Maternal short stature does not predict their children's fatness indicators in a nutritional dual‐burden sample of urban Mexican Maya

The co‐existence of very short stature due to poor chronic environment in early life and obesity is becoming a public health concern in rapidly transitioning populations with high levels of poverty. Individuals who have very short stature seem to be at an increased risk of obesity in times of relative caloric abundance. Increasing evidence shows that an individual is influenced by exposures in previous generations. This study assesses whether maternal poor early life environment predicts her child's adiposity using cross sectional design on Maya schoolchildren aged 7–9 and their mothers (n = 57 pairs). We compared maternal chronic early life environment (stature) with her child's adiposity (body mass index [BMI] z‐score, waist circumference z‐score, and percentage body fat) using multiple linear regression, controlling for the child's own environmental exposures (household sanitation and maternal parity). The research was performed in the south of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, a low socioeconomic urban area in an upper middle income country. The Maya mothers were very short, with a mean stature of 147 cm. The children had fairly high adiposity levels, with BMI and waist circumference z‐scores above the reference median. Maternal stature did not significantly predict any child adiposity indicator. There does not appear to be an intergenerational component of maternal early life chronic under‐nutrition on her child's obesity risk within this free living population living in poverty. These results suggest that the co‐existence of very short stature and obesity appears to be primarily due to exposures and experiences within a generation rather than across generations. Am J Phys Anthropol 153:627–634, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Differences in nutritional status between rural and urban Yucatec Maya children: The importance of early life conditions

Early-life conditions shape childhood growth and are affected by urbanization and the nutritional transition. To investigate how early-life conditions (across the “first” and “second” 1000 days) are associated with rural and urban children's nutritional status, we analyzed anthropometric data from Maya children in Yucatan, Mexico. We collected weight, height and triceps skinfold measures, then computed body mass and fat mass indices (BMI/FMI), in a cross-sectional sample of 6-year-olds (urban n = 72, rural n = 66). Demographic, socioeconomic and early-life variables (birthweight/mode, rural/urban residence, household crowding) were collected by maternal interview. We statistically analyzed rural-urban differences in demographic, socioeconomic, early-life, and anthropometric variables, then created linear mixed models to evaluate associations between early-life variables and child anthropometric outcomes. Two-way interactions were tested between early-life variables and child sex, and between early-life variables and rural-urban residence. Results showed that rural children were shorter-statured, with lower overweight/obesity and cesarean delivery rates, compared to urban children. Household crowding was a negative predictor of anthropometric outcomes; the strongest effect was in boys and in urban children. Birthweight positively predicted anthropometric outcomes, especially weight/BMI. Birth mode was positively (not statistically) associated with any anthropometric outcome. Cesarean delivery was more common in boys than in girls, and predicted increased height in urban boys. In conclusion, urbanization and household crowding were the most powerful predictors of Maya 6-year-old anthropometry. The negative effects of crowding may disproportionately affect Maya boys versus girls and urban versus rural children. Early-life conditions shape Maya children's nutritional status both in the “first” and “second” 1000 days.     

Living conditions and growth of maya indian and non-maya boys from yucatan in 1993 in comparison with other studies

The purpose of this study was to characterize the biological status and living conditions of boys inhabiting the northern part of Merida. Studies were conduoted in summer 1993, in several secondary schools in the northern part of the Merida, capitol of Yucatan, Mexico. The material consisted of biological measurements of 497 boys aged from 12 to 17 years. Also parents of these children were interviewed. Mothers (497) aged from 28 to 60 years (40 on the average) and fathers (495) aged from 30 to 62 years. Values of biological characteristics were calculated for the whole material, and also separately for the families in which both parents were Maya Indians, Non-Mayas and mixed. The differences between Mixed and Non-Mayas were distinct in stature, trunk length, upper extremity length, head length, head circumference, hips breadth index, cephalic and frontal indices, thus, mainly in body size and the head and face form. Differences between Mayas and Non-Mayas were distinct in the most measures: direct measurements ofbody weight and height, trunk and both extremities length, shoulder breadth, head length, face and nose breadth, head, waist and hips circumferences (which did not show differences between two other groups as a direct measure) and triceps skinfold thickness. The differences were also found in some indices (cephalic, frontal and face) and this probably has a non-adaptive character. The difFerences in other body proportions, which could be rather easy adjustable in the meaning on ontogenetic development were not found. The constitutional differences were observed in stature, arm fatfold and hip breadth. Body proportions were under the strong influence of living conditions and this probably caused the lack of difFerences between 3 ethnic groups. The contemporary Maya boys in comparison with the Steggerda data (1941) were on average 10 cm taller, more plumb by 10 units of BMI, and had more rounded heads. Head, which is under a strong genetic control and has more conservative character showed differences between Maya and Mixed groups versus Non-Mayas.     

Secular trend for stature in adult male Yucatec Maya to 1968

Statures for 64 adult male Yucatec Maya (18+ years old, sons of campesinos) were measured in 1968 and compared with mean statures presented in results for previous studies. There were no significant changes in mean stature since 1895. If the sample is divided into 5-year age groups, no secular trend is evident. Using osteological information from as early as the Late Preclassic, stature of adult Maya males has decreased 119 mm in a little more than 20 centuries (?0.06 cm/decade). Comparing the results with measurements from other Mesoamerican groups, only one – the Otomí – show evidence of significant secular change. It is possible that modern economic development schemes in Mesoamerica are too recent or ineffective to have had an effect on stature.     

Lack of age-related increase in average glycemia in a non-Westernized sample of rural Yucatec Maya females

Age-related decline in glucose processing and the associated progressively higher circulating glucose levels are considered well-established biological aging phenomena. However, their occurrence in non-Westernized populations characterized by less mechanization and dietary processing has not been well-studied. This research extends evaluation of lifestyle conditions of diet and physical activity beyond those of Westernized areas and examines aging patterns in blood glucose among rural Yucatec Maya. The purpose is to investigate whether deteriorating glucose processing is intrinsic to human aging, while controlling for body composition in a non-Westernized setting. Data were gathered from 60 nondiabetic Maya women, 40-85 years of age, living in 16 rural villages around Merida, Yucatan. Information regarding personal history, diet, and physical activity was collected through interviews. Body composition was assessed through anthropometric and derived indicators of body size, fat distribution, body mass index, intra-abdominal fat, and total fat and fat-free masses. Glycemia was measured through microvenous samples analyzed for glycated hemoglobin (HbA(1c)) and fructosamine, to demonstrate average circulating glucose under customary living conditions. As indicated by glycation, average glycemia is not higher in older Maya females (age group F for HbA(1c) = 0.88, P > 0.05; age group F for fructosamine = 0.38, P > 0.05). Further, correlations between age and HbA(1c) (r = -0.13, P > 0.05) and fructosamine (r = -0.10, P > 0.05) are negative and not significant. The absence of significant, positive age associations with HbA(1c) and fructosamine persists when effects of body composition are taken into account. Thus, decline in glucose regulation does not appear to be a feature of aging in this non-Westernized sample, suggesting that age-related deterioration in glucose processing is not universal among human populations. Results suggest that relationships of age with glycemia are linked to lifestyle differences.     

Mobility and Navigation among the Yucatec Maya

Sex differences in range size and navigation are widely reported, with males traveling farther than females, being less spatially anxious, and in many studies navigating more effectively. One explanation holds that these differences are the result of sexual selection, with larger ranges conferring mating benefits on males, while another explanation focuses on greater parenting costs that large ranges impose on reproductive-aged females. We evaluated these arguments with data from a community of highly monogamous Maya farmers. Maya men and women do not differ in distance traveled over the region during the mate-seeking years, suggesting that mating competition does not affect range size in this monogamous population. However, men’s regional and daily travel increases after marriage, apparently in pursuit of resources that benefit families, whereas women reduce their daily travel after marriage. This suggests that parental effort is more important than mating effort in this population. Despite the relatively modest overall sex difference in mobility, Maya men were less spatially anxious than women, thought themselves to be better navigators, and pointed more accurately to distant locations. A structural equation model showed that the sex by marital status interaction had a direct effect on mobility, with a weaker indirect effect of sex on mobility mediated by navigational ability.     

Plasticity,political economy,and physical growth status of Guatemala Maya children living in the United States

Migration of Maya refugees to the United States since the late 1970s affords the opportunity to study the consequences of life in a new environment on the growth of Maya children. The children of this study live in Indiantown, Florida, and Los Angeles, California. Maya children between 4 and 14 years old (n = 240) were measured for height, weight, fatness, and muscularity. Overall, compared with reference data for the United States, the Maya children are, on average, healthy and well nourished. They are taller and heavier and carry more fat and muscle mass than Maya children living in a village in Guatemala. However, they are shorter, on average, than children of black, Mexican-American, and white ethnicity living in Indiantown. Children of Maya immigrants born in the United States tend to be taller than immigrant children born in Guatemala or Mexico. Families that invest economic and social resources in their children tend to have taller children. More economically successful families have taller children. Migration theory and political economy theory from the social sciences are combined with plasticity theory and life history theory (parental investment) from biology to interpret these data. Am J Phys Anthropol 102:17–32, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Delineating genetic relationships among the Maya

By 250 AD, the Classic Maya had become the most advanced civilization within the New World, possessing the only well-developed hieroglyphic writing system of the time and an advanced knowledge of mathematics, astronomy and architecture. Though only ruins of the empire remain, 7.5 million Mayan descendants still occupy areas of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. Although they inhabit distant and distinct territories, speak more than 28 languages, and have been historically divided by warfare and a city-state-like political system, and they share characteristics such as rituals, artistic, architectural motifs that distinguish them as unequivocally Maya. This study was undertaken to determine whether these similarities among Mayan communities mirror genetic affinities or are merely a reflection of their common culture. Four Mayan populations were investigated (i.e., the K'iche and Kakchikel from Guatemala and the Campeche and Yucatan from Mexico) and compared with previously published populations across 15 autosomal STR loci. As a whole, the Maya emerge as a distinct group within Mesoamerica, indicating that they are more similar to each other than to other Mesoamerican groups. The data suggest that although geographic and political boundaries existed among Mayan communities, genetic exchanges between the different Mayan groups have occurred, supporting theories of extensive trading throughout the empire.     

Trophic level and macronutrient shift effects associated with the weaning process in the Postclassic Maya

The weaning process was investigated at two Maya sites dominated by Postclassic remains: Marco Gonzalez (100 BC-AD 1350) and San Pedro (1400-AD 1650), Belize. Bone collagen and bioapatite were analyzed from 67 individuals (n < or = 6 years = 15, n > 6 years = 52). Five isotopic measures were used to reconstruct diet and weaning: stable nitrogen- and carbon-isotope ratios in collagen, stable carbon- and oxygen-isotope ratios in bioapatite, and the difference in stable carbon-isotope values of coexisting collagen and bioapatite. Nitrogen-isotope ratios in infant collagen from both sites are distinct from adult females, indicating a trophic level effect. Collagen-to-bioapatite differences in infant bone from both sites are distinct from adult females, indicating a shift in macronutrients. Oxygen-isotope ratios in infant bioapatite from both sites are also distinct from adult females, indicating the consumption of breast milk. Among infants, carbon- and nitrogen-isotope ratios vary, indicating death during different stages in the weaning process. The ethnohistoric and paleopathological literature on the Maya indicate cessation of breast-feeding between ages 3-4 years. Isotopic data from Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro also indicate an average weaning age of 3-4 years. Based on various isotopic indicators, weaning likely began around age 12 months. This data set is not only important for understanding the weaning process during the Postclassic, but also demonstrates the use of collagen-to-bioapatite spacing as an indicator of macronutrient shifts associated with weaning.     

Bioarchaeological investigation of ancient Maya violence and warfare in inland northwest Yucatan,Mexico

This study investigates evidence of changes and continuities in ancient Maya violence and warfare in inland northwest Yucatan, Mexico from the Middle Preclassic (600–300 BC) to the Postclassic (AD 1050–1542) through bioarchaeological analysis of cranial and projectile trauma. It is hypothesized that the frequency of violence increases before the Classic Maya collapse and remains high during the Postclassic period. It is also hypothesized that the flat, open terrain was conducive to warfare and resulted in higher trauma frequencies than in other parts of the Maya area. Results show that the frequency of cranial trauma decreases before the Classic collapse and increases in the Postclassic, partially matching the expected chronological trends. The frequency of cranial trauma does not differ significantly from other Maya regions but the pattern does: for all periods, males have more healed injuries than females and they are concentrated on the left side of the anterior of the skull. Some injuries appear to be from small points hafted in wooden clubs. In addition, projectile trauma is evident in a scapula with an embedded arrowhead tip, the first such case reported in a Maya skeleton. Overall, these results suggest greater reliance on open combat and less on raids in this region compared with other parts of the Maya area, possibly due to the flat, open terrain, though the identification of perimortem trauma in both women and men indicates surprise raids on settlements were also practiced. Am J Phys Anthropol 154:140–151, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Population structure of the Classic period Maya

This study examines the population structure of Classic period (A.D. 250-900) Maya populations through analysis of odontometric variation of 827 skeletons from 12 archaeological sites in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. The hypothesis that isolation by distance characterized Classic period Maya population structure is tested using Relethford and Blangero's (Hum Biol 62 (1990) 5-25) approach to R matrix analysis for quantitative traits. These results provide important biological data for understanding ancient Maya population history, particularly the effects of the competing Tikal and Calakmul hegemonies on patterns of lowland Maya site interaction. An overall F(ST) of 0.018 is found for the Maya area, indicating little among-group variation for the Classic Maya sites tested. Principal coordinates plots derived from the R matrix analysis show little regional patterning in the data, though the geographic outliers of Kaminaljuyu and a pooled Pacific Coast sample did not cluster with the lowland Maya sites. Mantel tests comparing the biological distance matrix to a geographic distance matrix found no association between genetic and geographic distance. In the Relethford-Blangero analysis, most sites possess negative or near-zero residuals, indicating minimal extraregional gene flow. The exceptions were Barton Ramie, Kaminaljuyu, and Seibal. A scaled R matrix analysis clarifies that genetic drift is a consideration for understanding Classic Maya population structure. All results indicate that isolation by distance does not describe Classic period Maya population structure.     

Organic/inorganic complex pigments: ancient colors Maya Blue

Maya Blue is an ancient blue pigment composed of palygorskite clay and indigo. It was used by the ancient Maya and provides a dramatic background for some of the most impressive murals throughout Mesoamerica. Despite exposure to acids, alkalis, and chemical solvents, the color of the Maya Blue pigment remains unaltered. The chemical interaction between palygorskite and indigo form an organic/inorganic complex with the carbonyl oxygen of the indigo bound to a surface Al(3+) in the Si-O lattice. In addition indigo will undergo an oxidation to dehydroindigo during preparation. The dehydro-indigo molecule forms a similar but stronger complex with the Al(3+). Thus, Maya Blue varies in color due to the mixed indigo/dehydroindigo complex. The above conclusions are the result of application of multiple techniques (X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis/thermal gravimetric analysis, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, infrared and Raman spectroscopy) to the characterization of the organic/inorganic complex. A picture of the bonding of the organic molecule to the palygorskite surface forming a surface complex is developed and supported by the results of density functional theory calculations. We also report that other organic molecules such as thioindigo form similar organic/inorganic complexes thus, opening an entirely new class of complex materials for future applications.     

Ritual responses to drought: An examination of ritual expressions in Classic Maya written sources

Planting and rain-beckoning rituals are an extremely common way in which past and present human communities have confronted the risk of drought across a range of environments worldwide. In tropical environments, such ceremonies are particularly salient despite widespread assumptions that water supplies are unproblematic in such regions. We demonstrate for the first time that two common but previously under-appreciated Maya rituals are likely planting and rain-beckoning rituals preferentially performed at certain times of the year in close step with the rainy season and the Maya agricultural cycle. We also argue for considerable historical continuity between these Classic Maya ceremonies and later Maya community rituals still performed in times of uncertain weather conditions up to the present day across Guatemala, Belize, and eastern Mexico. During the Terminal Classic period (AD 800-900), the changing role played by ancient Maya drought-related rituals fits into a wider rhetorical shift observed in Maya texts away from the more characteristic focus on royal births, enthronements, marriages, and wars towards greater emphasis on the correct perpetuation of key ceremonies, and we argue that such changes are consistent with palaeoclimatic evidence for a period of diminished precipitation and recurrent drought.     

Maya Zapatistas Move to the Ancient Future

This essay assesses recent events pertaining to the Maya Zapatista movement in light of the Mesoamerican past and present. Persistent patterns of Maya world construction, group and personal identity, and political legitimacy form the conceptual core of the movement, expressing themes that have been well documented for some 2,000 years in Maya cultural history. The essay concludes with suggestions as to the new forms that pan-Maya ethnic affirmation may assume in the multiethnic configuration of Mexico and Guatemala in the 21st century.     

The causes and consequences of deforestation among the prehistoric Maya

The collapse of the Classic Maya state is investigated from an ecological perspective. Settlement and palynological data from the Maya center of Copan, Honduras, are presented which indicate that substantial clearing of the upland pine forest had occurred prior to and during the abandonment of that urban center. A comparative use- rate analysis suggests that the increased clearing of pine was primarily caused by demands for domestic fuel wood by an expanding urban population. This forest mismanagement is directly linked to accelerated erosion rates which are considered primary elements in the collapse of the Maya state.     

Earliest Mexican Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in the Maya Region: Implications for Pre-Hispanic Animal Trade and the Timing of Turkey Domestication

Late Preclassic (300 BC-AD 100) turkey remains identified at the archaeological site of El Mirador (Petén, Guatemala) represent the earliest evidence of the Mexican turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) in the ancient Maya world. Archaeological, zooarchaeological, and ancient DNA evidence combine to confirm the identification and context. The natural pre-Hispanic range of the Mexican turkey does not extend south of central Mexico, making the species non-local to the Maya area where another species, the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata), is indigenous. Prior to this discovery, the earliest evidence of M. gallopavo in the Maya area dated to approximately one thousand years later. The El Mirador specimens therefore represent previously unrecorded Preclassic exchange of animals from northern Mesoamerica to the Maya cultural region. As the earliest evidence of M. gallopavo found outside its natural geographic range, the El Mirador turkeys also represent the earliest indirect evidence for Mesoamerican turkey rearing or domestication. The presence of male, female and sub-adult turkeys, and reduced flight morphology further suggests that the El Mirador turkeys were raised in captivity. This supports an argument for the origins of turkey husbandry or at least captive rearing in the Preclassic.     

Assessing the impact of ancient Maya animal use

Tropical forest animals are at high risk worldwide as a result of over-exploitation and forest clearing. Zooarchaeological studies of animal use by the ancient Maya of the southern lowland regions of Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and Mexico provide long-term historical information on animal populations under conditions of human population growth and climatic change that is valuable to both archaeology and conservation biology. In this paper, zooarchaeological data from 35 chronologically defined faunal sub-samples recovered from 25 ancient Maya archaeological sites are used to assess the effects of ancient hunting on animal populations of the Maya region between the Preclassic and Colonial periods (2000 BC–AD 1697). The variations in species abundance are used as a proxy for describing changes in ancient Maya hunting practices and hunted animal populations, interpreted on the basis of hunting efficiency models from foraging ecology. A significant reduction in the proportion of large mammals, particularly Odocoileus virginianus, in zooarchaeological assemblages between the Late Classic (AD 600–850) and Terminal Classic/Postclassic periods (AD 850–1519) suggest that over-hunting during the Late Classic may have led to a reduction in availability of these animals to the ancient Maya hunters in the later periods. This finding is discussed in relation to important social and environmental variations to evaluate the impact of hunting and other factors such as forest clearance and climate on ancient animal populations in the Maya region.     

Classic Maya State, Urbanism, and Exchange: Chipped Stone Evidence of the Copán Valley and Its Hinterland

In this article I use quantitative data from 91,916 pieces of chipped stone artifacts from the Copán Valley and its hinterland in Honduras to understand better the nature and role of exchange in the development of a Classic Maya state-level society. The results of this study suggest that intraregional exchange was more crucial for state development than was longdistance exchange. The management of procurement and exchange of utilitarian commodities, such as Ixtepeque obsidian blade cores, along with other factors, played a significant role in the development of the Copán state. In contrast to other major Maya lowland states, the Copán state directly obtained obsidian blade cores from nearby sources, distributed them to local leaders at Copán, and exported them to local rulers in neighboring regions. In this sense, the Classic Copán state maintained a centralized and integrated political and economic organization based on far more than kinship, ideology, and ritual, [exchange, complex society, urbanism, Classic Maya state]     

Founding Amerindian mitochondrial DNA lineages in ancient Maya from Xcaret, Quintana Roo

Ancient DNA from the bone remains of 25 out of 28 pre-Columbian individuals from the Late Classic-Postclassic Maya site of Xcaret, Quintana Roo, was recovered, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was amplified by using the polymerase chain reaction. The presence of the four founding Amerindian mtDNA lineages was investigated by restriction analysis and by direct sequencing in selected individuals. The mtDNA lineages A, B, and C were found in this population. Eighty-four percent of the individuals were lineage A, whereas lineages B and C were present at low frequencies, 4% and 8%, respectively. Lineage D was absent from our sample. One individual did not possess any of the four lineages. Six skeletons out of 7 dated from the Late Classic period were haplotype A, whereas 11 skeletons out of 16 dated from the Postclassic period were also haplotype A. The distribution of mtDNA lineages in the Xcaret population contrasts sharply with that found in ancient Maya from Copán, which lack lineages A and B. On the other hand, our results resemble more closely the frequencies of mtDNA lineages found in contemporary Maya from the Yucatán Peninsula and in other Native American contemporary populations of Mesoamerican origin.