Contact and Missionization at Tayasal,Petén,Guatemala

Abstract

Until their conquest by the Spanish in 1697, many Itza Maya occupied a large village at Tayasal, Petén, Guatemala. After the conquest, two missions were built there. The village and missions are located within 2 km of modern Flores, which was once Nojpetén, the Itza capital, and later the Spanish presidio (fortified administrative center). Our excavations uncovered the San Bernabé mission on the Tayasal peninsula and defined the Late Postclassic-period (a.d. 1400–1525) occupation of the site. San Bernabé was established in the early 18th century as part of Spanish efforts to control indigenous populations in Petén. Our research demonstrates that the Late Postclassic settlement was larger than indicated by previous research and supported a relatively large ceremonial architectural group. Evidence of indigenous practices was recovered from deposits within the mission, though many elements of Itza religion found in the Late Postclassic group were absent from the mission settlement. These data provide additional evidence of religious syncretism in colonial situations.     

A Chak'an Itza Center at Nixtun-Ch'ich’, Petén,Guatemala

Recent excavations conducted by Proyecto Itza investigated a Late Postclassic (a.d. 1400–1525) community at Nixtun-Ch'ich’, Petén, Guatemala. This community was likely occupied by a faction of Itza Mayas called the Chak'an Itzas. Recent work focused on the community's civic-ceremonial architecture and nearby residences. The former was dominated by two colonnaded halls standing abreast. These buildings, believed to have been popol najoob (council houses), likely represented socio-political dualism in Chak'an society. The halls included various sculptures that seem largely associated with the deity Itzamna mounted into architecture so that they were clearly on display. Most sculptures were associated with one of the two halls suggesting that one faction was more powerful and more strongly advertised its connections with Yucatán. Excavations also revealed the avoidance of masonry in residential areas, which differentiated Chak'an residences from their civic-ceremonial areas and also distinguished Chak'an residences from those of their neighbors.     

Du tourisme généalogique dans l'Irlande contemporaine

The aim of this article is to explore the causes of the recent and surprising expansion of heritage tourism in Ireland, working with contemporary anthropological data. It is a fact that numerous descendants of Irish migrants have been returning ‘home’ recently to discover the land where their forebears originally came from. Of particular interest here are specific types of return to the homeland, such as the gathering of clans. We would like to point out here that such collective, ritualized activities have a twofold nature: in addition to their role in the forging of identity, they provide a means for the governments of Ireland and Northern Ireland to develop touristic activities over the entire island, thus diversifying economic resources.     

Fiction ‘néo-réactionnaire’ avec Richard Millet

Omnipresent in the political and media landscapes, the neo-reactionary discourse has become a major discursive trend in contemporary France. Recent scholarship has started to theorise its mechanisms of production and circulation, with a particular focus on the visibility and posture of the celebrities who embody it. The importance of this discourse’s literary component has been pointed out, but also restricted to discussions pertaining to the role played by these public figures’ writings published for a mass audience such as essays and newspaper articles. The objective of this article is to highlight the need to take into consideration literary representations that echo but also complete the theoretical arguments developed in more popular outlets. Through the analysis of Richard Millet’s Province (2016), the potential of fiction, and more precisely the realist novel, will be explored in order to suggest that a thorough understanding of the neo-reactionarydiscourse can only be achieved through the study of the multiple platforms that disseminate and shape it.     

Poésie, Sciences Et Politique Une Génération D’Intellectuels Italiens (1290–1330)

Nothing is more false than the image of Dante as an isolated genius standing out against his epoch. On the contrary he belongs to a very caracteristic generation of italian intellectuals: laymen, often active in more than one domain, practicing abundantly poetic expression, engaged in political action, these scholar-citizens share equally a strong historical conscience. Their inventivity is manifested in philosophy, in medecine and in law, as well as in literary expression. Aside from these endogenous factors, a key to this phenomenon is linked to the active reception of the naturalistic knowledge elaborated in Paris, which is read in Italy outside of the control of theologians. The parallel journeys of a dozen uncommon personalities show the necessity of enlarging the habitual frames of medieval intellectual history.     

Où en Est la Sociologie Générale ?

Over the last two decades, history and social sciences have experienced a kind of merging, and a vast number of specialized domains have emerged. Yet the durkheim - ian register of "general sociology" seems somehow neglected. Firstly, this article analyzes the reasons for this neglect, and secondly, it indicates how, through a long-term reflexivity, one can formulate a new agenda for general sociology.     

Architectural Aesthetics,Orientations, and Reuse at the Terminal Classic Maya Site of Ucanal,Petén,Guatemala

ABSTRACT

The Terminal Classic period (ca. a.d. 830–950/1000) in the Southern Maya Lowlands is known as a time in which investments in public architecture and vaulted masonry buildings began to wane. Masonry constructions have often been noted to be of poorer quality in comparison with previous phases. Moving beyond models of scarcity, this paper examines the aesthetics, meanings, and reorientations of architectural projects at the site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala during the Terminal Classic period. We highlight three processes that were central to the new architectural programs at the site: an emphasis on the aesthetics of wood, the reorientation of sacred space in residential contexts, and the fragmentation and reuse of buildings and monuments. Although these materials and processes are often associated with a loss of splendor, we suggest that they were part of an active architectural revisionism, one that remade history by reworking the old and reorienting the new.     

Résistance,moralité, identité nationale

Claudio PAVONE, Una guerra civile. Saggio storico sulla moralità nella Resistenza, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1991, xiv + 825 p., ISBN 8833906299.     

Mound ZZl,Nixtun-Ch'ich', Petén,Guatemala: Rescue Operations at a Long-Lived Structure in the Maya Lowlands

Abstract

Mound ZZl, located on the tip of the peninsular portion of the large lowland Maya site of Nixtun-Ch’ich’ in Petén, Guatemala, was investigated in 2007 during a salvage operation. An axial trench revealed a long sequence of activity in the area, beginning before 1000 B. C. and extending into the early 18th century. Early platform construction was accompanied by feasting and smashing of Middle Preclassic (1000—400 B.C.) pottery in a termination and/or dedication rite. The mound grew through the construction and reconstruction of numerous platforms and structures—and further episodes of termination and dedication—that primarily extended it laterally, rather than vertically. The location of Mound ZZl and its features—reincorporation of Middle Preclassic fill materials; secondary burials; clay figurines; protection by a large wall-ditch complex; pecked plaster symbols; and the presence of a Spanish mission church—suggest that it was a key civic-ceremonial component of the region's sacred landscape for nearly three thousand years.     

L’impossible constitution d’une théorie générale des machines ?

Three projects on the theories of machines are presented: “mecanology” of the architect Jacques Laffite (1932) inspired by biological evolution; “mecanical analysis ” of Louis Couffignal, a specialist in computing machines (1938), which pre figures functional analysis, and the algebraic theory of machines by the mathematician Jacques Riguet (beginning of the 1950’s). During those years, the three men are members of the Circle of Cybernetic Studies. The article focuses on the dialogue between projects, the axes of unification and divergence, and the styles, strategies and postulates of these three candidates, for generalization converging toward the reference constituted by cybernetics.     

La Greffe Générale: the voice of French facially injured soldiers

Like the combatants on the frontline, the wounded soldiers of the First World War wrote and published newspapers during the sometimes lengthy periods of time they spent in hospital. La Greffe Générale is the journal written by and for facially injured combatants treated at the Val-de-Grâce military hospital in Paris. Throughout the eight issues released between December 1917 and July 1918, the voices of these men can be heard. While the surgeons’ perspective prevails in most remaining documents to do with French maxillofacial wards, La Greffe Générale gives an insight into the experiences of injury and treatment from the point of view of the wounded and convalescent combatants. The specific challenges faced by facially injured men are reflected in their writings, as this article shows. At the same time, their newspaper is in itself an attempt to respond to some of these issues. Ultimately, the patients’ publication reveals how gueules cassées, as French disfigured veterans came to be known, tried to collectively cope with their changed lives. The ethos reflected in, and fuelled by, La Greffe Générale played, this article argues, a significant part in the later constitution of the facially disfigured men’s organisation, the Association des Gueules Cassées.