Download or read book An Epoch of Miracles written by and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2014-06-23 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Mr. Allan Burns, I am here to tell you an example, the example of the Hunchbacks.” So said Paulino Yamá, traditionalist and storyteller, to Allan Burns, anthropologist and linguist, as he began one story that found its way into this book. Paulino Yamá was just one of several master storytellers from the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico from whom Burns learned not only the Mayan language but also the style and performance of myths, stories, riddles, prayers, and other forms of speech of their people. The result is An Epoch of Miracles, a wonderfully readable yet thoroughly scholarly set of translations from the oral literature of the Yucatec Maya, an important New World tradition never before systematically described. An Epoch of Miracles brings us over thirty-five long narratives of things large, small, strange, and “regular” and as many delightful short pieces, such as bird lore, riddles, and definitions of anteaters, rainbows, and other commonplaces of the Mayan world. Here are profound narratives of the Feathered Serpent, the mighty Rain God Chac and his helpers, and the mysterious cult of the Speaking Cross. But because these are modern, “Petroleum Age” Maya, here too are a discussion with Cuba’s Fidel Castro and a greeting to former president Richard Nixon. All pieces are translated ethnopoetically; examples of several genres are presented bilingually. An especially valuable feature is the indication of performance style, such as pauses and voice quality, given with each piece.
Download or read book Unfinished Conversations written by Paul Sullivan and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2014-08-06 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A century ago, European and North American archaeologists first came upon the extraordinary ruins of Chichen Itza and Tulum—and started to converse with the Mayas who inhabited the forests of the Yucatan. In this thought-provoking history of a century-long "unfinished conversation" between the indigenous Indians and the white intruders, paul Sullivan shows how each party to the dialogue shaped the cross-cultural encounters to their own ends. North American anthropologists preferred to see the Mayas as a primitive people and studied them, they claimed, with scientific neutrality. Yet the anthropologists hid their real intentions and lied to the Mayas, pretending to be chicle dealers or explorers, and they also (in certain important cases) worked for the United States government as covert intelligence agents. Similarly, the Mayas had their own hidden agendas—wanting guns and money from the Americans to fight the central Mexican government—and consequently charged the Americans for the tribal lore and religious secrets they imparted. Sullivan asks us to view the history of Western-Maya dialogue as a Maya would—setting the prophecies of his ancestors, the advice of his grandparents, and the events of last week in a long continuum that extends way into the future and can foretell the end of the world. By taking this view, once can see how this particular Central American people has constituted a new life, a new past, and a new future out of the ruins of great suffering and defeat. This surprising, moving, and intellectually stimulating book will remind us how even actions initiated with the best intentions can be perverted when tested by the realities of political violence, acute dependency, mutual ignorance, and fear.
Download or read book Anthropology and History in Yucat n written by Grant D. Jones and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2014-05-12 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropology and History in Yucatán is a collection of ten essays that offer new evidence and interpretations of the survival and adaptation of lowland Maya culture from its earliest contact with the Spanish to the 1970s. These case studies reflect a growing interest in the use of historical approaches in the development of models of cultural change that will integrate archaeological, historical, and ethnographic data. The portrait of the Maya emerging from this collection is that of a remarkably vital people who have skillfully resisted total incorporation with their neighbors and who continue even today to emphasize their cultural independence and historical uniqueness. In his introduction, Grant D. Jones synthesizes previous studies of the anthropological history of Yucatán and summarizes the theoretical issues underlying the volume. Section I, which focuses on continuity and change in the boundaries of Maya ethnicity in Yucatán, includes contributions by the late Sir Eric Thompson, France V. Scholes, and O. Nigel Bolland. Section II presents comparative regional perspectives of Maya adaptations to external forces of change and contains essays by D. E. Dumond, Grant D. Jones, James W. Ryder, and Anne C. Collins. In the closing section, three articles, by Victoria Reifler Bricker, Allan F. Burns, and Irwin Press, treat Maya concepts of their own history. Throughout the book, the authors demonstrate that models far more complex than Robert Redfield’s folk-urban continuum must be developed to account for the great regional variations in responses by the Maya to the pressures of economic, cultural, and political control as exerted by Spanish, Mexican, Guatemalan, and British authorities over the past four centuries. The essays demonstrate a variety of methodological approaches that will be of interest to historians, ethnohistorians, ethnologists, archaeologists, and those who have a general interest in the survival of Maya culture.
Download or read book The Two Milpas of Chan Kom written by Alicia Re Cruz and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ethnographic account of Chan Kom, a contemporary Maya community in Yucatan, Mexico that focuses on the social schism within the community resulting from an accelerated process of migration to Cancun, a major tourist center.
Download or read book The Ch ol Maya of Chiapas written by Robert M. Laughlin and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2015-04-08 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ch’ol Maya who live in the western Mexican state of Chiapas are direct descendants of the Maya of the Classic period. Exploring their history and culture, volume editor Karen Bassie-Sweet and the other authors assembled here uncover clear continuity between contemporary Maya rituals and beliefs and their ancient counterparts. With evocative and thoughtful essays by leading scholars of Maya culture, The Ch’ol Maya of Chiapas, the first collection to focus fully on the Ch’ol Maya, takes readers deep into ancient caves and reveals new dimensions of Ch’ol cosmology. In contemporary Ch’ol culture the contributors find a wealth of historical material that they then interweave with archaeological data to yield surprising and illuminating insights. The colonial and twentieth-century descendants of the Postclassic period Ch’ol and Lacandon Ch’ol, for instance, provide a window on the history and conquest of the early Maya. Several authors examine Early Classic paintings in the Ch’ol ritual cave known as Jolja that document ancient cave ceremonies not unlike Ch’ol rituals performed today, such as petitioning a cave-dwelling mountain spirit for health, rain, and abundant harvests. Other essays investigate deities identified with caves, mountains, lightning, and meteors to trace the continuity of ancient Maya beliefs through the centuries, in particular the ancient origin of contemporary rituals centering on the Ch’ol mountain deity Don Juan. An appendix containing three Ch’ol folktales and their English translations rounds out the volume. Charting paths literal and figurative to earlier trade routes, pre-Columbian sites, and ancient rituals and beliefs, The Ch’ol Maya of Chiapas opens a fresh, richly informed perspective on Maya culture as it has evolved and endured over the ages.
Download or read book Journal of Mayan Linguistics written by and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Catalog of Copyright Entries Third Series written by Library of Congress. Copyright Office and published by Copyright Office, Library of Congress. This book was released on 1976 with total page 1406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Projecting the Past to the Present written by Lorena Martos Sosa and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society written by Berkeley Linguistics Society and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dissertation Abstracts International written by and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 730 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Milpa Agriculture and Economic Diversification written by Ueli Hostettler and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book United States Doctoral Dissertations in Third World Studies 1869 1978 written by Michael Sims and published by [Los Angeles, Calif.] : Crossroads Press. This book was released on 1980 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Convergencia e individualidad written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Guide to Graduate Departments of Anthropology written by and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 696 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Mayas written by and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Books and Pamphlets Including Serials and Contributions to Periodicals written by Library of Congress. Copyright Office and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 1422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book North American Indians written by University Microfilms International and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
