The Maya has long been established as the best, most readable introduction to the New World's greatest ancient civilization. In its pages Professor Coe distills a lifetime's scholarship for the general reader and student, presenting the latest findings, most exciting scholarship and freshest perspectives on Maya culture. Since the publication of the previous edition, new sites have been uncovered and further excavations in old sites have proceeded...

"Starting in the Yucatán, Wood sets out on an epic walking voyage, moving through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, travelling in the opposite direction along vital migrant routes. Journeying from sleepy barrios to glamourous cities to Mayan ruins lying unexcavated in the wilderness, Wood forges new relationships along the way that stand at the heart of this book--and the personal histories, cultures, and popular legends...

"The Greater Middle East, the vast region between the Mediterranean and China encompassing much of the Arab world, parts of northern Africa, and Asia, existed for millennia as the crossroads of empire: Macedonian, Mongol, Ottoman, Russian, British. But with the dissolution of empires in the twentieth century, postcolonial states have struggled to maintain stability in the face of power struggles between factions, leadership vaccuums, and the fact...

Teenager, Jessie Bartlett Nungarrayi, takes us on a journey from Alice Springs to the ancestral homelands of her Pintubi grandmothers where the old ladies propose to teach her about relationships with men, the lore of love, the traditional way. With her teenage skin sister, Lizzie, Jessie travels into the remote area around the dried salt-bed of Lake Mackay, straddling the border between the Northern Territory and Western Australia, where her grandfather...

This film, the first from the Central African Republic, takes us inside the world of the 'pygmies' or more properly BaAka. Le silence de la forêt is a film about the difficulty for even the most well-intentioned person to know and respect another culture. In this case, the problem is so acute that there is even heated debate over what to call that 'other.' The subtitles in the film use the familiar word 'pygmies,' a relatively pejorative European...

This intimate portrait of two “half-caste” women: Zita Wallace who was taken from her Arrernte family at the age of eight; and Aggie Abbott, an Arrernte woman who was hidden from the Aboriginal Protector at the same time that Zita was taken. Zita lost her Aboriginal heritage and was raised in the white world; Aggie grew up within her Aboriginal community, retaining its language and culture. The film follows the friendship that has developed between...

Presents information on the geography, history, economy, and people of Central America. Includes a chronology, recipes, project ideas, and more.

""Her immediate concern was money." So begins the first story in Manuel Muñoz's dazzling new collection. In it, Delfina has moved from Texas to California's Central Valley with her husband and small son, and her isolation and desperation force her to take a risk that ends in profound betrayal. These exquisite stories are mostly set in the 1980s in the small towns that surround Fresno. With an unflinching hand, Muñoz depicts the Mexican and Mexican...

"This exciting book explores the culture and achievements of the ancient Maya through the examination of artifacts that have survived through the centuries. Each primary-source artifact offers the reader significant clues to the civilization's technologies, cultural traditions, foods, and conflicts."--

After a childhood filled with heartbreak, Irene, a talented artist, finds herself in a small Central American village where she checks into a beautiful but decaying lakefront hotel called La Llorona at the base of a volcano. The Bird Hotel tells the story of this young American who, after suffering tragedy, restores and runs La Llorona. Along the way we meet a rich assortment of characters who live in the village or come to stay at the hotel. With...