Enclosed: Conservation, Cattle, and Commerce among the Q'eqchi' Maya Lowlanders

摘要

In the midst of last year's hype surrounding the Mayan calendar and supposed end of the world on December 21, a very ill-conceived "Doo-nesbury" cartoon on that date had Zonker's family checking to see if all family members were still alive. "No one disappeared," exclaims one member, only to be chided by another, "If you don't count the Mayans." The "joke" is hardly funny, and as cultural anthropologist Liza Grandia reminds us so well of in her book Enclosed, the Maya Indians have hardly disappeared. In fact, they are an active and thriving people in Yucatan, Guatemala, and Belize with considerable ability to survive in an ever-growing globalized world economy that has had considerable impact on where they live.