Belize

What is a 'traditional' society? How does the narrative of modernity clash with historical reality? This is the first paper I published which questions the prevailing wisdom of Mesoamerican ethnology, that we can read the ancient Maya past from their modern descendants. It has never been cited to my knowledge!

In searching for different patterns of practice, lifestyle, and environment supportive of optimal health, we look to our elders around the world, who in the wisdom that has sustained them, we learn from with careful attention. Thirty-seven elders who live by their traditions participated in the present study. They assisted in the refinement of the methodology and collections and preparation of these data. These participants are well-respected, representative elders and traditional healers of their regions. These data, from study sites of the Eastern Afromontane and Albertine Rift region of Ethiopia, Africa; the Maya Mountains region of Belize, Central America; the Western Ghats region of India; and the Appalachian Mountains region of the United States, were grouped into three major categories: (1) philosophy, attitudes, and outlook, (2) lifestyle practices, and (3) dietary and nutritional practices. These elders demonstrate a relatively comprehensive but simple set of practices that can enhance our vitality and promote longevity sustainably. In essence, these practices, or practice wisdom, of our longest living elders, promote propagation of healthful lifestyles by following traditional ways and taking care of body, mind, spirit and our environment. Further field research among a larger cohort is required to fully generalize the findings of this study, but much of it is consistent with what we already know should be done. These data begin illustration of practice wisdom for implementation and serve to engage our universities, our hospitals, our industries, and our students, who we must position toward social change.

This article looks to analyze the preparation process the Belizean police force goes through with the objective of training the officers for duty. It also has the purpose of detailing the entrails the officers have to confront in their way up the corporate ladder as they develop into a professional police officer. Seen from a regional objectivity, Belize has been singled out to be in the center of numerous regional and hemispherical security problems; it is facing several of the same security challenges as its neighbors and explains the use of armed forces at the service of the public safety and the necessity to upgrade their law enforcement tactics and practices. The country also participates in many several mutual support instruments designed to assist and receive preparation and instruction from other nation's police bodies. An example of that international aid came in a report from 2008 entitled "Review of the Belize Department" written by a Jamaican consultant in which the Police Plan elaborated in 2006 was analyzed and critiqued pointed out the strong and weak points of that project.

The countries and territories comprising the English-speaking Caribbean (ESC) have made some strides in the development of mental health policy, services and systems with the expenditure in mental health as a percentage of health budgets ranging from 1% to 7%. The ESC countries have well developed primary healthcare systems. However, mental health legislations in many countries are in need of reform. Some countries have developed an innovative community based, secondary care treatment model: treatment in the medical wards of general hospitals. These countries have made progress in integrating mental health into primary healthcare and have made psychotropic medication widely available at the primary care level. Notwithstanding the progress in some countries, greater effort is required in phasing out mental hospitals and integrating mental health into primary care in other ESC countries.

The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics of play activities and playfulness in a group of Mayan children in southern Belize. This qualitative study involved participant observation in the daily occupations of 20 children from five Mayan families over a 2-week period. Analysis of the field notes, using open and closed coding, revealed themes specific to customs of child rearing, play activities, and playfulness. The primacy of adult work is a major cultural principle that influences Mayan children's daily occupations. Parents did not encourage play but permitted play if it did not interfere with work. Children found ways to integrate play activities and playfulness into their daily occupations. The statement, "play is a child's major occupation," may not be a universally held belief. Parental values and customs of child rearing should be considered in order to provide culturally sensitive and relevant services.

This case study on Belize educators during the COVID-19 school closures examines the innovative approach the educators of this country took. As many schools across the globe swiftly pivoted to online learning during the COVID-19 school closures, the educators of Belize recognized that digital learning would leave out their marginalized students who did not have internet connectivity. Instead, the educators of Belize drew on the history of their country, using school radio to reach their youngest citizens located in remote locations without internet. This innovative solution, reaching students in villages without internet, required the collaboration of Belize’s teachers and radio broadcasters.

This volume presents the results of 35 years of archaeological research at the Maya site of Pacbitun, located in west central Belize. The site was continuously occupied from 900 BC to AD 800/900. Excavations focused on both the site core and periphery, with investigations centred around housemounds, workshops, causeways, caves, and other karst features. In the site core, we excavated at areas ranging from small domestic houses dating to the Middle Preclassic to large ceremonial architecture (e.g. courtyards, palaces, temples) and complexes (e.g. E Groups) dating to the Late/Terminal Classic periods. From a material culture perspective, we conducted extensive research on ancient Maya use of plants, animals, ground stone tools, musical instruments, and ceramics. Tying all of these aspects together, our project has routinely utilised spatial technologies and 3D modelling (aerial and terrestrial LiDAR, photogrammetry) that help to capture our research efforts, from architecture to material remains, over the long-term.

It is often thought that the individual is invisible to archaeology. In this paper, we adopt a developmental approach to the life history of a single individual nicknamed “Ruler G,” an ancient Maya king who ruled at Pusilha, Belize in the first half of the eighth century. Using epigraphic, biological, chemical, and archaeological data, we examine his childhood, adulthood, death, and afterlife in order to better understand life in the ancient city of Pusilha and the history of that polity.

The instructions I received with respect to this second affidavit, were to address two areas that I had knowledge of from my historical research relevant to the issue of Maya traditional and historic rights.  First, information pertaining to the extent of early British authority in the Bay of Honduras, prior to the creation of the colony; and second, information concerning Maya/British relations with respect to land, and the extent to which the highest colonial authorities protected, accommodated, or obliterated the Maya customary land use patterns.  I was also asked to review the affidavits filed by the Attorney General and respond to any inaccuracies that I might identify in them.

I recorded this in Aguacate village, Toledo District, in 1979 while doing my dissertation fieldwork. It was recounted by the late Pedro Cucul, and translated into English by one of his sons. I took the tape recording and typed it that evening on my manual typewriter. I lost this carbon copy in my files in 1983, and found it recently.

This thesis reports on the 2010 excavations of the North Group and Eastern Court at the ancient Lowland Maya site of Pacbitun. It provides a construction history of the architecture and an analysis of associated artifacts, burials, and caches. The archaeological investigations demonstrate that the seven structures (Strs. 34-40) of this restricted access plazuela group were built in the Early Classic period, and renewed in the Late Classic period. Based on analyses of artifacts (ceramics and lithics), skeletal and faunal remains, and intra- and inter-site comparisons, the North Group functioned as a secondary elite domestic residential group. Reconstruction suggests that the inhabitants here were not commoners; instead, the occupants probably were related to the ruling elite of Pacbitun. Some of the evidence includes the central location and elevation of the North Group, the presence of red painted plaster surfacing, a burial with multiple ceramic musical instruments, and multiple dedicatory caches with exotic goods (e.g., marine shell, jadeite, "Charlie Chaplin" figures).

Rice and Beans is the staple dish of Belize, served everywhere. But there is no mention of the rice and beans in any documentary source until the 1950s. How did something so obscure become the national dish? How did it acquire that patina of tradition? In this paper I show how many dishes become staples through what I call "promotion". Something that is eaten only on festive occasions or holidays is promoted by making versions on ordinary working days.

Una actualización sobre el uso de las TIC en las políticas de formación docente (hasta 2013). Incluye la revisión de planes educativas nacionales, principales programas, actores clave, casos nacionales (Belice, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panamá, República Dominicana), influencia de la Coordinación Educativa y Cultural del Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (CECC/SICA), progreso y desafío en la región,  y recomendaciones para la Política Educativa Centroamericana (PEC).

A summary on the use of ICT  in teacher education policies (up to 2013). It incluses a review on national education plans, main programs, key stakeholders, country cases (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic), the influes of the Education and Culture Coordination of Central America Integration System (CECC/SICA), progress and challenges in the region, and recommendations for the Central American Education Policy (PEC).

Rural households play an active role in reorganizing their livelihood strategies to respond to external stresses and shocks. What is unclear is the extent to which rural households can remain resilient in the face of continued external stresses and how policy actions at larger scales can more effectively encourage rural food and livelihood sustainability. Economic and ecological stresses and shocks have negatively impacted livelihood security and wider economic stability in Belize. This has increased the number of people below the poverty line to 41.3 percent, who remain disproportionately located in rural areas. With a high degree of import dependency, global food price surges have resulted in direct pass through effects on domestic prices, creating food price inflation of up to 22.8 percent between 2006 and 2009. Within this context, this study assesses the state of livelihood security in a village of the Cayo district by assessing the quality of household capital assets, including human, financial, natural and social capital. Semi-structured face- to-face interviews were conducted in 2012 using a random sample of 64 households. Participant observation, key-informant interviews, the use of secondary sources and extra- local interviews with government officials were also employed to gain deeper insight into the complexity of the rural environment and institutional policies related to food security and sustainable agricultural development.

          Results show high levels of livelihood diversification among both grain farmers and non-farming households. No significant difference existed between total household median incomes. However, the median income of non-grain male household heads is significantly greater than that of grain farmer male householders (U = 1393, n1 = 43, n2 = 16, p < .05). Part-time farming households maintained the highest number of livelihood strategies compared to non-grain households, with a median of 4 to 3 respectively (U = 506, n1 = 11, n2 = 48, p < .0005). Compared to non-farmers, part-time farmers are disproportionately engaged in day labor as a primary income strategy, where pay is lower and work is less reliable (Chi = 57, df = 1, p < .01). Human capital is low among both household types, with 65 percent of non-farming male householders receiving no education above the primary school level, while all grain farmers received no education above the primary school level (Chi = 59, df = 1, p < .01). Domestic and foreign remittances did not impact the majority of
participants, as only 28 percent reported they received, or would receive, some amount of extra-household monetary support. Yet, the median value of out-country remittances was significantly greater for non-farmers compared to grain farmers (U = 21.00, n1 = 4, n2 = 3, p < .05). Despite these strategies, financial capital remains constrained, as over 75% of households are unable to save money, and the large majority of working females worked out of necessity. In addition, nearly two thirds of households have reduced meal size in recent years, with no significant difference between household types.

          Nearly three quarters of all householders valued home gardens as a mode to adding diversity to the diet and improving health or reducing purchasing costs. Among farmers, 94 percent stated that their farms provided their family with food, where 62.5 percent indicated risk management, specifically, as their reason for farming. This proportion rises to 83.3 percent when looking at local (white) corn producers exclusively. When asked if farming has become more difficult, less difficult, or the same compared to the past, 62.5 percent of grain farmers stated that agriculture in Belize has become more difficult (Chi = 6.5, df = 2, p < .05). Biophysical constraints among both household types include vulnerability to waterlogging and drought, soil fertility and pest problems. Input costs are also of concern, while grain farmers faced additional transaction risk. Furthermore, land tenure insecurity is widespread. To compound the problem, social capital is also weak given disillusionment with formal organizing, where exclusionary policies by the local cooperative further restrict access to relevant low-cost and low-input technologies. Expanding access to sustainable technologies through participatory research and extension is recommended. However, greater access to technology alone is insufficient for sustaining intensification that can ensure resilient food and livelihood strategies. Reducing costs and risk through secure access to productive resources, markets, and financial services in a manner that accounts for heterogeneity in farming systems and local food security priorities are also essential. To this end, and with attention to national-level social and economic conditions, a pro-poor agricultural growth strategy is considered within a dynamic food sovereignty framework.

Keywords: Belize; Sustainable Agriculture; Small Farmers; Sustainable Rural Livelihoods; Subsistence Farmers; Agricultural Development; Political Agroecology; Local Food Systems; Adaptive Capacity; Food Sovereignty.

Gellner (1983) argues that one of the most central claims of nationalism is ¬that the nation should be a single political and a cultural unit, that the ¬territorial state should also have a national culture. This idea of the¬ modern nation, generated in Europe has now been extended across the globe¬ to new multiethnic states, which have no pre-existing concept of a national ¬culture to build on, extend to or force upon their populace. Arnason ¬suggests that the basic premise of modern nationalism is this close¬re lationship between culture and political power (1990: 213). The central¬ goal of the nation state is to produce homogeneity through education and¬ other cultural policies.
In this paper I want to suggest that such an evolutionary simplification is¬ premature and inaccurate (and many of the other case studies in this volume¬ support this point). The prescribed nationalism of the modern state has not¬ supplanted other forms of national identities, nor has it been superseded¬ by globalism. Instead, modern mass-mediated nationalism coexists with other ¬kinds of nationalist identities that emerge in very different ways. We ¬should think of official nationalism as a competing project, sometimes in¬direct opposition to other forms of nationalism, sometimes working¬ hand-in-hand, sometimes in contradiction and other times in an uneasy¬ coexistence.

The models proposed for ancient Maya territorial organization in central Belize differ significantly from one researcher to another. Due to the relative dearth of hieroglyphic data, most models have been formulated on the basis of archaeological data alone and are predominantly site-specific assessments. Investigations in central Belize over the past four decades have, however, brought to light several key pieces of epigraphic data, including Emblem Glyphs. When viewed in conjunction, the archaeological and epigraphic data provide a new vantage for determining the structure of the Classic-period socio-political landscape of the Belize Valley. Resumen Los modelos propuestos para la organización territorial de los mayas del Período Clásico en Belice Central difieren significativamente de un investigador a otro. Debido a la escasez de datos jeroglíficos, la mayoría de los modelos se han formulado teniendo en cuenta tan solo datos arqueológicos y se centran predominantemente sobre cada sitio investigado. Las exploraciones en Belice Central de las cuatro últimas décadas, sin embargo, han sacado a la luz numerosas piezas clave que aportan datos epigráficos, incluyendo Glifos Emblema. Vistos en conjunto, los datos arqueológicos y epigráficos proporcionan una posición más ventajosa en la determinación de la estructura del paisaje socio-político del Período Clásico del Valle de Belice.

This thesis examines the mortuary assemblage from the ancient Maya centre of Minanha, located in the North Vaca Plateau of west-central Belize. The study is an intra- site mortuary analysis that highlights the major trends of a comparative analysis of sociopolitical or socioeconomic status across temporal periods. The assemblage spans from the Late Preclassic (400 B.C.- A.D. 100) to the Early Postclassic (A.D. 900-1200). Analysis indicates that occupants of Minanha’s Late Classic (A.D. 675-810) epicentre/royal court complex invested more energy in their grave constructions and grave offerings than other segments of the community, and that changes in the mortuary record correspond roughly with sociopolitical changes at the centre. Inter-site comparisons at the end of the thesis demonstrate that the Minanha mortuary assemblage fits with the Vaca Plateau regional trends, and that Minanha may have been influenced by the centers of Pacbitun, and/or Caracol.

INDICE:
Dossier / La crisi economico sociale in America latina, a cura di Angelo Trento e Enzo Santarelli,
Apertura, 3-4.
Levi Mattoso Jorge E., Rinascere dalle ceneri, 5-13.
Carreta Jorge Augusto, I primi quattro anni di presidenza di Fernando Henrique Cardoso: un piccolo bilancio, 15-24.
Almeyra Guillermo, Messico: il vaso di coccio in difficoltà, 25-30.
Iaccio Pasquale, Stornaiolo Ugo, L'America latina nelle paludi del neoliberismo. Il caso dell'Ecuador, 31-38.
Manuzzato Nicoletta, Venezuela: un ex golpista al governo, 39-43.
Gorini Rossana, Bolivia: comunità indigene tra resistenza e trasformazione dentro il processo di modernizzazione economica del paese, 45-60.
Tognonato Claudio, Argentina: il modello neoliberale non guarda in faccia a nessuno, 61-68.

Martínez Heredia Fernando, Che, l'argentino, 69-72. Trad. di Assunta Mariottini.
Dalmasso Sergio, Cristianesimo e rivoluzione: Camillo Torres, 73-81.
Bugliani Roberto (a cura di), Kanankil 1998: conversazione tra molti, 83-90. Trad. di Roberto Bugliani.
Bertonha João Fábio, Brasile: gli immigrati italiani e la politica estera fascista, 91-104.

Culture indigene
Wilk Richard, Chapin Mac, Belize: le minoranze etniche mopán, kekchí, garífuna, 105-131. Trad. di Stella Soldani.

Recensioni e schede, 133-140.
Le illustrazioni del fascicolo sono tratte dal libro Voglia di tango di Meri Lao (Sugarco, Milano, 1986). In copertina: Un murale con ballerini di tango a San Telmo, Buenos Aires, in una fotografia di Grazia Neri.

This paper presents updated information about crime and violence in Belize, and about current and recent initiatives that address these issues, with an emphasis on youth and on Southside Belize City. The findings complement the 2013 IDB Technical Note on citizen security in Belize and the analysis of the completed Community Action for Public Safety Program (CAPS). The report reviews factors contributing to crime and violence in Belize, and then identifies opportunities to consolidate progress and gaps in services. It makes recommendations for future programs, including a potential second phase of CAPS. The first key area is in juvenile justice: diverting more youth away from the criminal justice system and expanding mental health and foster care resources. The second key area is at the community level: further integrating social services and violence prevention efforts for families in Southside. The hardest-to-reach youth groups who are gang-involved are a priority, and strengthening targeted interventions for them, including conflict mediation, could make a difference. Third, it is important to apply a gender lens to this sector, notably by building gender-disaggregated data and addressing masculinity issues. For monitoring and evaluating interventions, new indicators -in addition to crime and recidivism rates-will help to create a more comprehensive picture of change.

The draft paper as at 24th April which is updated from the draft made for the oral presentation session (5th April 2017 does not contain any references and text errors needed corrections). The paper is still being worked on with more sections being added with some aspect areas clarified in more detail. Others are being reviewed. Due to the closure of the Parliament in the UK early for the snap elections, the text is still unfinished and will be resumed for the new Parliament session with no end date set yet. The document is best viewed by a download to Microsoft Word as web browsers tend to muddle the layout. Please note that the ice sheet mass balance changes occur mainly in nearby Iceland, Jan Mayen and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rather than Greenland itself. (High viscous, low nucleation events pushing very cool, effusive, almost 'solid' lava incursions vertically up like the Mascarene volcanism of Mauritius are rare anomalies from a misaligned hotspot influencing further afield - and therefore far less likely.)

You can learn a lot about history from poetry. This short paper presents a selection of popular poetry published in 19th Century newspapers in British Honduras (now Belize). Some of them are hilarious - they are certainly all terrible poems. But they reflect a great deal about the times, and express views which do not otherwise appear in local newspapers or documents. I collected these while reading hundreds of copies of historical Belize newspapers in the Bancroft Library at Berkeley, and I have hundreds more in my files.

An early effort to think about why middle class consumers in Belize are so deeply interested in buying and owning foreign goods. I argue that rather than being a form of copying or emulation, consumption acts in an almost magical way to try to call a particular future into being.

Message with your email address or email me for a pdf of the manuscript.
Archaeological remains of ceramic musical instruments occur among pre-Columbian cultures across Mesoamerica. Sound artifacts recovered from the Maya subarea, for example, have provided an indication of the high order of musical sophistication for the ancient Maya. A brief review of the literature on the subject reveals artifacts unearthed from at least 40 sites. Investigation in 1986 and 1987 at Pacbitun, Belize, recovered a range of well-preserved ceramic musical instruments from Late Classic period elite and royal burials. Recent excavations in 2010 recovered an additional 12 artifacts. These will be described and discussed, as well as insights into their archaeological context, and a comparison will be made to similar artifacts found elsewhere in the Maya subarea.

Vestigios arqueológicos de instrumentos musicales de cerámica fueron hallados en las culturas precolombinas de toda Mesoamérica. Artefactos sonoros de la subárea maya por ejemplo revelaron el alto grado de sofisticación que la música debe haber tenido entre los antiguos maya. Una revisión breve de la literatura pertinente mostró que dichos artefactos han sido excavados en al menos 40 sitios. Las investigaciones llevadas a cabo en Pacbitun, Belice, en 1986 y 1987 descubrieron un buen número de distintos instrumentos musicales de cerámica bien preservados en entierros reales y de élite del período Clásico Tardío. Más recientemente, se encontró otra docena de artefactos sonoros más durante las excavaciones realizadas en 2010 en el lugar. En el artículo todos ellos son descritos y discutidos; además, se proporcionan datos sobre su contexto arqueológico y se comparan con artefactos similares descubiertos en otros sitios de la subárea maya.


Cheong, Kong F., Roger Blench, Paul F. Healy, and Terry G. Powis

2014    Ancient Maya Musical Encore: Analysis of Ceramic Musical Instruments from Pacbitun, Belize and the Maya Subarea. In Flower World: Music Archaeology of the Americas, Vol.3., edited by Matthias Stockli and Mark Howell, pp. 123-140. Ekho Verlag, Berlin.

This study examines Maya community change at the 15th-17th century occupation of Progresso Lagoon, in northern Belize. This community was known historically for its role in the 16th century anti-Spanish resistance movement of the Colonial Period. Yet aside from the addition of some Spanish artifacts at the site, there are few material changes that occur with the imposition of colonial rule. This study found that the most substantial changes at the site came during the 15th century, one hundred years before the Spanish arrival, because of Indigenous political and economic changes throughout the Maya lowlands. Indigenous Maya changes during the 15th century indicate increasing political instability, a declining economy, and a decrease in activities that promoted intra- and inter-community integration. I argue that these changes significantly affected the Colonial Period relationships between the Maya residents of Progresso Lagoon, the Spanish authority, and other Maya groups.

This dissertation adopts a postcolonial perspective, in an attempt to illuminate the motivations and worldviews of the 15th-17th century residents at Progresso Lagoon. I argue that Colonial Period events must be viewed within a long-term historical perspective, particularly on colonial frontiers, where Indigenous people had less contact with Europeans. and the ability to interact with other semi-conquered or unconquered Indigenous groups. I suggest that we use the pre-colonial archaeological record to situate colonial events on a deep Indigenous timeline.

To establish a deep history of pre-colonial change at Progresso Lagoon, I call on historical political economy and household archaeology. This allows me to explore the intersection between structural changes and everyday life, in both the Pre-Colonial and Colonial Periods. Using household archaeological data, I detail political, economic and social changes of the 15th century, and reflect on how these changes would have informed the decisions and actions of Progresso Lagoon residents during the Colonial Period.

El presente texto tiene como temas centrales la frontera, los viajes y las diferentes formas de observación de los paisajes. En él se proyecta hacer un examen dialógico e interdisciplinario entre tres diferentes fuentes de análisis: 1) los diarios militares, concernientes a las visitas a los asentamientos ingleses en el Walix, posteriores a la Convención de Londres de 1786, en donde se perfilan los elementos que configuran la imagen del “viajero borbónico”; 2) las novelas que Emilio Salgari ubica en la península de Yucatán y en la bahía de Honduras tituladas La reina de los caribes (1901) y La capitana del Yucatán (1899), en donde la mirada literaria y el viaje imaginado se vuelven predominantes para la configuración de la región; y 3) las implicaciones diplomáticas del Tratado Spencer-Mariscal, del 8 de julio de 1893, con especial énfasis en los elementos que llevaron a la delimitación y al trazado de la frontera internacional entre México y Belice, en donde a través de la cartografía y la diplomacia se fijó y oficializó el paisaje. Este recorrido tiene como objetivo dar un panorama amplio de las diversas visiones que han contribuido a lo largo de dos siglos a la configuración de la península yucateca y de Belice, entendidos estos como territorios de frontera con miras hacia al Caribe y Centroamérica.

In Belize, public archaeology and cultural heritage management are carried out via various community and educational outreach initiatives. Cultural heritage management in Belize falls under the purview of government institutions such as the Institute of Archaeology and the Institute for Social and Cultural Research, both under the National Institute of Culture and History. Archaeological projects in Belize also
function as cultural heritage managers. Using both interviews and surveys with various sectors of Belizean society, this thesis presents findings on both the successes and shortcomings of carrying out cultural heritage management in Belize. I also offer, in the discussion, views and recommendations for enhancing such initiatives in Belize.

This report deals with the current situation of three ethnic groups in Belize: the Mopan Maya, the Kekchi Maya, and the Garifuna. In the face of persistent and ever-increasing forces of change, these groups have managed to retain their cultural cohesiveness to a substantial degree, and all possess a strong sense of shared identity. They continue to speak their native languages; participate in traditional rituals and institutions; and have all recently become active in strengthening their cultural values by forming national councils. At the same time, however, their status as ethnic minorities places them in a difficult and often tenuous position in the struggle for economic and political survival. Following the notion that a group's survival ultimately depends upon a range of cultural, social, economic, and political factors, we have attempted to present the broad context in which the Kekchi, Mopan, and Garifuna currently live.