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Page 103 of the Madrid Codex showing the juxtaposition of named days and coefficients of the Tzolk'in in the first column of both the upper and lower register. In both the lowest and upper register, the calendrics introduce two small vignettes showing the good and adverse auguries, respectively. (Color online)

Page 103 of the Madrid Codex showing the juxtaposition of named days and coefficients of the Tzolk'in in the first column of both the upper and lower register. In both the lowest and upper register, the calendrics introduce two small vignettes showing the good and adverse auguries, respectively. (Color online)

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Recently, an exceptional find was made by the Nakum Archaeological Project in an offering deposited deep within the architectural core of the Precolumbian Maya site of Nakum located in northeastern Guatemala. The form of the object and comparisons made to ethnographic analogs indicate that it is a clay beehive, most probably one of the oldest in th...

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Context 1
... clause begins with a verb describing the type of ritual action and is followed by a reference to bees, the name of the particular deity presiding over the range of dates, and the associated augury. Each text is paired with a small figurative vignette (Figure 7). ...

Citations

... Breeding of meliponines in Mesoamerica has existed for more than 2000 years, according to diverse archaeological records. The oldest evidence for meliponiculture are ceramic effigy hobones and solid limestone disks from the Late Formative period or Late Pre-classic (300 BC-AD 100) (Zrałka et al., 2018;Paris et al., 2020). There are also censers, stunning representations of the Mayan God Ah Mucen Kab. ...
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Introduction: Stingless bee breeding, also called Meliponiculture, has existed for thousands of years in Mesoamerica among a variety of rural and indigenous cultures. Due to its biocultural importance, it represents a perfect device for agroecological education and scaling, as well as pollinator conservation. At the same time, promoting agroecological transitions are necessary for conserving the cultural heritage that meliponicultures represent. Methods: We organized a series of activities based on this premise: documenting and dialoguing “saberes contemporáneos” (contemporary knowledges), design and implementation of community agroecological workshops, guided visits at the institutional Meliponary at ECOSUR Villahermosa and promotion of agroecological and biocultural school gardens, all in Tabasco, México. We used “diálogo de saberes” (knowledge dialogues) as a methodological approach, promoting respect for the contribution of the diversity of ontoepistemologies involved. We drew on the ideas of several pedagogues, mainly from popular education and critical pedagogy frameworks. Results and discussion: We identified characteristics of stingless bees and meliponicultures that make them excellent mediators for biocultural conservation and agroecological education: the complex, deep and beautiful relation between humans and bees; meliponiculture’s ecological and cultural importance; stingless bees as pollinators par excellence, landscape connectors, and charismatic species; the association of bees with values around work and community; meliponicultures’ symbolic relevance and emotional significance; meliponicultures as promoters of intergenerational dialogue; bee keeping as an activity of caring for the continuity of life; sensory stimulation through contact with colonies; learning through doing in the practice of beekeeping; meliponicultures as an activity requiring skill but no special equipment; and meliponiculture’s productive potential. This confluence of teaching-learning opportunities, cultural and moral values, care for the land and biocultural diversity, and economic potential makes meliponiculture a potent catalyst for agroecological learning and transitions.
... However, ethnographic records show that several other species of the Meliponini tribe (e.g., Scaptotrigona pectoralis, Frieseomelitta nigra, Trigona fulviventris) are harvested in the wild and managed by local communities (Anderson and Medina Tzuc 2005:50;De Jong 1999;Redfield and Villa Rojas 1934). Mixed-species stingless beekeeping was practiced since the Late Formative (400 BCE − 100 CE) and its economic role was more diversified in the prehispanic period than it is today (Paris et al. 2020;Źrałka et al. 2018). The Postclassic period (1200-1450 CE) site of Mayapan specifically yields evidence for four different spheres of production including the intensified production of honey and wax by elites, and evidence of multicraft schemes alongside metallurgical production involving the lost wax method (Paris et al. 2018). ...
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We examine how beekeeping and the production of honey and wax on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula was transformed in the wake of the sixteenth-century Spanish invasion and industrial revolution. Honey and wax produced from stingless bees (Melipona beecheii) were key commodities circulated throughout the prehispanic, colonial, and postcolonial periods. European honeybees (Apis mellifera) were introduced by the late nineteenth century, as demand for honey and wax transformed ecologies, technology, vegetative communities, and beekeeping practices. We compare archaeological, paleoethnobotanical, and soil chemical evidence of an apiary, likely for Apis mellifera, with documentary evidence for mixed species beekeeping at Hacienda San Pedro Cholul, a henequen plantation situated on the outskirts of Mérida.
... Breeding of meliponines in Mesoamerica has existed for more than 2000 years, according to diverse archaeological records. The oldest evidence for meliponiculture are ceramic effigy hobones and solid limestone disks from the Late Formative period or Late Pre-classic (300 BC-AD 100) (Zrałka et al., 2018;Paris et al., 2020). There are also censers, stunning representations of the Mayan God Ah Mucen Kab. ...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Stingless bee breeding, also called Meliponiculture, has existed for thousands of years in Mesoamerica among a variety of rural and indigenous cultures. Due to its biocultural importance, it represents a perfect device for agroecological education and scaling, as well as pollinator conservation. At the same time, promoting agroecological transitions are necessary for conserving the cultural heritage that meliponicultures represent. Methods We organized a series of activities based on this premise: documenting and dialoguing “ saberes contemporáneos ” (contemporary knowledges), design and implementation of community agroecological workshops, guided visits at the institutional Meliponary at ECOSUR Villahermosa and promotion of agroecological and biocultural school gardens, all in Tabasco, México. We used “ diálogo de saberes ” (knowledge dialogues) as a methodological approach, promoting respect for the contribution of the diversity of ontoepistemologies involved. We drew on the ideas of several pedagogues, mainly from popular education and critical pedagogy frameworks. Results and discussion We identified characteristics of stingless bees and meliponicultures that make them excellent mediators for biocultural conservation and agroecological education: the complex, deep and beautiful relation between humans and bees; meliponiculture's ecological and cultural importance; stingless bees as pollinators par excellence, landscape connectors, and charismatic species; the association of bees with values around work and community; meliponicultures' symbolic relevance and emotional significance; meliponicultures as promoters of intergenerational dialogue; bee keeping as an activity of caring for the continuity of life; sensory stimulation through contact with colonies; learning through doing in the practice of beekeeping; meliponicultures as an activity requiring skill but no special equipment; and meliponiculture's productive potential. This confluence of teaching-learning opportunities, cultural and moral values, care for the land and biocultural diversity, and economic potential makes meliponiculture a potent catalyst for agroecological learning and transitions.
... Humans have kept stingless bees and used their products since Millennia. The Mayans, in particular, incorporated meliponiculture in their social, economic, and religious activities (Rosales 2013;Quezada-Euán 2018;Źrałka et al. 2018; Quezada-Euán and Alves 2020). Honey and cerumen, for example, were used for trading with the Aztecs (Quezada-Euán 2018) and for paying taxes to Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century (Jones et al. 2012;Quezada-Euán 2018;Giannini et al. 2020). ...
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Purwanto H, Soesilohadi RCH, Trianto M. 2022. Stingless bees from meliponiculture in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 23: 1254-1266. Kalimantan Island has many species of stingless bees that are widespread throughout the province. However, their morphology, morphometry, and nest structure characteristics have not been documented comprehensively. This paper described the morphological characters, morphometric measurements, nest entrance, and brood cell characteristics of stingless bees from meliponiculture in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. Ten stingless bee species were identified based on their morphological features:. Principal component analysis was performed to identify the grouping characters and thus determine their diagnostic characters. Furthermore, the shape, diameter, length, ornamentation, and color of the nest entrance and the arrangement, cells, and color of brood cells were observed. This study is the first to report high variations in the type of entrance opening and arrangement of brood cells for stingless bee species, which are abundant in South Kalimantan.
... Current understanding of these books suggest that they represent astronomical tables, divinatory and agricultural almanacs (Vail, 2006). The codex residing in Madrid is the longest surviving codex and contains a detailed representation of various activities and rituals related to the keeping, caring and harvesting of beehives as well as an indication of the seasons when such activities should be carried out (Vail, 2006;Źrałka et al., 2018). This codex was very likely written by various priests and it is possible that they were also the people assigned to interpret them (Lacadena, 2000), thus reinforcing the idea that a sacred relationship exists between the bees and the Maya people. ...
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The field of bioaesthetics seeks to understand how modern humans may have first developed art appreciation and is informed by considering a broad range of fields including painting, sculpture, music and the built environment. In recent times there has been a diverse range of art and communication media representing bees, and such work is often linked to growing concerns about potential bee declines due to a variety of factors including natural habitat fragmentation, climate change, and pesticide use in agriculture. We take a broad view of human art representations of bees to ask if the current interest in artistic representations of bees is evidenced throughout history, and in different regions of the world prior to globalisation. We observe from the earliest records of human representations in cave art over 8,000 years old through to ancient Egyptian carvings of bees and hieroglyphics, that humans have had a long-term relationship with bees especially due to the benefits of honey, wax, and crop pollination. The relationship between humans and bees frequently links to religious and spiritual representations in different parts of the world from Australia to Europe, South America and Asia. Art mediums have frequently included the visual and musical, thus showing evidence of being deeply rooted in how different people around the world perceive and relate to bees in nature through creative practice. In modern times, artistic representations extend to installation arts, mixed-media, and the moving image. Through the examination of the diverse inclusion of bees in human culture and art, we show that there are links between the functional benefits of associating with bees, including sourcing sweet-tasting nutritious food that could have acted, we suggest, to condition positive responses in the brain, leading to the development of an aesthetic appreciation of work representing bees.
... de dos tapas o discos de cerámica que fueron elaboradas por medio de un recorte burdo, aprovechando tiestos del cuerpo de lo que probablemente fue una olla del periodo Preclásico. Las medidas de los discos fueron de 17.6 y 17.0 centímetros y las caras de ambos discos conservaron la curvatura del recipiente original (Zralka et al. 2018).6 La evidencia arqueológica, etnohistórica y etnográfica señala que la pieza de Nakun podría tratarse de la colmena más antigua de toda Mesoamérica. ...
... La evidencia arqueológica, etnohistórica y etnográfica señala que la pieza de Nakun podría tratarse de la colmena más antigua de toda Mesoamérica. El objeto podría ser una representación visual de una colmena simbólica, o quizá fue utilizado como tal por los mayas precolombinos (Zralka et al. 2018). ...
... Los discos miden entre 17.6 y 17.0 centímetros(Zralka et al. 2018). Las caras de ambos artefactos conservaron la curvatura del recipiente original, quizá perteneciente al cuerpo de una olla. ...
Chapter
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El capítulo del libro trata sobre las evidencias arqueológicas de artefactos relacionados con las prácticas de reciclaje en el área Maya.
... Also found at the middle Colonial period residential area was evidence for beekeeping in the form of beehive plugs. If the discs served as plugs for beehives kept in logs, then they represent an innovation when compared with published reports of such artifacts (made of stone, ceramic, coral, and wood), due to their stucco and ceramic composition (Bianco et al. 2017;Masson 2000;Paris et al. 2018;Zrałka et al. 2018). ...
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Farmers rarely feature prominently in accounts of Spanish colonialism. When they do, it is often because they assisted in staging rebellions. However, in Yucatán, Mexico, and elsewhere, the vast majority of the population consisted of farmers, who lived in places with long histories. The everyday decisions that they made about how to support the well-being of their households and communities influenced colonial trajectories. This dissertation tracks common farmers’ livelihood strategies at Tahcabo, Yucatán, throughout the Colonial period as a way of understanding how they negotiated colonial impositions and restrictions. The research presented in this dissertation included interviews with current farmers, site survey, and excavation within residential and garden areas. Interviews provided information about the factors that farmers consider as they make agricultural decisions, and in particular how they use and understand dry sinkholes called rejolladas—landscape features often employed as gardens when located within settlements. The results of excavation within the rejolladas of central Tahcabo demonstrated some consistency in their specialized use through time. Excavations also took place at Colonial period residential areas located near the edges of town, where non-elite or recently arrived farmers lived. Colonial policies enacted violence on rural livelihoods, resulting in food insecurity and inadequate resource access. In particular, they worked to narrow and constrict farming households’ activity portfolios, and encouraged dependence on field agriculture. After forcing many farmers from settlements across the countryside to relocate into designated towns, friars demanded that extended family households break apart into nuclear house lots. Nonetheless, excavation results show that, during the early Colonial period, town residents continued to live in extended family groups and pursued diversified livelihood activities, which included extended hunting and fishing trips. Nuclear family house lots were evident by the middle Colonial period. Heavy demands for commodities imposed as quotas for each adult family member led to activity intensification. Farmers responded to colonial violence through both mobility and place-making—strategies which remained in tension throughout the Colonial period. In short, this project provides new insights into the daily lives and livelihood decisions of ordinary families attempting to survive colonialism in Yucatán, Mexico.
Chapter
The tropics and subtropics are home to thousands of different types of bees. One bee group that frequently calls an observer’s attention are the stingless bees or Meliponini. In the Neotropics, for example, about half of all bees that one is likely to see on flowers belongs to this group (Chap. 9). Stingless bees can be smaller than a fruit fly or as large as the giant honey bee Apis dorsata. Like honey bees (Apini), stingless bees live in colonies and produce honey. They are potential pollinators of thousands of plant species and play important roles in human cultures. Like many other animals, stingless bees face new challenges in an increasingly human-modified world, including large-scale habitat loss, the widespread use of agrochemicals, climate change and introduced species, all of which put pressure on stingless bee populations (see Sect. 1.9).