Bridging prehistory and history in the archaeology of cities

Archaeology is ideally suited for examining the deep roots of urbanism, its materialization and physicality, and the commonalities and variability in urban experiences cross-culturally and temporally. We propose that the significant advances archaeologists have made in situating the discipline within broader urban studies could be furthered through increased dialog between scholars working on urbanism during prehistoric and historical periods, as a means of bridging concerns in the study of the past and present. We review some major themes in urban studies by presenting archaeological cases from two areas of the Americas: central Mexico and Atlantic North America. Our cases span premodern and early modern periods, and three of the four covered in greatest depth live on as cities of today. Comparison of the cases highlights the complementarity of their primary datasets: the long developmental trajectories and relatively intact urban plans offered by many prehistoric cities, and the rich documentary sources offered by historic cities

Considering Democracy An \u27Unrealistic\u27 Alternative : The Results of the 1954 American Intervention in Guatemala

Guatemalan political elites have traditionally resorted to violence and repression in order to suppress social reform movements. In 1944, a group of middle-class reformers, including army captain Jacobo Arbenz, spearheaded a revolution that replaced dictator Jorge Ubico and began instituting genuine democratic reforms. The new civilian president, Juan Arevalo, sponsored new economic and political reforms intended to benefit the rural poor that constituted two-thirds of the Guatemalan population. Six years later, the revolution continued with the election of Arbenz, who promised to continue the efforts of his predecessor. However, U.S. officials, viewing developments in Guatemala through a Cold War prism, came to see Arbenz as a communist subjugating Guatemala and turning it into a Soviet proxy state. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his advisors responded by approving and implementing a Central Intelligence Agency plan to overthrow Arbenz and replace him with a counter-revolutionary leader, Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas. This paper examines the results of the 1954 American intervention, why it ultimately failed and why historians have come to view it as a mistake. It is based on relevant secondary literature and original U.S. government sources, including Department of State and Central Intelligence Agency telegrams, correspondence and National Intelligence Estimates

Landing Bananas: Food and Mobility in U.S. Depictions of Fruit

In 1870, an illustration entitled “Landing Bananas” appeared in the popular U.S. magazine Harper’s Weekly. The illustration shows piles of banana on a waterfront dock in New York City, attracting the attention of eager customers. This illustration documented the increasing mobility of bananas, which were imported to the United States from Central America and the Caribbean with the help of refrigeration and icebox technologies in the late-nineteenth century. The illustration also reflected the banana’s reputation at the time as an “immigrant” in the United States and a settler “landing” on the shores of “the New World.” While many images helped naturalize the banana in American landscapes and homes, these pictures also disguised the horrific exploitation of land and people that came at the expense of importing the banana to the United States. This presentation uses the banana as a case study for analyzing the complex relationship between art, food, and mobility. In fusing together methodologies from Food Studies, Art History, and Material Culture disciplines, this paper urges scholars to more seriously consider how art mobilizes political messages through food

The Black Bear Undergraduate History Journal

Inaugural Black Bear Undergraduate History Journal. This publication is an initiative of UMaine History graduate students, including Dylan O’Hara, PhD student and chief editor, intended to highlight some of the strongest undergraduate essays from the academic year

Women under Attack: Violence and Poverty in Guatemala

In 2009 Guatemalan women experienced the highest level of violence in Latin America and one of the highest in the world, and death rates have continued to increase in 2010. At the core of the issue are two major problems: pervasive poverty and legal exclusion. In turn, these two issues are closely connected since legal/judicial exclusion is a consequence of poverty. This paper aims to analyze the question of violence against women in Guatemala, to discuss women’s limited political, legal and economic rights, as well as the policies pursued since the end of Guatemala’s civil war to deal with the violence. The fact that crimes against women have not declined, but in fact are on the rise points to the ineffective nature of the existing polices, and the need to make a larger investment in antipoverty and other socioeconomic policies geared to increase women’s economic self-sufficiency