Ecological Embeddedness in the Maya Built Environment: Inspiration for Contemporary Cities

Cities nowadays are the most significant source of environmental degradation threatening local and global ecosystems. Interestingly, many ancient settlements present excellent lessons and inspiration for addressing our current urban predicaments, given their environmental stewardship. This research explores how the ecologically embedded settlement patterns, building configurations, urban agriculture and home gardening, and water conservation of the Maya-built environment can offer insights about mitigating contemporary urban sustainability challenges. Mayans’ respect for nature not only guaranteed sustainable habitats but also engendered one of the most remarkable civilizations in a region that did not offer generous support for human accommodation. The Mayan world view promoted the idea of one spirit dwelling in all humans and other-than-human entities in an environment, making everything sacred and kin to everything else. The regional climate was kept under control by protecting the vegetation that also provided other ecological benefits. Land use was mixed, and residences were constructed with native and recyclable materials utilizing natural light and ventilation. The Mayan civilization inspires us to manage and protect plants, not cut them down; conserve water, not waste it; listen to the environmental feedback, not reject it; and, most importantly, it begs us to embrace nature as our own mother, not disown it as something dispensable. These principles have significant implications on urban land-use planning and policies today.

Improving the method of grinding substances to a nanostate

At the end of the 20th century, a theory was put forward, suggesting that with the help of universal molecular robots, it would be possible to collect any objects from improvised molecules according to a given program. The process was called "nanotechnology". The term «nano» comes from the Greek word "nanos" (dwarf) and corresponds to one billionth of a unit. Nanotechnology is the most modern and advanced direction of science and technology development. The excavations of archaeologists prove that nanomaterials were widely used in the ancient world, for instance, the Mayan civilization used clay, the structure of which contained nanofragments. In ancient Mesopotamia, weapons and glasses painted with metal nanoparticles were produced. In 2007, the state corporation "Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies" was officially registered in Russia. For the implementation of processes occurring at the molecular level, it was necessary to develop methods for grinding substances to design new substances with super-efficient properties. Due to the introduction of nanotechnology to science, technology, medicine and other fields, there will be significant changes in people's lives. Recently, the problem of introducing nanotechnology into medicine and pharmacology to obtain effective medicines of superhigh quality is especially urgent. One of the main issues nanotechnologists are facing is the problem of grinding substances to a nanostate. The existing processes of grinding substances often require not only high energy costs and labor intensity, but also do not allow achieving the desired result. The article presents an original method of grinding various substances to the molecular level by grinding the molecules of the substance with the particles of the complex "carbyne-cyclic ion-ligand" during the rotation of the complex under the influence of an external electric field. The conducted laboratory tests confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In Search of History

The first chapter explores how American intellectuals like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James imagined ruins in terms of European culture, holding them to be the mark of distinction. America’s lack of such ruins was a sign of our cultural impoverishment. They, and photographers like William James Stillman, were deeply attracted to classical ruins. Meanwhile, American explorers were discovering ancient ruins in the United States—like the remains of the Mound Builders civilization—and the ancient remains of Mayan civilization in the Yucatan. The picturing of these ruins radically changed the sense of how old the American continent was. At the same time, these American ruins were perceived through the screen of Old World ruins, as early explorers saw them in relation to Egyptian pyramids. The romance of Mayan ruins has long remained a magnet even for avant-garde artists like Robert Smithson, who traveled to Yucatan to engage in the ancient New World.

Cnidoscolus aconitifolius (chaya).

Cnidoscolus aconitifolius is a shrub or small tree native to southern Mexico and Central America, with a long history of cultivation for its edible leaves and other purposes, dating back to the Mayan civilization. It is believed to have its origins in the Yucatán Peninsula, spreading due to domestication. It has been widely introduced as a cultivated plant in warmer parts of the world, and become naturalized in the wild in some countries, but it is not widely reported as invasive. It has been reported as invasive in the Galapagos Islands, but other sources indicate that it is not abundant in the wild there. In Cuba, it is reported as a transformer species, naturalized and spreading in some habitats, without further details. In most of the countries where it has been introduced, either there is not enough information available, or it is reported with a low possibility of becoming invasive because the cultivated forms reproduce mostly by stem cuttings. PIER (2018), however, assess it as being of high risk for the Pacific islands.

Myth and Anthropogony in Latin American Literature

In Mayan civilization, collective imagination about the origin of human beings follows its own patterns. Quichean mythology tells of the hazardous process that, after various failed attempts, ended in the creation of first human beings from corn. Men of Maize (Hombre de maíz), by Miguel Ángel Asturias (1949), allows us to delve into this myth of anthropogony: the fight between indigenous people and exploiters of the land is presented as a metaphor for those difficult beginnings and for the commercial corruption of a particularly symbolic food. This article highlights two important debates: that of Deféric and Elda, and that of Hilario Sacayón and Ramona Corzantes; both allow to investigate the mythical themes of magic and nahual, indispensable in the construction of a great central myth in the novel: the creation of man.

High morphological diversity of Amaranthus cruentus (Amaranthaceae) and its putative wild ancestor revealed by pistillate floral characterization in the proposed domestication center of origin

Amaranthus (Amaranthaceae) is a widespread genus that includes noxious weeds, economically important species for food, forage, medicinals and ornamentals. Three species of Amaranthus have been cultivated for their grain in the world, i.e. A. hypochondriacus, A. caudatus, and A. cruentus. It has been postulated that A. cruentus was domesticated from the probable wild progenitor A. hybridus, and that the domestication event occurred between southern Mexico and Guatemala, the region where the Mayan civilization flourished. Morphological variation in this grain amaranth and its putative wild progenitor has been poorly documented, even though this area is a possible center of domestication of A. cruentus. Samples of A. cruentus, A. hybridus, hybrids between these two species and aberrant morphotypes collected were studied morphologically using multivariate statistical methods on pistillate floral characters to (1) assess the diversity of grain amaranth A. cruentus and its postulated wild progenitor A. hybridus in the proposed domestication center of origin, (2) test the hypothesis that some hybrids and aberrant morphotypes found in the region can be morphologically differentiated from A. hybridus and A. cruentus based on statistical analyses, and (3) test and review the diagnostic characters traditionally used for assessing species circumscription. Our results showed high morphological diversity for these two species in the study region, indicating differentiation of both species, apparently based primarily on hybridization. Morphological variants on flower, bract, sepal, seed, and fruit characters were significant for confirming and circumscribing species.

Conversiones religiosas y redefinición de la etnicidad en el estado de Chiapas

Las diferenciaciones religiosas aceleradas que experimentan las comunidades indígenas del estado de Chiapas (México) son el fruto de la violencia intraétnica. En este movimiento de cambio de las afiliaciones religiosas, se definen nuevos lenguajes religiosos y modos de comunicación de las identidades individuales y colectivas que pasan por la elaboración de nuevas formas de secuencias rituales estructuradas en gran parte por el pentecostalismo. Debido a la adopción de estas nuevas creencias y prácticas religiosas flexibles se está redefiniendo el lazo con las tradiciones religiosas ancestrales y se construye una modernidad indígena fundada en el derecho al pluralismo ideológico. Esto se produce sin destruir la diferencia étnica y recomponiendo sus elementos de aquella en el sentido de una modernidad endógena relativamente autónoma. El pluralismo religioso otorga la oportunidad de construir una definición religiosa de lo político en continuidad con el imaginario maya de la realeza sagrada y lo hace escapar a las regulaciones exógenas de lo político oficial impuesto por el estado nacional, sin prescindir del derecho constitucional a la libertad religiosa. La adopción de nuevas expresiones religiosas no católicas sigue reforzando la diferencia étnica y permite encontrar mediaciones para combatir las desigualdades sociales en el seno mismo de las sociedades étnicas e intentar modificar las relaciones de subordinación de la etnia a la nación.Abstract: Intra-ethnic violence is bringing a rapid religious differentiation in the state of Chiapas (Mexico). Conversions and changes in religious affiliation produce new religious codes and modes of communicating individual and collective identities heavily influenced by ritual sequences borrowed from the Pentecostal tradition. At stake in the implementation of these new beliefs and practices is the reaffirmation of ancestral religious traditions and the possibility of shaping a Mayan modernity that recognizes ideological pluralism. Rather than denying the ethnic specificity of Mayan society, this process adapts elements of ethnic identity to meet the needs of a relatively autonomous and endogenous modernity. Religious pluralism provides the Maya people with the possibility of defining politics in a religious way, allowing them to assert their independence from the central government and its exogenous political regulation while appealing to the legal principles of religious freedom. Not only does the adoption of new, non-Catholic expressions of religiosity underline the distinctiveness of the Mayan civilization within Mexican society, it opens up new perspectives in the struggle against endogenous social inequalities and in the fight against the nation-state domination.Résumé : La différenciation religieuse accélérée que vivent les communautés indiennes dans l’état du Chiapas, au Mexique, est le fruit de la violence intra-ethnique. Dans ce mouvement de changement des appartenances religieuses, se définissent de nouveaux langages religieux et de nouveaux modes de communication des identités individuelles et collectives qui passent par la mise en forme de séquences rituelles structurées en grande partie par le pentecôtisme. Au travers de l’adoption de ces nouvelles croyances et pratiques religieuses flexibles se joue à la fois l’ancrage dans les traditions religieuses ancestrales et la construction d’une modernité indienne fondée sur le droit et la reconnaissance du pluralisme idéologique. Ceci s’opère sans détruire la différence ethnique mais plutôt en recomposant ses éléments dans le sens d’une modernité endogène relativement autonome. La pluralisation religieuse donne l’opportunité de construire une définition religieuse du politique en continuité avec l’imaginaire maya de la « royauté sacrée ». Il échappe ainsi aux régulations exogènes du politique légitime imposées par l’État tout en s’appuyant sur les principes juridiques de la liberté de culte. L’adoption de nouvelles expressions religieuses non-catholiques continue de souligner la différence avec le reste de la société mexicaine et permet de chercher les moyens de combattre les inégalités sociales au sein des sociétés ethniques tout autant que le rapport de subordination de l’ethnie à la nation.

Physicochemical and mechanical study of Mayan Archeological stony constructive materials

Mayan civilization monumental architecture has been a vital source of information to gain acknowledgement about its way of life, science and political hierarchy; consequently, examination of constructive materials of Mayan structures by using materials science characterization techniques are noteworthy. This work focuses on the study and characterization of archeological stony materials taken from the main structure on Witzinah archeological site located south of Yucatan, Mexico, in order to determine its constituted elements and chemical components. Such materials were observed under scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to establish, in accord to its micro-structural patterns, the porosity and morphology, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) to determine the chemical compounds. Calorimetric analysis through TGA was carried out in order to identify the presence of organic elements as well as Infrared analysis (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) to detect polymeric components. Preliminary results indicated that mortars contain saturated fats (esters) that were possibly originated by degradation of natural polymer (elastomeric rubber) known as polyisoprene as well as nano-clay material named Palygorskita (typified in Maya as Sak lu’um), and that both had a direct influence on the properties of the evaluated mortars used for the construction of the site Principal Building.

Climate Change and the Health of Nations

When we think of "climate change," we think of man-made global warming, caused by greenhouse gas emissions. But natural climate change has occurred throughout human history, and populations have had to adapt to the climate's vicissitudes. Anthony J. McMichael, a renowned epidemiologist and a pioneer in the field of how human health relates to climate change, is the ideal person to tell this story. Climate Change and the Health of Nations shows how the natural environment has vast direct and indirect repercussions for human health and welfare. McMichael takes us on a tour of human history through the lens of major transformations in climate. From the very beginning of our species some five million years ago, human biology has evolved in response to cooling temperatures, new food sources, and changing geography. As societies began to form, they too adapted in relation to their environments, most notably with the development of agriculture eleven thousand years ago. Agricultural civilization was a Faustian bargain, however: the prosperity and comfort that an agrarian society provides relies on the assumption that the environment will largely remain stable. Indeed, for agriculture to succeed, environmental conditions must be just right, which McMichael refers to as the "Goldilocks phenomenon." Global warming is disrupting this balance, just as other climate-related upheavals have tested human societies throughout history. As McMichael shows, the break-up of the Roman Empire, the bubonic Plague of Justinian, and the mysterious collapse of Mayan civilization all have roots in climate change. Why devote so much analysis to the past, when the daunting future of climate change is already here? Because the story of mankindâs previous survival in the face of an unpredictable and unstable climate, and of the terrible toll that climate change can take, could not be more important as we face the realities of a warming planet. This sweeping magnum opus is not only a rigorous, innovative, and fascinating exploration of how the climate affects the human condition, but also an urgent call to recognize our species' utter reliance on the earth as it is.

Forest Cover Change and Soil Erosion in Toledo's Rio Grande Watershed

Toledo, the southernmost district, is the hub of Belize’s Mayan population, descendants of the ancient Mayan civilization. The Toledo District is primarily inhibited by Kekchi and Mopan Mayans whose subsistence needs are met by the Milpa slash-and-burn agricultural system and the extraction of forest resources. The poverty assessment in the country indicates that Toledo is the district with the highest percentage of household an individual indigence of 37.5 % and 49.7 % respectively. Forest cover change in the area can be attributed to rapid population growth among the Maya, together with increase in immigration from neighboring countries, logging, oil exploration and improvement and construction of roads. The forest cover change analysis show that from 2001 to 2011 there was a decrease of Lowland broad-leaved wet forest of 7.53 km sq, Shrubland of 4.66 km sq, and Wetland of 0.08 km sq. Forest cover change has resulted in soil erosion which is causing the deterioration of soils. The land cover types that are contributing the most to total erosion in the Rio Grande watershed are no-forest, lowland broad-leaved wet forest and submontane broad-leaved wet forest. In this study the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) was employed in a GIS platform to quantify and assess forest cover change and soil erosion. Soil erosion vulnerability maps in Toledo’s Rio Grande watershed were also created. This study provides scientifically sound information in order to understand and respond effectively to the impacts of soil erosion in the study site.