Volcanic Eruptions, Earthquakes, and Drought: Environmental Challenges for the Ancient Maya People of the Antigua Valley, Guatemala

2011 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
Dorothy E. Freidel ◽  
John G. Jones ◽  
Eugenia Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
Maya People

scholarly journals Competing discourses of the “Maya Past”

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Denise Fay Brown
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Tourism Marketing ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Dominant Discourses ◽  
Maya People ◽  
International Visitors

The use of the "Maya past" for tourism marketing purposes has been a successful tool for attracting international visitors to Mexico for decades. Images of the Maya zone emerge, in part, from an academic focus on the "Maya past" that includes curiosity about the so-called "collapse" of the Classic Maya civilization. The Ancient Maya are seen as “mysterious" and their society as "enigmatic". But the voices of the almost thirty million Maya people who live in Mexico and Guatemala are only vaguely heard in the discourses of tourism and of academia. This paper examines three competing discourses of the Maya and proposes that these discourses represent epistemologies that are nested in relationships of power, such that the Maya discourse is silenced. As such, the dominant discourses of the Maya past can undermine the Maya understanding of their own past, and become a self-fulfilling prophecy regarding the “collapse” of the contemporary Maya.

Capturing the Forest

2020 ◽  
pp. 313-334
Author(s):  
Holley Moyes
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Sacred Spaces ◽  
Architectural Elements ◽  
Maya People

In chapter 15, Holley Moyes interprets ancient Maya cave sites as ritual venues that instantiated Maya cosmology, providing archaeologists with an unambiguous context for understanding the ritual life of ancient Maya people. Cave archaeologists strive to understand how and when these sites were used, who used them, and how. As sacred spaces, caves could be manipulated in political contests for the acquisition and maintenance of power. Space is a consideration in cave studies, but there has been little discussion of caves as built environments. In this chapter, Moyes discusses the structure of caves in Belize and outlines an analytical approach for relating structure to social process. Providing a case study from the cave at Las Cuevas, she argues that architectural elements evidence large-scale collective action during the tumultuous Late Classic period.

Reconstruction of maximum temperature on Zhegu Mountain, western Sichuan Plateau (China)

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
M Keyimu ◽  
Z Li ◽  
Y Zhao ◽  
Y Dong ◽  
B Fu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tree Growth ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Southwestern China ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Western Sichuan ◽  
Relationship Analysis ◽  
Decadal Scale ◽  
Thermal Variability

Historical temperature reconstructions at high altitudes are still insufficient in southwestern China, which is considered one of the most sensitive areas to climate change in the world. Here we developed a tree ring-width chronology of Faxon fir Abies fargesii var. faxoniana at the upper timber line on Zhegu Mountain, Miyaluo Scenic Area, western Sichuan, China. The climate-tree growth relationship analysis indicated temperature as the dominant regulator on radial tree growth in this region. The reconstruction of aggregated maximum temperature (TMX) of autumn and winter for the period 1856-2016 was achieved with a linear regression model that accounted for 43.6% of the actual variability in the common time series (1954-2016). The reconstruction identified 4 warm periods and 3 cold periods. Similarities of warm and cold periods with previously published reconstructions from nearby sites indicated the reliability of our reconstruction. The significant positive correlation between TMX reconstruction and the Asian-Pacific Oscillation index and the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation index suggested a linkage between large-scale climate circulations and the thermal variability at a multi-decadal scale on the western Sichuan Plateau. We also found that solar activity exerted a strong influence on decadal temperature variability in this region. The cold periods were matched well with historical large volcanic eruptions. Our results strengthen the historical climatic information in southwestern China and contribute to further understanding the regional thermal variability as well as its driving mechanism.

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