The contributors to this volume present extensive new evidence from archaeology, iconography, and epigraphy to offer a more nuanced understanding of the interaction between the Early Classic Maya and Teotihuacan. Winner, Choice Outstanding Academic Book, 2005 Since the 1930s, archaeologists have uncovered startling evidence of interaction between the Early Classic Maya and the great empire of Teotihuacan in Central Mexico. Yet the exact nature of the relationship between these two ancient Mesoamerican civilizations remains to be fully deciphered. Many scholars have assumed that Teotihuacan colonized the Maya region and dominated the political or economic systems of certain key centers—perhaps even giving rise to state-level political organizations. Others argue that Early Classic rulers merely traded with Teotihuacan and skillfully manipulated its imported exotic goods and symbol sets to increase their prestige. Moving beyond these traditional assumptions, the contributors to this volume present extensive new evidence from archaeology, iconography, and epigraphy to offer a more nuanced understanding of the interaction between the Early Classic Maya and Teotihuacan. Investigating a range of Maya sites, including Kaminaljuyu, Copán, Tikal, Altun Ha, and Oxkintok, they demonstrate that the influence of Teotihuacan on the Maya varied in nature and duration from site to site, requiring a range of models to explain the patterns of interaction. Moreover, they show that the interaction was bidirectional and discuss how the Maya in turn influenced Teotihuacan.

This book rescues photographs of interpreters: from the 19th century, French diplomat and sinologist, Arnold Vissière, and Julius Meyer, a Jewish trader in Wyoming and interpreter for native American groups; John Brown, the African-American who interpreted for travellers to the Putamayo region in Peru, witness of the mistreatment of indigenous rubber extractors in the “Devil’s Paradise”; Viktor Sukhodrev, Russian diplomatic interpreter, whom Richard Nixon trusted more than his own White House staff. From Brazil there are the boy interpreters from the Xetá indigenous group; Euvaldo Gomes making the first contact with the Xavante in 1949, after the participants in previous attempts were killed; the first communication with the Korubo in the Amazon in 1996; the familiar figures of Raoni and his interpreter, Megaron; and General Vernon Walters, the American military attaché and linguist, a key actor in the 1964 military coup. Photographs are analyzed as a formal visual composition; a performance; an act of interpreting, a moment in history that expresses geopolitical and economic power, social habits, and fashions; and salvaging lives lost in the sea of history.

Este libro esta dedicado a entender cómo la antropología social estudia y se implica en los procesos de desarrollo impulsados desde la cooperación internacional. Algunos de los temas abordados ?el nacimiento de antropología aplicada al desarrollo, la definición del objeto de estudio, las principales aproximaciones teóricas y metodológicas, el posicionamiento frente al dilema ético del desarrollo o el análisis de las transformaciones sociales y culturales inducidas en su nombre- permiten familiarizar al lector con los temas clásicos de la subdisciplina. Otros, como el análisis de las políticas públicas de salud internacional o la emergencia, acción y efectos de las ONG, lo introducirá a algunos de los debates estrella de los últimos tiempos. Esta obra tiene el merito de ser la primera que explora las investigaciones antropológicas llevadas a cabo en el estado español en el ámbito de la cooperación internacional al desarrollo. Concebido a modo de manual introductorio, este volumen es necesario para todos aquellos que estén interesados en trabajar sobre el mundo del desarrollo desde la antropología, recomendable para quienes quieran contribuir a una reflexión colectiva sobre la realidad poliédrica y polisémica del desarrollo y fundamental para los que piensen que la etnografía nos brinda una buena oportunidad para demostrar que otros mundos son posibles.

With new readings of ancient texts, Ancient Maya Politics unlocks the long-enigmatic political system of the Classic Maya.

This impressive collection features the work of archaeologists who systematically explore the material and social consequences of new technological systems introduced after the sixteenth-century Spanish invasion in Mesoamerica. It is the first collection to present case studies that show how both commonplace and capital-intensive technologies were intertwined with indigenous knowledge systems to reshape local, regional, and transoceanic ecologies, commodity chains, and political, social, and religious institutions across Mexico and Central America.