Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
726-750 (4,066 Records)
At the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, the massive introduction of new animal species in the Americas put an unprecedented stress on both the environment and Native American societies. Although archaeological animal remains are often used to inform discussions on American-European transculturation in other areas, few such studies have been done in southern Mesoamerica. This talk will use historical sources and published zooarchaeological data to provide a first overview of...
The Columbian Exchange in the Maya/Spanish Borderlands: A Zooarchaeological and Isotopic Tale of Resistance and Repurposing (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Columbian Exchange Revisited: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives on Eurasian Domesticates in the Americas" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The introduction of Eurasian domesticates in the Americas significantly changed the Maya domestic economy during the early colonial period (AD 1535–1700). However, this change was heterogenous in scale across the Maya world. While areas under Spanish control quickly...
Comercio y cultura en El Tajín de los primeros años del Epiclásico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La historia de los primeros años del Epiclásico (ca. 750-850 dC) en El Tajín, Veracruz, no es sólo la historia de esta antigua ciudad. Hay toda una serie de factores que participan de ella en distintos momentos de su desarrollo cultural. Varios de ellos se...
Coming to the Islands: Strontium and Oxygen Isotope Investigation of Human Mobility in the Bahamian Archipelago (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in the Archaeology of the Bahama Archipelago" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Initial settlement of the Bahamian archipelago is currently thought to have derived from Cuba and/or Hispaniola. The first forays may have been seasonal, with permanent settlement not in evidence until ca. AD 1000. As well as initial settlement, we might expect a continued movement of individuals between the Greater Antilles and the...
Comitan, “Place of Potters”: Evidence of Specialized Potters in the Valley of Comitan (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Dynamic Frontiers in the Archaeology of Chiapas" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent work documenting the stored artifacts in museums in Chiapas has led to the identification of large pottery urns, pots, and jars from the region of Comitan that share surprising similarities in manufacture and decoration. Dating to the Postclassic and Late Classic periods, it suggests that specialization was present in the Valley of...
Commemorating the Preclassic Monumental Construction at Tayasal, Guatemala (2018)
Research into the Main Group at Tayasal, Guatemala, revealed that the Postclassic inhabitants re-occupied areas and buildings that were constructed during the Preclassic period. Most of those buildings in the Main Group stand on a massive elevated platform, which was also constructed during the Preclassic period. The Preclassic period was the period during which the construction of monumental architecture such as E-groups and Triadic Group occurred at numerous sites including Tayasal. It was...
The Commensal animals in the Pacific – What might DNA results suggest about the animal-human relationships through time? (2017)
For the last twenty years we have been studying modern and ancient DNA of the various commensal animals in the Pacific. Different patterns of distribution and genetic variation exist and may provide information regarding the animal-human relationships and the role these animals played in the various Pacific cultures through time.
Commercial Activity, Trades and Professions in Barrio Ballajá, 1910 - 1940. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Primary Sources and the Design of Research Projects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A deeper analysis of the neighborhoods (barrios) of San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, during the early 1900’s provides a clearer scope of the complexities of population density and work related activities. For instance, Barrio Ballajá, the smallest neighborhood located to the northwest of the walled city, had a population of...
Commercializing for its People: "Pulperías" and "Ventorrillos" in the City of San Juan, 1910-1920. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Primary Sources and the Design of Research Projects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research is a case study in which the themes of "pulperías" and "ventorrillos", within the walled city of San Juan Puerto Rico in 1910 and 1920, is approached as a potential line of archaeological research. The main objective is to identify the existence of these commercial loci within the study area through the analysis of...
Commoner Agency, Hinterland Complexity, and Evidence for a Late Classic Commoner Marketplace in the Rio Bravo Basin, Northwestern Belize (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Prehispanic Maya Marketplace Investigations in the Three Rivers Region of Belize: First Results" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper considers preliminary evidence for a Late Classic period marketplace at the site of Chawak But’o’ob, Belize. Group E, one of the largest settlement groups at this eighth-century agrarian site, is characterized by a well-bounded, spacious plaza that is larger and otherwise unlike...
Commoner Landscape, Ritual, and Symbolism in the Shadow of Dos Hombres: Recent Investigations at the Site of Chawak But’o’ob. (2017)
A number of seasons of research at the site of Chawak But’o’ob in the southwestern outskirts of the city of Dos Hombres have revealed an architecturally humble community characterized by dense habitation and extensive landscape modification as well as domestic and public ritual. The evidence suggests that the inhabitants of this farming community had an eye toward symbolism in decisions they made about the disposition of domestic and public structures as well as the manipulation of water and...
Communal Spaces and Ideas of Belonging in a WWII Japanese Incarceration Center (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans was based on a questioning of national allegiance and the role of minority groups within this nation. This paper looks at the development of communal spaces at the Amache Incarceration Center in southeastern Colorado and explores the ways these areas express ideas of national and...
Communing with the Gods: The Paleoethnobotany of Fire Rituals (2018)
The importance of fire in Maya rituals is well-known, both archaeologically and ethnographically. Fire, which is symbolic of the life cycle in Maya ideology, has been used as a means of communicating with the supernatural world in order to manage specific aspects of everyday life, such as the success of the agricultural season. In the archaeological record, we find evidence for ancient fires as features consisting mostly of burnt plant remains, some of which resemble modern Maya fire altars both...
Communities of Engaged Performance: Investigating Soundscapes and the Sonorous Past (2018)
The relationship between individuals and urban soundscapes can tell us about the personhood and sonic practices of people in the past. To reconstruct the interaction between a musician and audience in archaeological contexts, I introduce a novel theoretical framework called ‘communities of engaged performance’ (CEP). CEP is defined as the transmission of knowledge through performance resulting in variable group-specific sound practices. CEP is derived and builds upon theories of ‘communities of...
Communities of Practice and Panamanian Majolica Production (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper deals with the production of Panamanian majolica in comparison with other colonial ceramics. Chemical and mineralogical characterization show the use of a distinctive recipe for the production of this colonial ware. These results are consistent with previous interpretations that imply the community of potters controlled the production of the...
Communities of Practice and Sequencing from Older Caribbean Collections in the NMAI and NMNH (2018)
The Caribbean holdings of the National Museum of the American Indian and the Anthropology Department of the National Museum of Natural History contain material from historically important early excavations like those of M. R. Harrington in eastern Cuba in 1915 and Herbert W. Krieger in the Dominican Republic in 1928. Moreover, they include the results of early collection efforts by such luminaries as Jesse W. Fewkes and Theodor de Booy, which means that they contain some of the key specimens...
Communities of Practice and Sound-related Archaeological Collections (2017)
This paper explores an alternative method for examining ephemeral aspects of material culture, such as sound, in the production processes of ceramic pre-Columbian aerophone construction. In a case study of a museum collection from the G-752Rj site in Greater Nicoya, I demonstrate that it is possible to identify groups of producers and evidence of knowledge transfer between persons that may reflect communities of practice. This research has the potential for examining regional trade and migration...
Communities of practice and variability/standardization of the ceramic assemblages: the indigenous people Asurini do Xingu (2017)
I intend to present some results of my ethnoarchaeological research (1996-2016) on the ceramic technology of the Asurini do Xingu, an Amazonian indigenous people (Tupi-Guarani linguistic family) who lives on the banks of the Xingu River - Pará, Brazil. Based on collected data, I will demonstrate the relationship between the social organization of ceramic production and the standardization/variability of these artifacts over time. I will show how in Asurini context, teaching-learning framework,...
Community and Collaboration at Aventura (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Households at Aventura: Life and Community Longevity at an Ancient Maya City" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With a five millennia history spanning forager-horticulturalist, precolumbian Maya, historic, and contemporary periods, Aventura is a community with a long history. The Aventura Archaeology Project addresses community at many levels, in its study of the past and in its collaboration with local cultural heritage...
Community and the Contours of Empire: The Hacienda System in the Northern Highlands of Ecuador (2017)
Recent archaeological studies of Spanish colonialism have redirected scholarly attention both to the workings of imperialism and the multitude of ways in which marginalized populations navigated and remade the grids of power that constitute empire. A focus on the household and the materiality of everyday life has generated a rich body of evidence by which to tack between multiple scales of social life and foreground the material culture of daily life as constitutive elements in the making of...
Community Archaeology and (Post)Colonial Identities in Northernmost Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper investigates the "who/what" that constitutes "the local community" in engaged community archaeologies. It will do so by discussing community events organized by the Aventura Archaeology Project, as well as preliminary ethnographic and oral historical work I have conducted in the San Joaquin Village and Corozal Town areas of northernmost Belize. This...
Community Archaeology and Ancient Ceramics: Developing an Inclusive Research Design in San Jose Succotz, Belize (2017)
Collaborative archaeology is an approach that promotes the inclusion of modern, indigenous communities in the study of the ancient past. In the Maya area, local communities have recently become more involved with archaeological research at multiple stages, including research design, data collection, and community outreach. At the same time, advances in the qualitative and quantitative study of early ceramics have allowed archaeologists to further elucidate ancient Maya chronology, economy, and...
Community Archaeology and the Production of Space at Punta Laguna, Yucatan, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists have considered the relationships between the production of space and the production of social inequality in past societies. Those practicing community and other forms of engaged archaeology have also examined the relationships between the production of space and inequality in the present, including at archaeological sites developed for tourism....
Community Archaeology in Belize (2024)
This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines community archaeology in Belize: its recent history and contemporary practice. Community archaeology, following the work of Sonya Atalay, is archaeology done “with, by, and for” Indigenous and local communities. It produces an archaeology that is...
Community Building and Engagement through Maya Archaeology: Challenges, Successes, and Future Goals for the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Community building through education and public outreach has been a central component of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project since its inception over 30 years ago. One of our primary goals is to actively engage with local communities and students in archaeological heritage management in western Belize since they are the most impacted...