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"Monocotyledons ('monocots'), though comprising only one fourth of all flowering plant species, are economically and ecologically crucial. In families such as the grasses and palms, they include some of the most valuable plant species to humanity. Numerous monocot species have great ornamental value due to their spectacular flowers or characteristic structural features. They range in size from the smallest flowering plants, Wolffia arrbiza, little more than 1 mm across, to massive palm trees up to 40 m tall. Monocot species occur in arctic regions, wet tropical forests, and deserts, and have a wide range of life forms, including floating and rooted aquatic plants, geophytes, epiphytes, and lianas. Diversity, Phylogeny, and Evolution in the Monocotyledons includes reviews and reports of current research by the world's leading specialists, based on presentations made at the Fourth International Conference on the Comparative Biology of the Monocotyledons and the Fifth International Symposium on Grass Systematics and Evolution, held in Copenhagen in 2008."--Publisher's description.
Approximately 500 years after the first borderlands were being constructed in Latin America to distinguish the indigenous population from their colonizers, boundaries are still being created in Latin America. Although borders still exist, the reasons for their construction and maintenance in the current global world have expanded. Today, Latin American borders include the traditional political borders, as well as more non-traditional borders reflected in art, gender, and social programs. Because borders and the concept of borders are constantly changing, the chapters in this edited volume present a reexamination of the more traditionally defined political borders, as well as those that are constructed by the human body, art, and social policy. The chapters naturally separate into four different general topics: 1) traditional transnational borders, 2) borders and the gendered body, 3) borders as depicted in art, and 4) borders and social programs.
"A summary of the history and geopolitical role of the Maya archaeological site of Ixlu, located on Lake Peten Itza in the Peten region of Guatemala. Information from historical sources is combined with the results of archaeological fieldwork carried out between 1980 and 1998. The archaeological research carried out by the authors complements ethnohistoric accounts of the events leading up to the Spanish conquest of the Peten Itzas, which did not occur until 1697. Insight is provided into Ixlu's possible role as an entrepot in Maya trade and into conflicts between the region's rival Maya ethnopolities, the Itza and Kowoj"--Provided by publisher.
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Neighbors of the better-known Itza in the central Petén lakes region of Guatemala, the Kowoj Maya have been studied for little more than a decade. The Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Geopolitics in Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala summarizes the results of recent research into this ethno-political group conducted by Prudence Rice, Don Rice, and their colleagues. Chapters in The Kowoj address the question "Who are the Kowoj?" from varied viewpoints: archaeological, archival, linguistic, ethnographic, and bioarchaeological. Using data drawn primarily from the peninsular site of Zacpetén, the authors illuminate Kowoj history, ritual components of their self-expressed identity, and their arc...
Maya Worldviews at Conquest examines Maya culture and social life just prior to contact and the effect the subsequent Spanish conquest, as well as contact with other Mesoamerican cultures, had on the Maya worldview. Focusing on the Postclassic and Colonial periods, Maya Worldviews at Conquest provides a regional investigation of archaeological and epigraphic evidence of Maya ideology, landscape, historical consciousness, ritual practices, and religious symbolism before and during the Spanish conquest. Through careful investigation, the volume focuses on the impact of conversion, hybridization, resistance, and revitalization on the Mayans’ understanding of their world and their place in it. The volume also addresses the issue of anthropologists unconsciously projecting their modern worldviews on the culture under investigation. Thus, the book critically defines and strengthens the use of worldviews in the scholarly literature regardless of the culture studied, making it of value not only to Maya scholars but also to those interested in the anthropologist’s projection of worldview on other cultures in general.
Pottery is one of the most important classes of artifacts available to archaeologists and anthropologists. Every year, volumes of data are generated detailing ceramic production, distribution, and consumption. How these data can be interpreted in relation to the social and cultural framework of prehistoric societies in Mesoamerica is the subject of this book. Nine chapters written by some of the most well known and respected scholars in the field offer readers an in-depth look at key advances from the past fifteen years. These scholars examine ethnoarchaeological studies and the Preclassic/Formative, Classic, and Postclassic periods and cover geographic areas from eastern to central Mesoamer...
In Animal Purpose, Michelle Y. Burke explores the lives of men and women as they stand poised between the desire to love and the compulsion to harm. In one poem, a woman teaches a farmhand the proper way to slaughter a truckload of chickens. In another, a couple confronts the recent loss of a loved one when a stranger makes an unexpected confession in a crowded restaurant. Set in both rural and urban spaces, these poems challenge received ideas about work, gender, and place. Danger blurs into beauty and back again. Burke scours the hard edges of the world to find “fleeting softness,” which she wishes “into the world like pollen that covers everything.”