Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Beekeeping in Yucatán is a prime example of how the entangled ecologies among bees, humans, and plants were transformed over the last 2,500 years to create a shared heritage and vibrant array of communities of cultural practice. The stingless Melipona bees native to Mesoamerica supplied honey and wax to markets and consumers throughout the Mesoamerican world. After the Spanish invasion, the introduction of new plants, domesticates, and bee species from Europe, Africa, and Asia fomented new ecologies, social networks, commodity chains, and shifts in cultural practices. Beekeepers confronted a wide range of global technological and political-economic changes that shaped the historical contingencies of the last 500 years. The reproduction of traditional ecological knowledge, agroforestry, and environmental management needed to sustain beekeeping is currently at the forefront of grassroots conservation efforts to stop deforestation and the use of the herbicide glyphosate on the Yucatán peninsula. Participants offer new studies and insights about variation in multispecies ecologies, sustainability initiatives, iconography, the production, distribution, and consumption of honey, wax, and other bee products in the past and the present.

Other Keywords
Maya: Postclassic • Historic • Ethnohistory/History • Cultural Heritage and Preservation • Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: Residue Analysis • Lithic Analysis • Ideology • Historical Archaeology • Zooarchaeology • Survey

Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) • Belize (Country) • North America (Continent) • Peten (State / Territory) • Yucatan (State / Territory) • Orange Walk (State / Territory) • Cayo (State / Territory) • Corozal (State / Territory) • Belize (State / Territory) • Stann Creek (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • Balché Consumption among the Ancient Maya: Bees, Honey, and Ritual Practice (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Adam King. Terry Powis. Sheldon Skaggs. Christina Luke. Nilesh Gaikwad.

    This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we discuss our recent absorbed residue study of a marble Ulúa style vase found at the Pacbitun site in Belize. In that study, we detected evidence for the consumption of the ritual drink balché dating to Terminal Classic period (800–850 CE). Consumption of balché is...

  • Beekeeping in the Yucatán Hacienda: The Role of the Melipona beecheii in the Nineteenth-Century Rural Landscape from an Environmental History Approach (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Angélica Márquez-Osuna.

    This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines the role of the stingless bee Melipona beecheii in nineteenth-century Yucatán and shows how the rise of the hacienda system played a contingent role in reshaping beekeeping practices and human-bee relationships. Using primary sources such as beekeeping manuals and...

  • Beekeeping, Ancestral Knowledge, and Interspecies Relationships: Exploring Place-Based Heritage in Yucatán (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Gabrielle Vail. Maia Dedrick.

    This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In her article “Saving the Other Bees,” Eve Bratman (2020) explores the successful reintroduction of beekeeping practices associated with the stingless species Melipona beecheii in the Yucatán Peninsula, which has resulted in the species thriving following near extinction. She...

  • Changes and Innovations in Yucatecan Beekeeping Production on Ranchos and Haciendas in the Early Twentieth Century (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Hector Hernandez. Victor Medina. Guadalupe Camara.

    This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the first part of the twentieth century, Yucatec ranchos and haciendas were spaces where various technological, economic, and landscape changes occurred derived from new beekeeping production strategies. The adoption and cultivation of Apis mellifera to produce greater quantities...

  • The Cozumel Bee People, Social Ecology, and Landscape Management during the Late Maya Postclassic (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Adolfo Batun-Alpuche.

    This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Landscape management in Cozumel during the Late Postclassic resulted in a network of stone walls (albarradas) demarcating the entire island resembling the structure of a beehive. This paper presents a comparison of some features of the social ecology of Yucatec stingless bees and the...

  • El pasado y presente de la meliponicultura de los mayas yucatecos (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Julio Cesar Hoil Gutiérrez.

    This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La meliponicultura yucateca actual experimenta dos realidades contrastantes: por un lado, enfrenta un escenario crítico que poco tiene que ver con el auge del que gozó en el pasado, y por el por el otro, es objeto de algunos esfuerzos por rescatarlo y preservarlo con el fin de evitar su...

  • Las reinas de la selva (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Minneth Medina. James Callaghane. Rafael Lopez.

    This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El códice maya de Madrid, muestra aspectos de la vida cotidiana de los mayas, uno de ellos la meliponicultura, producción de las abejas sin aguijón. En el Puuc, la meliponicultura es una práctica desarrollada de manera secundaria después de la milpa maya, complementando el ingreso...

  • Maya Ritual Beverages: Unveiling the Ingredients for an Ancient Alcoholic Offering (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only María J. Novelo Pérez. Daniela González Chablé. Lilia Fernández Souza.

    This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Balché is a ritual beverage elaborated with honey and tree bark that, during many centuries, has been fundamental for Maya religious rituals in Yucatán, as documented in precolumbian codices, historical sources, and ethnographic research. Some information at the Madrid Codex indicates...

  • Popularización: aspectos favorables y negativos para la meliponicultura del siglo XXI (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Javier Quezada-Euán.

    This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La meliponicultura en México, así como en gran parte del mundo, ha experimentado un creciente interés y popularidad. Un mayor número de personas y grupos se están involucrando en la actividad lo que ha llevado a su expansión tanto de las regiones donde se practica, como en el número de...

  • Stingless Beeswax in Mesoamerican Investment Casting Processes (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Tarkanian. Elizabeth Paris.

    This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mesoamerican metal objects have been studied in-depth in terms of alloys and production techniques, but little work has focused on the foundry materials used in the prehispanic casting process. In modern foundry practice, synthetic waxes, paraffins, or processed European honeybee wax...

  • Tiempos de cera y miel: Iconografía, ecología y sacralidad de las abejas nativas en el Códice Madrid (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laura Elena Sotelo Santos.

    This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La evidencia escrita más completa sobre el cultivo de abejas en el mundo maya procede del libro jeroglífico prehispánico denominado Códice Tro-Cortesiano. En los almanaques de las abejas que están en las páginas 89b y 103 a la 112 hay abundante información sobre diversos aspectos de la...