Product Description
The introduction of the Virgin Mary to the native peoples of Mexico is often closely associated with Our Lady of Guadalupe, the principal Mexican Marian devotion. According to legend, the devotion originated in 1531 when the Virgin appeared to a Nahua man, Juan Diego, and left her image miraculously imprinted on his cloak. Historical evidence indicates, however, that the Mexican shrine was not established until the 1560s, the legend was virtually unknown until its initial publication in Spanish in 1648 and in Nahuatl the following year; and native people did not participate in the devotion to any extensive degree until after the mid-seventeenth century. How, then, was devotion to the Virgin actually introduced to Nahuas during the first decades of Christian evangelization? This book addresses this question through the presentation of Nahuatl-language devotional texts relating to Mary, texts through which Nahuas learned about the Virgin and expressed their own developing devotion to her. The wide range of Nahuatl literature on the Virgin shows that, far from some early "syncretic" mixing of Mary with native "goddess" cults, Nahuas were introduced to, and to varying degrees participated in, the full-blown medieval and Renaissance devotion to Mary, adapted into their own language. These sources date from the 1540s through the 1620s and represent all of the major religious orders involved in the evangelization of the Nahuas: Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians and Jesuits. Native scholars participated in the composition of much of this material. Genres include sermons, catechisms, prayers, narratives, drama, hymns, and antiphonal chants. The earliest extant edition of the rosary in Nahuatl is included, as are twelve miracle narratives, a complete Augustinian sermon on the Purification, and a lengthy native-edited account of the Assumption. Nahuatl text and English translation are presented in parallel columns. Each text is preceded by introductory commentary that explicates the European background of the material and its new meanings and uses in the Mexican context. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Review of Nahuatl Literature
Burkhart's book is a collection of Nahuatl manuscripts with English translations that deal with the Virgin Mary prior to the development of the Guadalupe cult.Burkhart provides an interesting introduction and postscript to place matters in context.The book does not, however, really contain much information on the development of the Guadalupe cult.The reason for this is that there were virtually no Nahuatl materials dealing with Guadalupe until the mid seventeenth century. For the full story on Guadalupe, see Stafford Poole's book "Our Lady of Guadalupe." ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the classics of Andean history. Best for specialists.
Ann Wightman's study of the bishopric of Cuzco argues, with a generation of other scholars of the Andes like Stern, Spalding and Sempat, that ethnic divisions within Spanish indigenous communities would slowly be replaced bysocial class-based relations to land and the Spanish economic system.Asolid piece of history; broad and mostly engaging. Ideal for students ofcolonial Latin American history, the Andes, or historians interested inindigenous identity. ... Read more

Product Description
James Sexton met Ignacio Bizarro Ujpán in 1970, when Sexton traveled to Guatemala for the first time as a graduate student in anthropology. Ignacio became Sexton’s research assistant and, as the men’s friendship grew over the years of fieldwork that followed, Sexton asked Ignacio to keep a detailed journal. In his diaries, Bizarro chronicles more than a quarter century of the turbulent history of Guatemala, returning again and again to the themes of community solidarity, civil violence, alcohol abuse, resistance to repression, political turmoil, and the reinforcement of traditional and religious values that color daily life in the Maya communities of Guatemala’s highlands.

Joseño: Another Mayan Voice Speaks from Guatemala covers the period from 1987-98 and is the fourth and latest volume of Ignacio’s diary, the authentic life history of a common man, a campesino, a principal (elder) in his town, and a Tzutuhil Indian whose life has spanned the ongoing struggle for democracy and economic justice in Guatemala. His vivid and plain-spoken account of life among the Maya during the war between guerrillas and the army in the 1980s and 1990s offers detailed descriptions of the atrocities committed by both sides and brings the reader into a Mayan world richly textured with indigenous beliefs and practices. Ignacio’s diary also records the Mayan cultural revitalization sweeping Guatemala, as well as the fortunes of the Indian peoples who have so often been pawns in the vicious power struggles between Left and Right. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Customer Review - February 8, 2002
Reviewer, Dr. Janet M. Carey from Littleton, CO
Within this extremely interesting and timely book Sexton translates Tzutuhil Mayan Ignacio Bizarro Ujpan's diary entries of eleven years from 1987 to 1998.Sexton's Introduction expertly presents a backdrop of the historical, political and cultural contexts the Guatemalan Indian people find themselves in today as they attempt to survive the modern political climate in their ancient land.Sexton skillfully blends Bizarro's eyewitness accounts of the horror resulting from being Indian in Guatemala.Bizarro tells the story of his people as they cope with being caught between opposing forces of state military troops and the guerrilla bands that have wrapped Guatemala in decades of civil violence.
Via Bizarro's graphic personal narrative, Sexton excitingly and sometimes somewhat sadly, brings to the reader the ongoing, heartbreaking realities experienced by Bizarro, his family and friends.Throughout this book it is evident, despite unbelievable hardship, that the Guatemalan Mayan Indian people continue to love their country and sense of place.Bizarro's statement of, "that is why I say that in Guatemala there is no peace," is followed with his words, "Guatemala is such a beautiful country, so good that God has placed its green countryside in the center of America, where the little birds sing their songs in praise of God All-Powerful.But it's a pity that my beautiful country is going everyday from bad to worse.Every day they [current political regimes] are bathing it with the blood of their [Mayan] children who loved so much this beautiful land of the quetzal."
Sexton's ability to pursue the anthropological method of life-history fieldwork with Bizarro, which now spans more than three decades, is not commonplace.Bizarro and Sexton have collaborated for a period of over thirty years.This fascinating, firsthand account of the modern Tzutuhil Mayan lifeway as told by Bizarro and translated by Sexton, is only made possible through their long, continuous relationship.Bizarro's is a most touching story.Sexton, in his choice of photographs, illustrations and admirable organization of the book, brings together the beauty and the strength of the Tzutuhil Mayan culture around Lake Atitlan as Bizarro tells how his people live with modern-day political dramas as they unfold in the highlands of Guatemala. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Middle of the Road
Charles Hale gives a plea for activist anthropology; not letting the anthropologist remain aloof from the people that he or she is studying.He does that to some extent in his work with the Miskitu.However his avowed affinity with the Sandinista cause causes him to miss much in the process.He ignores some of the more glaring Sandinista atrocities that would paint the Sandinistas in a less pleasant light than Hale presents.In placing himself as a sort of go-between between the Miskitu and the Sandinistas, he contradicts the very premise he is espousing.He doesn't want to alienate himself from either group, so he never really becomes totally trusted by either.He wants to have his cake and eat it too.
This is a good look at the 1980s Nicaraguan situation, activism issues aside.Hale delves into the movements and motivations of Sandinista policy and Miskitu resistance.This reads more like a book written by a journalist however.The personal engagement of an anthropologist presenting a people and exploring their life is missing, making the book read like a reporter getting a scoop rather than an anthropologist doing participant observation.I think the book would have been much better if Hale just took the chance of choosing a side and not worrying so much about trying to appear neutral. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an anthropological study of the role of hieroglyphic writing in the prehispanic Aztec, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Maya states. First, Joyce Marcus compares the four systems with regard to eight major themes: calendrics, the naming of nobles, the naming of places, royal marriages, accession to the throne, divine ancestors, warfare, and the rewriting of history. Then she establishes a new theoretical framework within which to conduct further analysis. Her basic contention is that ancient Mesoamerican writing was a tool used by an elite minority in their competition for positions of leadership, prestige, territory, tribute, and advantageous marriages. Marcus convincingly demonstrates that while it may have been based on actual persons and events, this body of prehistoric writing is a deliberately created tangle of what we could call propaganda, myth, and fact, written for political purposes, and not (as many contemporary scholars have come to believe) reliable "history" in a modern sense. "This is a major contribution. The scholarship is first-rate!"--Jeremy A. Sabloff, University of Pittsburgh "A brilliant work, carefully reasoned and effectively argued, but balanced and not overstated. The scholarship is truly outstanding. Joyce Marcus is one of the great Mesoamericanists of our generation."--E. Wyllys Andrews V, Tulane University "A masterful piece of work. We are in the presence of a tour de force."--Robert L. Carneiro, American Museum of Natural History ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ancient Mesoamerican Writing and What It Tells Us
Marcus's volume is the most comprehensive book on the market in the field of Mesoamerican epigraphy, the study of ancient writing systems among four high cultures that arose in what was later to become Mexico and Guatemala: the Aztec, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Maya.Marcus is recognized as one of the preeminent scholars of these early writing systems, with a pedigree that includes having studied with perhaps the greatest of the Mesoamerican epigraphers, Tatiana Proskouriakoff.Marcus also is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, which indicates the esteem with which she is held by her peers.Thus she is more than capable of pushing the field of Mesoamerican epigraphy forward, and the present volume demonstrates adequately that she has done so.Unlike some modern epigraphers, Marcus casts a wary eye on the literal nature of the hieroglyphic notations contained in the various texts, a caution reflected in the subtitle of the book.In short, she views Mesoamerican writing systems as part propaganda, part myth, and part history; thus, as she states, it was both a tool and a by-product of competition for prestige and leadership positions.

The volume includes 12 chapters that integrate various topics such as the nature of Mesoamerican calendars, royal marriages, place names, and ancestors-a much better format than arranging the book strictly by cultural group.The greatest strength of the book lies in clarity of presentation and the inclusion of several hundred line drawings of examples of glyphs.The drawings make it easy to follow Marcus's discussion of things such as the various Mesoamerican calendars in use throughout Mesoamerica.

I recommend the volume to anyone with an interest in calendrics, epigraphy, and/or Mesoamerican archaeology, from the advanced undergraduate to the professional as well as members of the general public.Anyone except experts will have to be willing to work a little bit to fully comprehend Marcus's explanations of the writing systems, but the task is not as daunting as it seems.All in all, a five-star treatise. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Maya Resurgence
Wilson effectively blends a number of theorectical threads to create a moving and powerful image of Maya ethnicity in the late 20th century. ... Read more

Product Description
Integrating American Indian law and Native American political and legal traditions, this encyclopedia includes detailed descriptions of nearly two dozen Native American Nations' legal and political systems such as the Iroquois, Cherokee, Choctaw, Navajo, Cheyenne, Creek, Chickasaw, Comanche, Sioux, Pueblo, Mandan, Wyandot, Powhatan, Mikmaq, and Yakima. Although not an Indian law casebook, this work does contain outlines of many major Indian law cases, congressional acts, and treaties. It also contains profiles of individuals important to the evolution of Indian law. This work will be of interest to scholars in several fields, including law, Native American studies, American history, political science, anthropology, and sociology. ... Read more

Product Description
'A model of analytical history. In...spare, cogent prose, Wooster delineates military strategy against the western tribes, places the political influence of the Gilded Age military establishment in solid perspective, gives an able survey of the institutional structure of the postwar army, briefly describes key Indian campaigns, and presents pithy characterizations of leading western military personalities...Wooster's book places events in a national, and in military terms international, context. In so doing he has made a major contribution to frontier and military scholarship' - Paul Andrew Hutton, "American Historical Review".'A superior and important book...Wooster succinctly identifies and illumines significant truths about the military establishment and its role in the final stages of confrontation and conflict along the western Indian frontier' - Robert M. Utley, "Journal of American History". 'A provocative example of the new historiography...Students of the Indian wars have frequently suffered from a form of myopia...until now, no one has undertaken so comprehensive or critical a look at the army's role in formulating and implementing Indian policy' - Bruce Dinges, "New Mexico Historical Review".Robert Wooster, an associate professor of history at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, is the author of "Nelson A. Miles" and the "Twilight of the Frontier Army" (Nebraska 1993). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Well done...
My over all impression of this book is positive. The author paints an accurate picture of the historical situation of the time.Wooster takes a close look at an often-misunderstood period of history.The detail ofmilitary strategy against the western tribes give the reader the feel ofthe average solder but the Indian's view point is often over looked. Myunderstanding of this episode in history has been advance by this book. The image of the highly organized military of my personal experience wasnot found among the pages of Wooster's book.The most illuminating aspectof the book was the information about the national political arena thatcivilian and military leaders both were required to maneuver in. Wooster'ssources are of the highest quality available, most of them written by theactual figures in the book.His over reliance of sources from only oneside of the history is the only weakness of the sources.Correspondence ora set of official orders can support nearly every paragraph in the book. It is unfortunate there are not as many records among the Indian leaders. ... Read more

Product Description
A new history of the native American peoples covers their initial mastery of the wilderness, through the classical era of their great civilizations, to the dark ages that followed European conquest. By the author of The Invasion of America. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Solid History of Native Americans
The myth persists that natives were savages and uncivilized. Little is told in schools how they were conquered and eradicated. They lived here for 30 millennia only to be effectively wiped out. No, they weren't perfect, and not all settlers and explorers were tyrants, but Jennings' book sets history straight. Part of the myth arose from what early settlers found: The natives had been devastated by disease. Their existence destroyed and a shadow of what it once was. This gave rise to myths that these savages couldn't have built cities, Cahokia and the like, and were never much more than cavemen. People like the Mormons built their religion on these myths. History usually rectifies myths, if not slowly, and Jennings is a must read for those interested in American history, espeically pre-U.S. (though he follows the native story to the early 1990s). Perhaps he focuses too much on the negatives, but normally this history is completely ignored. We need to learn form the past and not forget who this continent once belonged to. We didn't discover it, they did. See also 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Mound Builders and A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America. ... Read more

Product Description

From the Big-Game Hunters who appeared on the continent as far back as 12,000 years ago to the Inuits plying the Alaskan waters today, the Native peoples of North America produced a culture remarkable for its vibrancy, breadth, and diversity--and for its survival in the face of almost inconceivable trials. This book is at once a history of that culture and a celebration of its splendid variety. Rich in historical testimony and anecdotes and lavishly illustrated, it weaves a magnificent tapestry of Native American life reaching back to the earliest human records.

A recognized expert in North American studies, Jonathan King interweaves his account with Native histories, from the arrival of the first Native Americans by way of what is now Alaska to their later encounters with Europeans on the continent's opposite coast, from their exchanges with fur traders to their confrontations with settlers and an ever more voracious American government. To illustrate this history, King draws on the extensive collections of the British Museum--artwork, clothing, tools, and artifacts that demonstrate the wealth of ancient traditions as well as the vitality of contemporary Native culture. These illustrations, all described in detail, form a pictorial document of relations between Europeans and Native American peoples--peoples as profoundly different and as deeply related as the Algonquians and the Iroquois, the Chumash of California and the Inuipat of Alaska, the Cree and the Cherokee--from their first contact to their complicated coexistence today.

Customer Reviews (1)

First Peoples, First Contacts
In general I felt the book was a very patch account of Native American people which was, afterall, its stated subject matter.It fails for one thing, at least within the written text itself, to give proper attention tothe extreme diversity of that population.This is in large part due to thefact that the starting point of the work is the North American collectionsof the British Museum, which are necessarily finite and somewhat random,having more to do with the whims of the early collectors than to theconscious choices of curators, especially in the case of the earliestmaterial.The photo illustrations of this collection, however, are worththe price of the book.Some of the artwork is priceless and irreplaceable. Of interest too is the material on modern Native American artists stillworking within the cultural contexts, media and traditions of theirancestors. ... Read more

Book Description

Product Description
This history of Native Americans, from the period of first contact to the present day, offers an important variation to existing studies by placing the lives and experiences of Native American communities at the center of the narrative.

• Presents an innovative approach to Native American history by placing individual native communities and their experiences at the center of the study
• Following a first chapter that deals with creation myths, the remainder of the narrative is structured chronologically, covering over 600 years from the point of first contact to the present day
• Illustrates the great diversity in American Indian culture and emphasizes the importance of Native Americans in the history of North America
• Provides an excellent survey for courses in Native American history
• Includes maps, photographs, a timeline, questions for discussion, and “A Closer Focus” textboxes that provide biographies of individuals and that elaborate on the text,  exposing students to issues of race, class, and gender

Product Description

Carlos E. A. Coimbra Jr. is Professor of Medical Anthropology at the National School of Public Health, Rio de Janeiro.Nancy M. Flowers is Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology, Hunter College. Francisco M. Salzano is Emeritus Professor, Department of Genetics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Ricardo V. Santos is Professor of Biological Anthropology at the National School of Public Health and at the National Museum IUFRJ, Rio de Janeiro.
... Read more

Product Description
In this first book-length treatment of Maya intellectuals in national and community affairs in Guatemala, Kay Warren presents an ethnographic account of Pan-Maya cultural activism through the voices, writings, and actions of its participants. Challenging the belief that indigenous movements emerge as isolated, politically unified fronts, she shows that Pan-Mayanism reflects diverse local, national, and international influences. She explores the movement's attempts to interweave these varied strands into political programs to promote human and cultural rights for Guatemala's indigenous majority and also examines the movement's many domestic and foreign critics.

The book focuses on the years of Guatemala's peace process (1987--1996). After the previous ten years of national war and state repression, the Maya movement reemerged into public view to press for institutional reform in the schools and courts and for the officialization of a "multicultural, ethnically plural, and multilingual" national culture. In particular, Warren examines a group of well-known Mayanist antiracism activists--among them, Demetrio Cojt!, Mart!n Chacach, Enrique Sam Colop, Victor Montejo, members of Oxlajuuj Keej Maya' Ajtz'iib', and grassroots intellectuals in the community of San Andr s--to show what is at stake for them personally and how they have worked to promote the revitalization of Maya language and culture. Pan-Mayanism's critics question its tactics, see it as threatening their own achievements, or even as dangerously polarizing national society. This book highlights the crucial role that Mayanist intellectuals have come to play in charting paths to multicultural democracy in Guatemala and in creating a new parallel middle class. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Indigenous Movements
As a graduate studuent who has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Guatemala, I found this book to very insightful.In my view, Kay Warren does a commendable job of addressing and discussing the politics of thePan-Maya movement and its actions and arguments since the signing of thepeace accords.Furthermore, she describes the role of the foreignanthropologist in the Maya culture and the critiques given by Pan-Mayaactivists towards the discipline of anthropology.For example, Warrenrelates the statements of the well-known Pan-Mayanist, Sam Colop (82). Warren concludes that the underlying question is; "What are you doingin Guatemala to benefit the Maya people?"This is particularlyrelevant to any social scientist, let alone those working inGuatemala.

Of particular interest is Warren's discussion on 'transformingselves'; the belief that certain individuals possess the capacity tophysically transform themselves into an animal.She provides an excellentargument on why this belief resurfaced during the civil war, a period ofextreme distrust.The bibliography is extensive and Warren's knowledgeof critical theory, anthropology, history, Guatemalan (and, one might add,Peruvian) ethnography and political studies is considerable.This bookcould serve as a starting point for anyone interested in the currentsituation in Guatemala.

The only shortcoming I found is that the chaptersdo not flow smoothly.This is most likely due to the fact that some of thebook was derived from previously written articles.

Nevertheless, I foundit to be an enjoyable read and strongly recommend it to anyone interestedin Guatemala and the Maya culture. ... Read more