As part of our Centennial celebration, the Middle American Research Institute started a project to make some of its publications available in digital format at no cost. We start with Tribes and Temples by Frans Blom and Oliver La Farge, the Institute's first publication, which came out in 1926. Many of our early publications are out of print. However, some sections of these books may be available as reprints. If you are interested in purchasing a physical copy of M.A.R.I.’s books, visit our store.
Tribes and Temples
Frans Blom & Oliver La Farge
A narrative of the authors' expedition into Mesoamerica based on their daily journals. It includes a study by Blom of the geography and archaeology of the Maya area, and La Farge's description of the customs and language of the present-day Maya. Volume 1 takes them from New Orleans to Veracruz and the Mexican Gulf Coast, including the first account of the Olmec site of La Venta, and then through Chiapas and Palenque. Volume 2 starts in Chiapas and takes the authors through the Tzetzal area and into the Chuchuimatanes, Guatemala.
Date: 1926
2 volumes; 551 pages; 374 figures
ISBN 0-939238-02-0
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The Year Bearer's People
Oliver La Farge II & Douglas Byers
A volume about the Third Tulane University Expedition to Middle America. Oliver La Farge II in charge, with assistants Douglas Byers and Jose Maria Hernandez. The territory of the Year Bearer's People centered on the Guatemala-Mexico border. Includes a detailed study of the daily life and ceremonies of the Indigenous communities from Jacaltenango, in the Guatemalan highlands.
Date: 1931
380 pages, 79 figures, 2 color plates
ISBN 0-939238-04-7
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The Ethnobotany of the Maya
Ralph L. Roys
This book contains translations of Maya medical recipes, together with a classification of the herbs, trees, and animals used, which were recorded in documents written in the Maya language, but in European script, shortly after the Conquest (Libro del Judío).
Date: 1931
359 pages
ISBN 0-939238-03-9
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