scholarly journals Illuminating Darkness in the Ancient Maya World: Nocturnal Case Studies from Copan, Honduras, and Joya de Cerén, El Salvador

2021 ◽  
pp. 103-140
Author(s):  
Nancy Gonlin ◽  
Christine C. Dixon-Hundredmark
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Ancient Maya

Conclusion

Build ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 169-184
Author(s):  
Mark Katz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Funding Cuts ◽  
Trump Administration

The conclusion considers the value of the partnership between hip hop and diplomacy. Hip hop diplomacy has value in convening groups unlikely to collaborate otherwise; it can be a source of validation for hip hop artists and their communities; and it can generate a favorable view of the United States and good will towards its citizens. Such positive outcomes, however, are not automatic and require that programs be conducted with respect, humility, self-awareness and a willingness to collaborate with local partners. Although the State Department faced severe funding cuts in the first years of the Trump administration, hip hop diplomacy has remained well-funded, although its future is uncertain. Specific anecdotes and case studies come from Next Level programs in Bangladesh, El Salvador, and Morocco.

SPECIAL SECTION: NEW DIALOGUES ABOUT ANCIENT MAYA

Antiquity ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 90 (350) ◽  
pp. 425-425
Author(s):  
Stephen Houston ◽  
Chris Scarre
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Recent Past

Most people think of Maya civilisation, if they do at all, while on vacation. A daytrip from a beach takes them to ruins nearby, crowded with tourists in correct holiday gear. In the recent past, others might have grown anxious about the portentous significance of the year 2012. Maya glyphs, so the hucksters affirmed, predicted a cascade of dire events, not one of which (predictably) has come to pass. Then there are those living in Mayaland itself, an area embracing parts of Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and all of Belize. Their personal identities stem in part from a sense of direct inheritance, extending to rights of ownership and interpretation.

MANIOC CULTIVATION AT CEREN, EL SALVADOR: OCCASIONAL KITCHEN GARDEN PLANT OR STAPLE CROP?

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Payson Sheets ◽  
Christine Dixon ◽  
Monica Guerra ◽  
Adam Blanford
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Drought Resistance ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
Kitchen Garden ◽  
Kitchen Gardens ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Garden Plant ◽  
Staple Crop

AbstractMany scholars have thought the Classic period Maya did not cultivate the root crop manioc, while others have suggested it may have been an occasional cultigen in kitchen gardens. For many decades there was no reliable evidence that the ancient Maya cultivated manioc, but in the 1990s manioc pollen from the late Archaic was found in Belize, and somewhat older pollen was found in Tabasco. At about the same time of those discoveries, research within the Ceren village, El Salvador, encountered occasional scattered manioc plants that had grown in mounded ridges in kitchen gardens. These finds adjacent to households indicated manioc was not a staple crop, and vastly inferior to maize and beans in food volume produced. However, 2007 research in an agricultural area 200 m south of the Ceren village encountered intensive formal manioc planting beds. If manioc was widely cultivated in ancient times, its impressive productivity, ease of cultivation even in poor soils, and drought resistance suggest it might have been a staple crop helping to support dense Maya populations in the southeast periphery and elsewhere.

Complexity and Sustainability: Perspectives from the Ancient Maya and the Modern Balinese

2010 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon L. Scarborough ◽  
William R. Burnside
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Skilled Labor ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
The Social

Complexity is both a buzzword and a paradigm in the biophysical sciences and, increasingly, the social sciences. We define “social complexity” as the nonlinear escalation of costs and emergent infrastructure with rising energy use and concentrated power as societies develop. Two paths to social complexity are technotasking, which relies on technological break-throughs and is often politically hierarchical, and labortasking, which relies on skilled labor pools and is often heterarchical. We suggest several pathways to greater degrees of complexity and present two case studies emphasizing the role of labor-tasking; an in-depth review of the ancient Maya and a shorter introduction to the recent Balinese. Both of these complex societies used labortasking to adapt to local ecological limitations in semitropical settings. These societies used heterarchical organizations to accretionally engineer and manage their environments, strategies that promoted long-term resilience. Case studies such as these provide a nuanced picture of different paths to social complexity and highlight their relative costs, benefits, and potential for long-term sustainability.

Decentralization as a Political Weapon: Education Politics in El Salvador and Paraguay

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Vargas
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Quality Of Education ◽  
Teachers Unions ◽  
Education Politics ◽  
Political Motivation ◽  
Political Weapon ◽  
Decentralized Education

What explains why some governments advanced decentralized education in the 1990s while others shied away from such efforts? Some arguments suggest that decentralization was pursued to improve the coverage and quality of education. Others point to partisanship, ideology, or diffusion. Drawing on case studies of El Salvador and Paraguay, I argue instead that governments pursued education decentralization in part because it could be deployed as a political weapon to weaken teachers’ unions affiliated with the opposition, thus depressing mobilization and votes for their rivals. These findings contribute to the literature on decentralization by highlighting a new political motivation fueling decentralization efforts across the developing world—the demobilization of the opposition.

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