Academic literature on the topic 'Mayan women'

The aim of this study was to find out if nejayote produced at household level in Guatemala represents a threat to aquatic ecosystems and, if so, propose sustainable processing, reuse and disposal methods. First, all aspects related to nejayote production were explored. This study presents combined results from literature study on corn consumption and Guatemalan demography, a survey to Guatemalan women of all ethnical groups, nixtamalization replica and solids removal experiments and laboratory analysis. Findings indicate that the source of nejayote are approximate 600 000 tones of corn nixtamalized yearly by Mayan women from the rural areas of Guatemala to prepare tortillas for a population of about 5 000 000. From this activity approximately 300 000 tones of concentrated nejayote are produced and 800 000 tones of water are polluted yearly. Approximate 63% of these volumes are discharged into water ecosystems without treatment due to lack of knowledge of its potential negative impact or reuse properties. The study was done on nejayote produced at national level, but the isolation of the Mayan population within less than 20% of the national territory, suggests higher punctuality of nejayote discharges. Chemical and physical analyses made to samples from the nixtamalization replica confirmed its similarity to industrial nejayote, which has proven to be highly pollutant due to high content of organic matter from corn grain pericarp and germ. Concentrations ranges from 200 to 300 ppm of nitrogen, 160 to 190 ppm of phosphorus and 25 000 to 28 000 ppm of organic matter make it a potential fertilizer or soil conditioner. Studies indicate that it can be safely reused as supplementary food for chickens and pigs, to prepare additional corn based foods for humans or it could be safely discharged into ponds, wetlands or pits to minimize any environmental impact. Although findings point to nejayote as a potential aquatic ecosystem pollutant, this depends on the capacity of the specific recipient aquatic ecosystem to adsorb and process the nutrients and on the volumes and concentration of nutrients of the nejayote discharged that might vary from household to household. However, the nutrient rich nejayote can be seen as a potential resource, instead of a pollutant, to improve the nutritional, social and economical conditions of the Mayan populations. Specially women, an isolated segment of society that lacks opportunities and who, according to findings of this study, start processing corn into tortillas from early childhood and continue throughout all their lifetime without any benefit on return.

This thesis is a research-based analysis of the experiences of Mayan women and children during the peak years of the Guatemalan Civil War. The paper has two main goals: first, to establish if the brutality used on the part of the Guatemalan army constitutes genocide, and second, to understand why women and children were specifically targeted during the seemingly indiscriminate violence. The research used for this paper includes sources from numerous fields of study, including psychology, political science, sociology, anthropology, and history. The purpose of this is to provide an interdisciplinary approach to the topic, in the hopes of examining all sides of such a complex issue. Possible implications of this work are an increased awareness on the part of the reader of the situation in which Mayan women and their children find themselves, and the possibility that more social scientists will choose to conduct their research in the Guatemalan altiplano to gain more information and insight into the lives of the Mayan people.

<p>Between April 1997 and November 1999, I followed eight socially excluded female drug users in an attempt to describe their lives and living conditions. The study employs an ethnographic approach with the focus being directed at the specific woman and her life in relation to the social context where this life is lived.</p><p>The study’s objective has been to describe the lives and living conditions of the eight drug-using women, as well as the extent of the opportunities available to them, as being determined by mechanisms of social exclusion. Their lives are understood on the basis of a feminist and social constructionist perspective where perceptions of ‘the drug-abusing woman’ are regarded as the result of constructions of gender and deviance. The theoretical perspectives proceeds from the idea that one is not born a woman but rather becomes one. The fundamental idea is that women become women by means of processes of femininisation, in the context of which certain ways of interpreting and presenting oneself as a woman are regarded as good and others as bad. Our images of ‘the female drug addict’ are based on how we define and interpret deviance and on the cultural and social thought and behaviour patterns we ascribe to people on the basis of bodily differences. It is images of ‘the good woman’ that defines what we regard as characteristic of ‘the bad woman’ and vice versa.</p><p>The findings are organised into three main topics: femininity, living conditions and social control. The main findings are: The women described themselves as women by relating to normative messages about how women “are and should be”, and their drug use constituted a means of coping with life from their social position. Their life revolved to a large extent around money via a constant struggle to find enough to cover the rent, food and other basic necessities. And finally, how the women’s relations to societal institutions were formed by their social position as ‘female drug addicts’ and how the asymmetry of these relations produced certain fixed patterns of action for the parties involved.</p>