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Freshwater community interactions and malaria

Eliška Rejmánková, John Grieco, Nicole Achee, Penny Masuoka, Kevin Pope, Donald Roberts, and Richard M. Higashi

in Disease Ecology: Community structure and pathogen dynamics

The incidence of malaria has recently increased in many parts of the tropics. This increase is due mainly to drug resistance and the failure of disease control measures. But changes in vector ... More

The incidence of malaria has recently increased in many parts of the tropics. This increase is due mainly to drug resistance and the failure of disease control measures. But changes in vector (mosquito) and host (human) ecology may also play a role. This chapter presents results from field studies in Belize showing that freshwater community changes lead to changes in malaria transmission. Changes in vegetation structure, mediated by an anthropogenic increase in aquatic nutrients, lead to replacement of one mosquito species by another. Species-specific habitat selection by mosquito females leads to the replacement of a less efficient malaria vector by a more efficient one. Vector ecology is influenced by changes in land cover and host availability, leading to predictable changes in malarial dynamics.Less

Introduction

Luis Roniger

in Transnational Politics in Central America

This book aims to provide an understanding of the transnational dynamics of Central America. This is a region that includes Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and ... More

This book aims to provide an understanding of the transnational dynamics of Central America. This is a region that includes Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. These countries share a close geographical relationship and historical background, a geopolitical interdependence, and challenges in the international arena. In tracing the transnational dynamics of Central America, the book analyzes the connected history, close and dynamic interrelations, crossings and mutual impact of the countries of the isthmus on one another, in addition to their geopolitical interdependence and a series of common challenges they have faced in the international arena. This book is an attempt to make sense of these and other regional trends by indicating that one needs to approach Central America with a Janus-faced perspective: trying to understand the process of fragmentation into separate nation-states along with lingering transnational dynamics.Less

Understanding Late Classic Maya Mortuary Ritual in Caves: Dental Evidence of Health from Macro- and Microscopic Defects and Caries

Amy R. Michael, Gabriel D. Wrobel, and Jack Biggs

Cathy Willermet and Andrea Cucina (eds)

in Bioarchaeology of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Bioarchaeology frequently investigates dental health in burial populations to make inferences about mortuary variability within and between ancient groups. In this chapter, micro- and macroscopic ... More

Bioarchaeology frequently investigates dental health in burial populations to make inferences about mortuary variability within and between ancient groups. In this chapter, micro- and macroscopic dental defects were examined in a series of ancient Maya mortuary cave and rockshelter burials in Central Belize. The nature of mortuary cave ritual use and funerary performance in the Late Classic is widely debated in the literature. This study utilizes two analytical approaches, mortuary practice and paleopathology, to better understand mortuary variability between two site types that may be distinguished by social status in life. Ethnohistoric accounts focused on mortuary activities in the Late Classic period have described sacrificial victims as individuals originating outside of the elite population. To test these accounts, this study compares the dental health data of individuals from non-elite (rockshelter) populations to elite (cave) burial contexts.Less

From Cradle to Grave and Beyond: A Maya Life and Death

Ann L. W. Stodder and Ann M. Palkovich

in The Bioarchaeology of Individuals

With background on the impact of feminist archaeology in “peopling the past,” this chapter presents the osteobiography of a young adult male from Bajo Hill, a Maya Late/Terminal Classic Period site ... More

With background on the impact of feminist archaeology in “peopling the past,” this chapter presents the osteobiography of a young adult male from Bajo Hill, a Maya Late/Terminal Classic Period site near La Milpa, Rio Bravo, Belize. Careful use of ethnographic and historical sources, attention to artistic imagery, and analysis of grave goods complement analysis of fragmentary skeletal remains from a grave beneath a house floor. The collective evidence suggests that this individual held the important role of medico-religious specialist in his small farming village.Less

Introduction

Elizabeth Graham

in Maya Christians and Their Churches in Sixteenth-Century Belize

The people (Maya and Spaniards), the region (Belize and Yucatan), and the time periods (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) on which the book focuses are described in this introduction. A chronology ... More

The people (Maya and Spaniards), the region (Belize and Yucatan), and the time periods (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) on which the book focuses are described in this introduction. A chronology is provided by way of a table, the origins of the research are explained, and the chapters are outlined.Less

Yucatan and Belize on the Eve of Conquest

Elizabeth Graham

in Maya Christians and Their Churches in Sixteenth-Century Belize

This chapter addresses Maya political and economic organization just prior to the Spanish Conquest in Yucatan, Belize, and to some extent, Peten. The nature of native Maya states and geopolitical ... More

This chapter addresses Maya political and economic organization just prior to the Spanish Conquest in Yucatan, Belize, and to some extent, Peten. The nature of native Maya states and geopolitical units is explored, as is the Precolumbian Maya economy. A summary is provided of what we know from archaeology about Belize communities in the sixteenth century, with a focus on Tipu and Lamanai.Less

The Environment of Early Contact

Elizabeth Graham

in Maya Christians and Their Churches in Sixteenth-Century Belize

Why did Spanish Europeans decide not to settle the mainland, coast, and cayes that are now Belize? How did Spaniards or other seafaring Europeans view Belize's coast, and did this information find ... More

Why did Spanish Europeans decide not to settle the mainland, coast, and cayes that are now Belize? How did Spaniards or other seafaring Europeans view Belize's coast, and did this information find its way to early maps? How was the land that became Belize known to the early conquerors? In this chapter, possible Franciscan travel through Belize is discussed, as is the important role of trade and coastal travel in the Maya world just prior to the Conquest, with much of the information based on archaeological data. An attempt is made to contextualize Belize in terms of the conquests of Yucatan and Central America.Less

Salt as a Maya Trade Good

Heather Mckillop

in Salt: White Gold of the Ancient Maya

Salt is basic to daily human existence, however, in the southern Maya lowlands of Guatemala and Belize, salt was scarce. The prevailing theory suggests that salt was imported from the northern part ... More

Salt is basic to daily human existence, however, in the southern Maya lowlands of Guatemala and Belize, salt was scarce. The prevailing theory suggests that salt was imported from the northern part of the Yucatan wherein several theorists alleged that the limited capability to transport bulk and huge amounts of good contributed to a scarcity of salt in the southern lowlands of Maya and Belize. However, recent fieldwork has showed a closer salt source than those in the northern Yucatan, casting a question on the viability of salt importation from the northern Yucatan to the southern Maya lowlands during the Late Classic civilization. This chapter discusses salt production in the Belize area which reduced or replaced the long-distance salt importation in the northern Yucatan and which made the lowland Maya politically and economically autonomous from the reigns of the inland Maya cities. With the discovery of the salt-production equipment and the Punta Ycacos salt works, this chapter aims to reevaluate the Late Classic Maya civilization, economy, and environment. While looking at salt production and the salt trade in the southern Maya lowlands, the chapter seeks to probe into the role of the environment in affecting cultural change. The following questions are sought to be answered in this chapter. These are: What was the response of the Late Classic Maya to the rising seas? Were communities abandoned with the rise of the threat of sea-level rise? What were the preventive measures taken by the Maya civilization to address sea-level rise? Did anthropogenic soil buildup from centuries of human garbage keep some communities above sea level?Less

Salt Production and Sea-Level Rise

Heather Mckillop

in Salt: White Gold of the Ancient Maya

This chapter examines the impact of the rise of the sea-level on the civilization especially on the salt production and salt works of Punta Ycacos during the Late Classic Maya period. The discovery ... More

This chapter examines the impact of the rise of the sea-level on the civilization especially on the salt production and salt works of Punta Ycacos during the Late Classic Maya period. The discovery and excavation of ten inundated sites that date back to the Classic period in the Port Honduras region suggest and document the Holocene sea-level rise. The production of salt in Punta Ycacos occurred in relation to the surge of settlement in the Port Honduras region and in the inland region of southern Belize during the Late Classic Maya period. However, the collapse of the southern Maya civilization and the abandonment of inland cities in southern Belize and Pasion led to the decline of demand for Punta Ycacos salt. The rising seas which submerged the salt workshops led to the abandonment of Punta Ycacos salt production sites. The sea level played an important role in the Mayan civilization as the level of the sea determined the availability of resources and habitable land for the ancient coastal areas of the Mayan civilization. Although the rise of sea-level cannot be pinpointed as the sole rationale behind the abandonment of the Punta Ycacos salt shops as the extinction of the coastal towns of Port Honduras and the Punta Ycacos salt shops were the result of the complex interplay between cultural and environmental factors, the sea-level at some point did obviate the use of the Punta Ycacos shops during the Postclassic period.Less

Salt Production, Trade, and Late Classic Maya Society

Heather Mckillop

in Salt: White Gold of the Ancient Maya

This chapter discusses the salt production and salt trade in Late Classic Mayan Society. Salt production in the Punta Ycacos Lagoon during the Late Classic period used to supply the coastal towns of ... More

This chapter discusses the salt production and salt trade in Late Classic Mayan Society. Salt production in the Punta Ycacos Lagoon during the Late Classic period used to supply the coastal towns of the Port Honduras region and the inland Maya cities of southern Belize and the Pasion region in Guatemala. Although the produced salt of the coastal region of the southern Maya lowlands was used for trading, there is no evidence that there existed a trade of goods between the Port of Honduras and the northern coast of the Yucatan during the Late Classic period. Instead, an extensive coastal-inland trade between the highlands of Guatemala and the southern Maya lowlands did occur wherein the salt was the primary traded good. However in the rise of cultural changes brought about by the fall of Mayan civilization and by the abandonment of inland cities together with the increase in the sea level pushed the Punta Ycacos salt production into oblivion. The discovery of these salt production sites provides a glimpse of the existence of specialized, non-domestic production and the existence of economically friendly trade within complex societies wherein the long-trade was limited to highly valuable items while inland trade was punctuated by the delivery and exchange of everyday goods essential for daily human existence.Less

The Determination of Cacao in Sample of Archaeological Interest

W. Jeffrey Hurst

in Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao

Although the use of cacao by the Mesoamerican people has been documented since the early Colonial period, archaeologists have been hindered from discovering the breadth of its use in rituals and in ... More

Although the use of cacao by the Mesoamerican people has been documented since the early Colonial period, archaeologists have been hindered from discovering the breadth of its use in rituals and in the daily life of the Mesoamericans because of its rare recovery from archaeological context. In 1989, the author of this chapter determined chemically the possible existence of cacao residues in vessels recovered from Classic period tombs in Rio Azul, Guatemala. This research led to the opening of a new area of research on the manner with which cacao was used in the pre-Columbian period and the research showed that cacao was consumed in Mesoamerica one thousand years earlier than it was previously known. This chapter discusses the results of the analyses on cacao samples in a range of contexts. It also explains the methods used for chemically determining the presence of Theobroma cacao L. in decayed macrofossils and residues. In this chapter samples from diverse locations in Central America, Belize, and Honduras are examined and discussed. The chapter also outlines the experimental protocols and techniques used in the four studies presented in this chapter.Less

From Chocolate Pots To Maya Gold: Belizean Cacao Farmers Through the Ages

Patricia A. McAnany and Satoru Muruta

in Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao

This chapter discusses the Belizean cacao farmers through the ages. It discusses the deep history of cacao cultivation in the Belize zone, which is demonstrated by the continuity of cacao farming ... More

This chapter discusses the Belizean cacao farmers through the ages. It discusses the deep history of cacao cultivation in the Belize zone, which is demonstrated by the continuity of cacao farming from the Middle Preclassic to contemporary times. This chapter focuses on the Belize zone which is conducive for chocolate farming and cacao cultivation. This chapter begins with a discussion on the contemporary situation of cacao production for the world market and specifically the chapter details how the considered Maya gold entered the world market. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the ethnohistory of the Belizean cacao and talks about cacao production and cultivation from before the Spanish conquest up to the Preclassic period.Less

Human Geophagy: A Review of Its Distribution, Causes, and Implications

Peter W. Abrahams

in Geology and Health: Closing the Gap

Geophagy (or geophagia) can be defined as the habit of eating clay or earth, a practice about which there is a great deal of misunderstanding. Though many ... More

Geophagy (or geophagia) can be defined as the habit of eating clay or earth, a practice about which there is a great deal of misunderstanding. Though many people know and accept that geophagy is undertaken by wild and domesticated animals, and that humans can inadvertently ingest soil by (for example) hand-to-mouth activity, the deliberate consumption of soil by humans appears to be more difficult to comprehend. Yet geophagy (or pica) is a widespread among contemporary nonhuman primates (Krishnamani and Mahaney 2000), suggesting that the practice predates human evolution, and that soil ingestion has continued for a multiplicity of reasons. Therefore, although words such as ‘evil,’ ‘odd,’ ‘filthy’ and ‘degrading’ have been applied to geophagy as practiced by humans, a more enlightened appraisal is to suggest that soil consumption should be considered to be within the normal range of human behavior (Vermeer 1986). The oldest evidence for human geophagy comes from a prehistoric site at Kalambo Falls where the bones of Homo habilis, the immediate predecessor of Homo sapiens, have been found alongside a white clay believed to have been used for geophagical purposes (Root-Bernstein and Root- Bernstein 2000). Human migration then transferred geophagy to other parts of the earth, although Laufer (1930) concluded that the practice is not universal, being unknown in some countries such as Japan, Korea, and parts of Africa. To a certain extent this may be attributable to a lack of reporting on geophagy. For example, although the practice is not recorded in Namibia by Lagercrantz (1958, Figure 1),Thomson (1997) reports that the deliberate consumption of soil is commonly undertaken by pregnant women in the eastern Caprivi region of the country. Geophagy can still be found relatively easily throughout many societies of the world today. While investigating geohelminth (i.e., parasitic worm) infection and mineral nutrient deficiencies in children and pregnant women, Geissler et al. (1997, 1998) indicated the prevalence of geophagy in parts of Kenya. In these studies, 73% of 285 school children aged 5-18 years indulged in the practice, whereas 154 of 275 pregnant women (56%) reported eating soil regularly. Less

The Cunil Complex: Early Villages in Belize

Lauren A. Sullivan, Jaime J. Awe, and M. Kathryn Brown

in Pathways to Complexity: A View from the Maya Lowlands

This chapter provides an overview of recent data pertaining to the first settled villages in the Belize River valley. The authors highlight the known Preceramic data from the region and suggest that ... More

This chapter provides an overview of recent data pertaining to the first settled villages in the Belize River valley. The authors highlight the known Preceramic data from the region and suggest that sedentary villages appear at the beginning of the Preclassic, possibly as early as 1200 B.C. The Cunil phase pottery, first documented at the ancient site of Cahal Pech, represents the earliest ceramics found in the Maya lowlands. Long distance trade items such as obsidian, marine shell, and greenstone are associated with Cunil phase pottery, suggesting that these early villages were participating in a larger interaction sphere. As population grew over time in the Middle Preclassic period, interaction with neighboring regions increased leading to a more uniform ceramic tradition.Less

The Role of Ideology, Religion, and Ritual in the Foundation of Social Complexity in the Belize River Valley

M. Kathryn Brown, Jaime J. Awe, and James F. Garber

in Pathways to Complexity: A View from the Maya Lowlands

This chapter examines the role of ritual and religion in the development of social complexity and the institutionalization of hierarchy in the Belize River valley. The authors synthesize Preclassic ... More

This chapter examines the role of ritual and religion in the development of social complexity and the institutionalization of hierarchy in the Belize River valley. The authors synthesize Preclassic data from the sites of Blackman Eddy, Cahal Pech, and Xunantunich related to early religious behaviour and document how ritual activities and public architecture changed through time in order to both emphasize and reinforce inequalities within the society, and thus reflect transformations in shared religious beliefs. Evidence from the Belize River valley suggests that rituals revolving around the veneration of ancestors were a critical component in the processes of both establishing and maintaining social hierarchies.Less

Middle Preclassic Maya Shell Ornament Production: Implications for the Development of Complexity at Pacbitun, Belize

Bobbi Hohmann, Terry G. Powis, and Paul F. Healy

in Pathways to Complexity: A View from the Maya Lowlands

Extensive archaeological investigations at the site of Pacbitun, a medium-sized Maya center located in west-central Belize, have revealed the large-scale production of marine shell ornaments during ... More

Extensive archaeological investigations at the site of Pacbitun, a medium-sized Maya center located in west-central Belize, have revealed the large-scale production of marine shell ornaments during Middle Preclassic period (900-300 B.C.). Non-local marine shell and the restricted nature of its distribution indicate that some degree of control may have been exerted over the production and/or distribution of marine shell or the finished shell products. The sheer quantities of shell working debris in the site core of Pacbitun suggest that these ornaments were intended for intra- or extra-community exchange. Two different scenarios are presented to account for the quantity and spatial distribution of Middle Preclassic shell and shell working materials at Pacbitun and in the Belize River valley.Less