Sherman W. Horn

Survey teams at the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna have mapped 70 percent of its 20 km² area and revealed the extent of settlement around the city center. Large-scale civic architecture, and the distribution of smaller ceremonial groups and minor centers, reflect the wealth and power of Maya rulers presiding over the largest Classic period city in the upper Belize River area. Previous analyses suggest disparities in wealth at El Pilar were more nuanced than the elite/commoner dichotomy commonly invoked for Classic Maya society. This article works to understand wealth inequality at ancient El Pilar by computing Gini coefficients from areal and volumetric calculations of primary residential units—the class of settlement remains most likely to represent ancient households. Presentation of Gini coefficients and their potential interpretations follows a discussion of settlement classification and residential group labor investment. We conclude by contextualizing these results within prior settlement pattern analyses to explore how disparities in wealth may have been distributed across the physical and social landscape.

Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method—combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) analyses of household groups—to identify potential neighborhoods based on clusters of households at 23 ancient centers across the Maya Lowlands. While a one-size-fits all model does not work for neighborhood identification everywhere, the ANN/KD method provides quantifiable data on the clustering of ancient households, which can be linked to environmental zones and urban scale. We found that centers in river valleys exhibited greater household clustering compared to centers in upland and escarpment environments. Settlement patterns on flat plains were more dispersed, with little discrete spatial clustering of households. Furthermore, we categorized the ancient Maya centers into discrete urban scales, finding that larger centers had greater variation in household spacing compared to medium-sized and smaller centers. Many larger political centers possess heterogeneity in household clustering between their civic-ceremonial cores, immediate hinterlands, and far peripheries. Smaller centers exhibit greater household clustering compared to larger ones. This paper quantitatively assesses household clustering among nearly two dozen centers across the Maya Lowlands, linking environment and urban scale to settlement patterns. The findings are applicable to ancient societies and modern cities alike; understanding how humans form multi-scalar social groupings, such as neighborhoods, is fundamental to human experience and social organization.

Anthropos - internationale Zeitschrift für Völkerkunde wird vom Anthropos Institut St. Augustin seit 1906 zweimal jährlich herausgegeben. Ursprünglich als Sprachrohr für katholische Missionarsarbeit geplant, gilt sie heute als wichtige Fachzeitschrift der allgemeinen Ethnologie. Sie behandelt sowohl kulturelle als auch sprachliche Themen in mehreren Sprachen, mit Schwerpunkt auf den Völkern des gesamtamerikanischen und afrikanischen Kontinents. Anthropos is the international journal of anthropology and linguistics, founded in 1906 by Wilhelm Schmidt, missonary and member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD). Its main purpose is the study of human societies in their cultural dimension. In honor of Wilhelm Schmidt‘s legacy, the cultivation of anthropology, ethnology, linguistics, and religious studies remain an essential component oft he Anthropos Institute – the organizational carrier of the journal. The vihuela de arco, a musical instrument with a remote background in fourteenth-century Spain and frequently used in Renaissance music, was introduced to America and the Upper Amazon after the Spanish invasion. In Europe it stopped playing at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but today an adaptation of it subsists in the Upper Amazon, incorporated into the systems of musical thought of the Shuar, Achuar and Shiwiar societies that share cultural and linguistic similarities, as well as in the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, an aspect that configures an important musicological finding of the 21st century. It was 1612, when in the kingdom of Loango (Central Africa), a young prince saw his king drinking palm wine; in so doing, be it inadvertently, the beloved heir apparent had contravened standard food regulations promulgated in order to protect the physical well-being of the royal person. The “guilty” offender has accordingly been executed. In this article we investigate how these events at the Loango court have been perceived and treated throughout the ages by all kind of observers, direct as well as indirect, but all of European extraction, our idea being that “the point of history is to study historians, not to study the past” (Evans 1997: 98). Berlin’s spätis (businesses that are similar to corner shops and open late hours and on Sundays) provide their customers with temporal flexibility. Amidst globally-rising xenophobic sentiments, Turkish owners and workers of these shops utilize this temporal quality and organize their work to accommodate the temporal needs of their diverse customers. They synchronize with the life of their neighborhoods and engage in speedy transactions. This temporal arrangement provides a powerful lens to consider how minorities’ labor forms the temporal infrastructure of their cities and make minorities vital for their countries. Whereas this case might appear as an example of good things happening in the midst of today’s overwhelming negativity, the article encourages research into the labor behind such “good things.” Thus, the essay adds to the “anthropology of the good” by showing that things that appear to be “good” might necessitate certain forms of labor, in this case, that of minorities. Tungus-Manchu and Samoyed peoples inhabit adjacent territories and live in a similar environment since antiquity. Both of these language families also underwent divergence at roughly the same time. It is interesting to see which dwelling names can be reconstructed for the different proto-language states of these families, and with which ethnographically or archaeologically attested dwelling types these words can be correlated. The aim of this article is to describe and analyze the contribution of Stanisław Poniatowski to the ethnological study of Siberia - the region that has always attracted travelers and discoverers. Even those who had been exiled by the tsarist regime in the second half of the 19th century not only intended to survive in the new, harsh environment, but also frequently conducted their own geographic, ethnographic, or botanical research. The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was also the time of the first academic expeditions to Siberia, such as the one led by Vladimir G. Bogoraz (1894-1896), a Russian ethnographer and linguist, during which systematic research in various fields of humanities and natural sciences was conducted. The scientific contribution of Stanisław Poniatowski to Siberian studies is based, in the first place on his extensive and detailed fieldwork which, nonetheless, would not be possible without the support given by the acclaimed Czech anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička. Thanks to his assistance, Poniatowski’s expedition could be carried on and produce unique ethnographic data on relatively unknown peoples of that region of Asia. The author describes and analyzes the divination with coca leaves in the central Andean area, paying a particular attention to the linguistic structures used in the process. He demonstrates that coca leaves not only play an important role in the traditional ritualism but also strengthen social relations and articulate the cosmovision. This article deals with the Mapuche religion as seen by Spanish chroniclers who wrote about the indigenous peoples of Chile. In these documents, we find numerous religious elements that help us understand the mythology and beliefs of the Mapuche at the beginning of the conquest. Addressing the subject of his study, the author analyzes the works of those chronicles in order to create a general panorama of their vision of indigenous religions, taking into account certain methodological problems that such study entails, e.g. religiocentrism and religious syncretism. Based on ethnographic data collected in two Peruvian peasant communities on telluric worships, in this article I analyze the symbolic forms of the ritual interaction...

To understand Middle Preclassic social processes at Cahal Pech, we must consider the dynamic and complex record of architectural development in its entirety.

Anthropos is the international journal of anthropology and linguistics, founded in 1906 by Wilhelm Schmidt, missonary and member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD). Its main purpose is the study of human societies in their cultural dimension. In honor of Wilhelm Schmidt‘s legacy, the cultivation of anthropology, ethnology, linguistics, and religious studies remain an essential component oft he Anthropos Institute – the organizational carrier of the journal. Anthropos - internationale Zeitschrift für Völkerkunde wird vom Anthropos Institut St. Augustin seit 1906 zweimal jährlich herausgegeben. Ursprünglich als Sprachrohr für katholische Missionarsarbeit geplant, gilt sie heute als wichtige Fachzeitschrift der allgemeinen Ethnologie. Sie behandelt sowohl kulturelle als auch sprachliche Themen in mehreren Sprachen, mit Schwerpunkt auf den Völkern des gesamtamerikanischen und afrikanischen Kontinents. This article examines the images of the Arabian Gulf before and after the establishment of the Trucial States, presently the United Arab Emirates, in order to understand how such images have been constructed to change the culture of the region. Oriental images of the Arabian Gulf, reflecting the relationship between the Orient (Arab/Islam) and the West, were created in different historical stages. During the first stage (1727-1819), European orientalists depicted Arab Gulf inhabitants, particularly the Qawasim tribesmen, as pirates. The British considered the Qawasim to be allied with the Wahhabi movement, indicating that Arabs formed an integral part of the precarious Orient. During the second stage (1820-1891), British Empire established what is known as the Trucial States, implying the taming of the Arabian Gulf. During the third stage (1892-1971), the Trucial States became subjugated communities under the British protectorate. Ethical issues related to negative images of the Arab Gulf are discussed. The article deals with four original scripts for Munda languages, invented in the 20th century by the native speakers of Munda. These are as follows: Ol Chiki, invented by Raghunath Murmu for Santali language; Sorang Sompeng, invented by Mangei Gomango for Sora; Warang Citi, invented by Lako Bodra for Ho; Bani Hisir, invented by Rohidas Singh for Mundari. The author analyzes the structures of the character sets and makes assumptions regarding the origins of the characters. In some cases, the author proposes alternative versions of the origins of the Warang Citi script, which was widely examined by Heinz-Jürgen Pinnow. Certain characters of Sorang Sompeng might bear resemblance to the Latin script and some Indian scripts, while Bani Hisir seems to have been influenced by Ol Chiki and partly by Warang Citi. Dwarf tribes still live as remnants of dusky ancient times in almost all parts of the world. We find them in central Africa, Andaman Islands, the Philippines, and the Malay Peninsula. In Farther India, I lived with them for many months, I was their guest and comrade on their travels through primeval forests, I shared tough life with them and glanced into their lofty spiritual life. This book will narrate about this nation and about its homeland, the dark, magnificent primeval forest. In this article I address the problem of the definition, manifestations, characteristics, and causes of catastrophic evil (one that leads hundreds or thousands of people to exclusion, suffering and death in a short time). To this end, I start from a set of George Steiner’s theses on the nature of evil that José Saramago’s thought and literary discourse confirm and support with an eloquence and depth that is rare in both the history of ideas and and in universal literature. Leftwardness, as used here, refers to any issue or activity that is associated with the left side, especially the left hand. Leftwardness seems to have been an aspect of prohibitions of virtually all known cultures, but presently the seriousness attached to its rejection is sustained in not too many cultures. One of the known cultures in which leftwardness is still seriously prohibitive is the Igbo culture. Among the Igbo of Southern Nigeria, leftwardness is seriously unacceptable/impermissible (but not tabooed). The prohibition of leftwardness in the Igbo culture is expressed via the parts of the body, especially the ones that occur in pairs: the hands, feet, eyes. This article discusses the prohibitions of leftwardness among the Igbo with ample exemplifications. Several works on this subject have substantially established that oral evidence is a reliable source in African historiography. But it is not sufficient for such works being Africanist responses to Eurocentric postulations that pre-literate African societies, lacking Western-written sources, had no history. Though such works have improved our knowledge of the relevance of oral tradition in the reconstruction of African history, African oral tradition has been criticized by Western scholars. To this end, the article departures from most works on African oral historiography whose attentions are on the relevance of oral evidence in African history. Rather, it provides a manual on the process of engaging in the collection, authentication, and use of such oral data as to ensure that it is a credible source for writing African history. It is argued in the article that pre-literate African history will be more credible after critically scrutinizing data derived from oral evidence. This article presents an ethnographic description of the artisanal production of maguey fiber in Indigenous hñähñu localities of the Mezquital Valley in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. From an ethnobotanical perspective, that considers the physical characteristics of the fibers, a description is provided of the selection and extraction process, the preparation of the leaves before the defibration process, the defibration process...

Excavations in northeastern Belize have generated one of the more detailed regional databases of Middle Preclassic (1000–350 b.c.) settlement in the Maya Lowlands, providing the basis for developmental models of later Maya civilization. Modest Classic period architecture permitted extensive exposures of early occupations at several sites, but contemporaneous settlements at large, later centers remain poorly understood, despite the insights they may offer into emergent social complexity and political hierarchy. We review extant and unpublished data from Lamanai and Altun Ha, two large centers in northeastern Belize during Classic times, to compare aspects of Middle Preclassic settlement, architecture, and burial practices and to evaluate how this evidence relates to existing models of early Maya community development. Comparisons between these sites and among other Middle Preclassic settlements beyond northeastern Belize suggest a more nuanced approach to understanding developing social complexity in the Maya Lowlands, which acknowledges regional similarities and variability, is warranted.

Large-scale Lidar surveys have revitalized interest in regional settlement studies in the Maya Lowlands. Remotely identified features in Lidar imagery must be verified on the ground, with results of ground-truthing studies forming the basis of reliable, comparative databases for understanding ancient Maya land use and modification. The El Pilar Project integrates data generated by established survey methods with Lidar imagery to construct more complete pictures of settlement distribution, landscape modification, and human-environment interactions. This paper describes the results of Lidar-guided survey at El Pilar along with the protocol our project developed to systematize data collection and increase the efficiency of survey. The methods we describe have proven effective for investigating Maya settlement patterns at the site scale and locating features difficult to discern in Lidar imagery.