Central America Books

From the cover: Originally published in England in c. 1894. In 1969 an English naval officer set sail from Liverpool, intending to visit the pre-Columbian monuments of Northern and Central America. Only three years had elapsed since the American Civil War had put an end to slavery and large parts of the continent were still inhabited by native peoples, living in the traditional way. This book is the record of his epic journey, by river steamer and mule train, and is based on the diaries he kept at the time. It covers the major archaeological sites of North America, from the huge prehistoric earthworks of Ohio to the hidden Aztec temples of Mexico, with visits to the lands of the Shoshone, the Sioux, the Pawnee and the Dakotas, among many others. An intriguing tour of the great civilizations of the Americas, both ancient and recent, this personal account offers the armchair traveller the opportunity to experience all the excitement of exploration and discovery more than a hundred years ago. [Excellent!!!]

I loved this book beekos it shows you how to rite your name in hiroglifiks.The best part was digging owt the treshurs from the claye. Plees make moer kits. I did not like that the udjat and part of the scareb was missing. Mom red the book to me so I can be a Egyptologiste. by Melanie Merenda age 5

Written by a professor of anthropology at Texas State University San Marcos, The Ancient Maya of the Belize Valley: Half a Century of Archaeological Research carefully reviews the abundances of research and discoveries of ancient Maya settlements, striving to collect and integrate information gathered since the publications of Gordon Willey's classic analysis decades ago. Carefully edited and intended to serve as an interim publication pointing the way to long-term production of final site reports, The Ancient Maya of the Belize Valley explores the land, the evidence, and the theories that can be drawn in meticulous detail, and points the way to future discoveries and reinterpretations of commonly held beliefs concerning long-ago civilizations. An outstanding contribution to archaeological reference and study.

What I like about it: It doesn't presume to make statments of fact about things in Mayan culture for which we have no concrete proof, but rather, presents the most popular theories as possibilities.

What I don't like: With all bibliographic sources and references inserted directly into the text, reading it is an exercise in patience.

_The Ancient Maya_ by Heather McKillop is a comprehensive and thoroughly researched overview of this Central American civilization, complete with maps, diagrams, photographs, and many pages of references.

Organized like a textbook (and I understand it is used as such in some college courses), it is divided into eleven chapters. The first chapter is a general introduction, the author noting some of the evolution in scholarly understanding of the Maya, due to a huge growth in the amount of fieldwork and critical breakthroughs in decipherment of Mayan hieroglyphics, particularly thanks to the efforts of such scholars as Yuri Knorozov (who pointed out that the hieroglyphs were phonetic and not logographs or based on picture writing) and Tatiana Proskouriakoff (who discovered that hieroglyphs on carved stone monuments or stelae recorded historical information and the exploits of Classic Maya royalty, not priestly writings on astronomy and mathematics). McKillop introduced three competing theories that attempted to explain the collapse of the classic Maya civilization in the ninth century, something that she would revisit several times (briefly, they were ecological disaster resulting form overpopulation and overuse of the land, escalating endemic warfare between the various Maya city-states, and catastrophic environmental change brought about by climatic shifts).

Chapter two looked at where the ancient Maya civilization existed, dividing the Maya area into three regions; the northern Maya lowlands (the Yucatan peninsula), the southern Maya lowlands (Belize, the Peten area of Guatemala, the Chiapas area of Mexico, and part of Honduras), and the southern Maya highlands (southern Guatemala). She noted the rock types used by the ancient Maya - chert (which she said is erroneously referred to as flint), limestone, obsidian, basalt - and their sources and issues in studying existing plant and animal communities in the region (ramon trees, which produce an edible nut, are prolific around Maya ruin sites but were not a major component of the Classic Maya diet; these trees love the lime-rich soil found around deteriorating limestone buildings).

Chapter three looked at the history of the archaeology of the Maya. She noted how far study has advanced, from destructive digging ("Gann holes" are still found in the center of some stone mounds, the legacy of enthusiastic explorer Thomas Gann) and forgeries (the famous crystal skull found in 1927) to sophisticated modern techniques (including studies of debitage - flakes left over from making stone tools - and obsidian hydration, which can pinpoint the source of obsidian used for tools and help trace Maya trade routes).

Chapter four is on the origins, growth, and decline of Maya civilization. An important chapter, she provided a good definition of the Classic period (approximately A.D. 300 to 900, when Maya kings and queens had stone monuments erected with historical information and dates in the Maya long count and the peak of the civilization in terms of population, architecture, and the arts). She provided an overview of the great importance in studying Maya pottery, an overview of Maya architecture, and a discussion of Postclassic Maya civilization.

Chapter five was devoted to economic matters, which is divided by scholars into the prestige economy (production and distribution of goods for the royal Maya) and the subsistence economy (goods for the daily use of all classes of Maya society). There is still considerable debate over the degree of elite control and centralization of the ancient Maya economy as well as how specialized the means of production was; was there mass production or cottage industries?

Chapter six covered Maya society. It was interesting to learn that there was a Maya middle class and even "garden cities" or suburbs in some of the 80 Maya polities that existed. She covered the evolution in understanding of Maya population (from concepts of Maya cities as largely empty ceremonial centers to instead that of teeming metropolises) and the different social levels of Maya society; there were two classes of elites (ahau and cahal), while the remaining 98 percent of Maya society was made up two classes of commoners and perhaps slaves (it is debated).

Chapter seven looked at Maya politics. There is debate over whether the Maya city-states were fairly autonomous and operated independently (the segmentary model) or whether there was more centralization and various regional superpowers rose and fell. Other debates center over the nature of warfare; was it related to expansionistic empire-building by Maya royalty, or was it to obtain captives for sacrifice? She covered the development of defensive walls in Maya cities, noting that some cities apparently hastily built defensive walls and moats using the stone from buildings, causeways, and paths of their own city.

Chapter eight looked at Maya religion and ideology, with lots of coverage of the ball game and of Maya deities.

Chapter nine looked at the material culture, with much discussion of the types of items found and how they are studied. Interesting facts; chert was sometimes used to make complex renditions of Maya rulers and their method of manufacture "defies modern replication," Maya painters showed frame-by-frame action, something not shown in Western art until the late 19th century, and pumice was used to make fishing floats.

Chapter ten looked at the intellectual accomplishments of the Maya, notably their mathematics, calendars, writing, and astronomy. Though books were apparently once common in the Classic period, only four Postclassic books survive. They were made of fig bark paper whose surface was coated with a white coating of plaster or gesso (a calcium sulphate), written on with either a sharp quill pen or a brush pen, and were fan-folded with text and images on both sides. Maya glyphs were quite variable, reflecting the decentralized nature of the Classic Maya political landscape.

The final chapter summarized future issues for Mayanists, notably discussions of the Classic collapse (an issue complicated by the fact that the collapse took 150 years to happen and some areas in northern Belize, the coast, and the northern Maya lowlands actually climaxed after the collapse), the nature of Mayan politics, food, and issues of illegal trade in Maya antiquities.

as i am archaeologist, this is a good book to have a ancient cultural, ecological, archaeological backgrounf about mesoamerican civilization. it is really very gooooooooooooooood ...

For many years people ignored Viking Sagas claiming visits to North America. That was a mistake as would be ignoring the many finds reviewed in this short yet fasinating book.

Ancient coins, a Celtic sword, Iberic inscriptions and the famous Dighton Rock, artifacts like the "Roman Head," a sculptured head found in Essex. Cahill's surveys the region's vast collection of stone chambers, temples and dolmens. He notes that Native American accounts verify the existence of some stone formations, but don't seem to claim to be their designers.

Mystery Hill in North Salem New Hampshire which is a collection of stone structures that has fascinated people for centuries. Evidence that indicates that the site is pre-Columbus is compelling. Perhaps it's time for archaeologists to reexamine this site. It's bizarre for such a site to be ignored when it could decide once and for all the prehistory of North America.

This far reaching study, the first of its kind, is still an indispendable guide to the literatures of Hawai'i and required reading as such. The pathos and commitment of the book still come across, over the years and the distances of island separation and diaspora in Michigan. Read it on the beach or in your study.

These wonderful stories have been chosen to represent, according to the foreword, the clash between the indigenous culture and the third world. Perhaps black English speakers are not considered indigenous enough and there is nothing from Belize or about the Garifuana. Only one story is from Panama. It would be interesting to know if the right wing is literate at all. I get two problems with politically motivated fiction. The first is that fiction may be one-sided and over-simplify a complex situation. The second is that when terrible atrocities have been committed then writing about them in fiction can make us complacent. We are able to say "it is only a story"(does Arturo Armas really remember the events of 1954). That said, these are are all remarkable. The influence of the South American magic realists can be seen, especially in the title story and there is a tendency to idealize Indian life and the Popol Vul. I has only read Quesada and Ramirez previously and shall be seeking out more by the other writers.

This is a much needed reference for ever student of the Anishinaabemowin. Granted Johnston does not use the Fiero Double-vowel orthography, his phonetic spelling is systematic and clear, thus easily understood by all. In addition, often students learn their vocabulary for the vocabulary's sake without really learning the construct of the word, but Johnston forces the basic word construct to the forefront by aggregating words into a "thesaurus" and pointing out in the theme-based construct of words of Anishinaabemowin. He groups words in their similarity and then divides these groupings into five sections: nouns, modifiers (adjectives, adverbs, conjuctions, prepositions and pronouns), suffixes, verbs and prefixes. While Nichols and Nyholm in "Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe" provides for many excellent preverbs, Johnston provides a glossary of postverbs to which the preverbs attach to form new verb concepts.

Johnston's goal here is to present the building blocks of the vocabulary so that each student of the Anishinaabe language has the power and knowledge to build thier own vocabulary... and Johnston has met his goal with excellence.

This book is full of great pictures documenting the complete Ant Farm collection of works. Original design sketches and interviews with the artists offer a lot of insight into the art group Ant Farm. I may be a bit biased since I study this kind of art, but I think someone could enjoy this book even if they know little to nothing about Ant Farm. In my opinion, its worth every penny.