country as an exotic place, a land of tropical forests and the home of the ancient and living Maya. Archaeological ruins, abandoned a millennium ago, have enhanced their depictions with a wistful, dreamy aura of bygone days of pagan splendor, and the unique colorful textiles of rural Maya today connect nostalgically with that distant past. Inspired by that vision, fascinated tourists have flocked there for the past six decades. Most have not been disappointed; it is a genuine facet of a complex land. Guatemala is also portrayed as a poor, violent, repressive country ruled by greedy tyrants with the support of an entrenched elite—the archetypal banana republic. The media and scholarly studies consistently confirm that fair assessment of the social, political, and economic reality. The Historical Dictionary of Guatemala contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent...
Presenting the latest in archaeometallurgical research in a Mesoamerican context, Archaeometallurgy in Mesoamerica brings together up-to-date research from the most notable scholars in the field. These contributors analyze data from a variety of sites, examining current approaches to the study of archaeometallurgy in the region as well as new perspectives on the significance metallurgy and metal objects had in the lives of its ancient peoples. The chapters are organized following the cyclical nature of metals--beginning with extracting and mining ore, moving to smelting and casting of finished objects, and ending with recycling and deterioration back to the original state once the object is no longer in use. Data obtained from archaeological investigations, ethnohistoric sources, ethnographic studies, along with materials science analyses, are brought to bear on questions related to the integration of metallurgy into local and regional economies, the sacred connotations of copper objects, metallurgy as specialized crafting, and the nature of mining, alloy technology, and metal fabrication.
The pre-Columbian city we call Tikal was abandoned by its Maya residents during the tenth century A.D. and succumbed to the Guatemalan rain forest. It was not until 1848 that it was brought to the attention of the outside world. For the next century Tikal, remote and isolated, received a surprisingly large number of visitors. Public officials, explorers, academics, military personnel, settlers, petroleum engineers, chicle gatherers, and archaeologists came and went, sometimes leaving behind material traces of their visits. A short-lived hamlet was established among the ancient ruins in the late 1870s. In 1956 the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology initiated its fourteen-year-long Tikal Project. This report chronicles documented visits to Tikal during the century following its modern discovery, and presents the post-Conquest material culture recovered by the Tikal Project in the course of its investigation of the pre-Columbian city. Further research on the nineteenth-century settlement was carried out in 1998 in its southern part by the Lacandon Archaeological Project (LAP) under the direction of Joel W. Palka of the University of Illinois at Chicago. ...
Ruins and remnants of the past are endowed with life, rather than mere relics handed down from previous generations. Living Ruins explores some of the ways Indigenous people relate to the material remains of human activity and provides an informed and critical stance that nuances and contests institutionalized patrimonialization discourse on vestiges of the past in present landscapes. Ten case studies from the Maya region, Amazonia, and the Andes detail and contextualize narratives, rituals, and a range of practices and attitudes toward different kinds of vestiges. The chapters engage with recently debated issues such as regimes of historicity and knowledge, cultural landscapes, conceptions of personhood and ancestrality, artifacts, and materiality. They focus on Indigenous perspectives rather than mainstream narratives such as those mediated by UNESCO, Hollywood, travel agents, and sometimes even academics. The contributions provide critical analyses alongside a multifaceted account of how people relate to the place/time nexus, expanding our understanding of different ontological conceptualizations of the past and their significance in the present. Living Ruins adds to the lively ...
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The nineteenth century was a period of peak popularity for travel to Latin America, where a new political independence was accompanied by loosened travel restrictions. Such expeditions resulted in numerous travel accounts, most by men. However, because this period was a time of significant change and exploration, a small but growing minority of female voyagers also portrayed the people and places that they encountered. Women through Women's Eyes draws from ten insightful accounts by female visitors to Latin America in the nineteenth century. These firsthand tales bring a number of Latin American women into focus: nuns, market women, plantation workers, the wives and daughters of landowners and politicians, and even a heroine of the independence movement. Questions of family life, religion, women's labor, and education are addressed, in addition to the interrelationships of men and women within the structure of Latin American societies. Women through Women's Eyes is a perceptive look at Latin American women from various walks of life during this period. Within these pages, the reader catches lengthy glimpses of the women on both sides of the travel accounts-author and subject-and...
Once symbols of the past, ruins have become ubiquitous signs of our future. Americans today encounter ruins in the media on a daily basis--images of abandoned factories and malls, toxic landscapes, devastating fires, hurricanes, and floods. In this sweeping study, Miles Orvell offers a new understanding of the spectacle of ruins in US culture, exploring how photographers, writers, painters, and filmmakers have responded to ruin and destruction, both real and imaginary, in an effort to make sense of the past and envision the future. Empire of Ruins explains why Americans in the nineteenth century yearned for the ruins of Rome and Egypt and how they portrayed a past as ancient and mysterious in the remains of Native American cultures. As the romance of ruins gave way to twentieth-century capitalism, older structures were demolished to make way for grander ones, a process interpreted by artists as a symptom of America's "creative destruction." In the late twentieth century, Americans began to inhabit a perpetual state of ruins, made visible by photographs of decaying inner cities, derelict factories and malls, and the waste lands of the mining industry. This interdisciplinary work...
Sugar, coffee, corn, and chocolate have long dominated the study of Central American commerce, and researchers tend to overlook one other equally significant commodity: alcohol. Often illicitly produced and consumed, aguardiente (distilled sugar cane spirits or rum) was central to Guatemalan daily life, though scholars have often neglected its fundamental role in the country's development. Throughout world history, alcohol has helped build family livelihoods, boost local economies, and forge nations. The alcohol economy also helped shape Guatemala's turbulent categories of ethnicity, race, class, and gender, as these essays demonstrate. Established and emerging Guatemalan historians investigate aguardiente's role from the colonial era to the twentieth century, drawing from archival documents, oral histories, and ethnographic sources. Topics include women in the alcohol trade, taverns as places of social unrest, and tension between Maya and State authority. By tracing Guatemala's past, people, and national development through the channel of an alcoholic beverage, Distilling the Influence of Alcohol opens new directions for Central American historical and anthropological research.
In Houses in a Landscape, Julia A. Hendon examines the connections between social identity and social memory using archaeological research on indigenous societies that existed more than one thousand years ago in what is now Honduras. While these societies left behind monumental buildings, the remains of their dead, remnants of their daily life, intricate works of art, and fine examples of craftsmanship such as pottery and stone tools, they left only a small body of written records. Despite this paucity of written information, Hendon contends that an archaeological study of memory in such societies is possible and worthwhile. It is possible because memory is not just a faculty of the individual mind operating in isolation, but a social process embedded in the materiality of human existence. Intimately bound up in the relations people develop with one another and with the world around them through what they do, where and how they do it, and with whom or what, memory leaves material traces. Hendon conducted research on three contemporaneous Native American civilizations that flourished from the seventh century through the eleventh CE: the Maya kingdom of Copan, the hilltop center of...
The ancient Maya city of Quirigua occupied a crossroads between Copan in the southeastern Maya highlands and the major centers of the Peten heartland. Though always a relatively small city, Quirigua stands out because of its public monuments, which were some of the greatest achievements of Classic Maya civilization. Impressive not only for their colossal size, high sculptural quality, and eloquent hieroglyphic texts, the sculptures of Quirigua are also one of the few complete, in situ series of Maya monuments anywhere, which makes them a crucial source of information about ancient Maya spirituality and political practice within a specific historical context. Using epigraphic, iconographic, and stylistic analyses, this study explores the integrated political-religious meanings of Quirigua's monumental sculptures during the eighth-century A.D. reign of the city's most famous ruler, K'ak' Tiliw. In particular, Matthew Looper focuses on the role of stelae and other sculpture in representing the persona of the ruler not only as a political authority but also as a manifestation of various supernatural entities with whom he was associated through ritual performance. By tracing this...
A major history of technology and Western conquest For six hundred years, the nations of Europe and North America have periodically attempted to coerce, invade, or conquer other societies. They have relied on their superior technology to do so, yet these technologies have not always guaranteed success. Power over Peoples examines Western imperialism's complex relationship with technology, from the first Portuguese ships that ventured down the coast of Africa in the 1430s to America's conflicts in the Middle East today. Why did the sailing vessels that gave the Portuguese a century-long advantage in the Indian Ocean fail to overcome Muslim galleys in the Red Sea? Why were the same weapons and methods that the Spanish used to conquer Mexico and Peru ineffective in Chile and Africa? Why didn't America's overwhelming air power assure success in Iraq and Afghanistan? In Power over Peoples, Daniel Headrick traces the evolution of Western technologies—from muskets and galleons to jet planes and smart bombs—and sheds light on the environmental and social factors that have brought victory in some cases and unforeseen defeat in others. He shows how superior technology translates into...
This book presents the history of a gentlemen’s club in London that was founded in 1866 for the purpose of exhibiting private art collections. It takes the main exhibition themes as a starting point to explore approaches to art, connoisseurship and display in a unique setting.
Spanning multiple eras across the entire globe, this accessible book provides wonderful introduction to archaeology and the discoveries which have changed our world. Piece by painstaking piece, archaeology has helped us to rewrite the history of Homo sapiens. Gaynor Aaltonen digs deep into major expeditions and the artifacts they uncovered, from the forgotten Anasazi empire of the American southwest to the discovery of King Richard III's remains beneath a Leicester car park. Topics include: • Submerged cities, from Jamaica's Port Royal to Italy's Bacoli. • Technological advancements such as carbon dating • Native American structures including "Montezuma Castle" • Mayan and Aztec city-states This book provides an expansive overview of human history, told through the materials we have left behind.
In this volume, the authors present research on three important classes of artifacts from Mexico: Michael W. Spence and Jeffrey R. Parsons report on prehispanic obsidian exploitation in Central Mexico and Mary Hrones Parsons writes about Aztec figurines and spindle whorls from the Teotihuacán Valley.
What role did indigenous peoples play in the Spanish conquest of Mexico? Ross Hassig explores this question in Mexico and the Spanish Conquest by incorporating primary accounts from the Indians of Mexico and revisiting the events of the conquest against the backdrop of the Aztec empire, the culture and politics of Mesoamerica, and the military dynamics of both sides. He analyzes the weapons, tactics, and strategies employed by both the Indians and the Spaniards, and concludes that the conquest was less a Spanish victory than it was a victory of Indians over other Indians, which the Spaniards were able to exploit to their own advantage. In this second edition of his classic work, Hassig incorporates new research in the same concise manner that made the original edition so popular and provides further explanations of the actions and motivations of Cortés, Moteuczoma, and other key figures. He also explores their impact on larger events and examines in greater detail Spanish military tactics and strategies.
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