Author: Zvi Bekerman File Type: pdf Migrants and minorities are always at risk of being caught in essentialized cultural definitions and being denied the right to express their cultural preferences because they are perceived as threats to social cohesion. Migrants and minorities respond to these difficulties in multiple ways as active agents in the pedagogical, political, social, and scientific processes that position them in this or that cultural sphere. On the one hand, they reject ascribed cultural attributes while striving towards integration in a variety of social spheres, e.g. school and workplace, in order to achieve social mobility. On the other hand, they articulate demands for cultural self-determination. This discursive duality is met with suspicion by the majority culture. For societies with high levels of migration or with substantial minority cultures, questions related to the meaning of cultural heterogeneity and the social and cultural limits of learning and communication (e.g. migration education or critical multiculturalism) are very important. It is precisely here where the chances for new beginnings and new trials become of great importance for educational theorizing, which urgently needs to find answers to current questions about individual freedom, communitycultural affiliations, and social and democratic cohesion. Answers to these questions must account for both political and learning perspectives at the macro, mezzo, and micro contextual levels. The contributions of this edited volume enhance the knowledge in the field of migrantminority education, with a special emphasis on the meaning of culture and social learning for educational processes.From the Back CoverMigrants and minorities are always at risk of being caught in essentialized cultural definitions and being denied the right to express their cultural preferences because they are perceived as threats to social cohesion. Migrants and minorities respond to these difficulties in multiple ways as active agents in the pedagogical, political, social, and scientific processes that position them in this or that cultural sphere. On the one hand, they reject ascribed cultural attributes while striving towards integration in a variety of social spheres, e.g. school and workplace, in order to achieve social mobility. On the other hand, they articulate demands for cultural self-determination. This discursive duality is met with suspicion by the majority culture. For societies with high levels of migration or with substantial minority cultures, questions related to the meaning of cultural heterogeneity and the social and cultural limits of learning and communication (e.g. migration education or critical multiculturalism) are very important. It is precisely here where the chances for new beginnings and new trials become of great importance for educational theorizing, which urgently needs to find answers to current questions about individual freedom, communitycultural affiliations, and social and democratic cohesion. Answers to these questions must account for both political and learning perspectives at the macro, mezzo, and micro contextual levels. The contributions of this edited volume enhance the knowledge in the field of migrantminority education, with a special emphasis on the meaning of culture and social learning for educational processes. About the AuthorZvi Bekerman, teaches anthropology of education at the School of Education and the Melton Center, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 2003 to 2007 he was a Research Fellow at the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University. His main interests are in the study of cultural, ethnic and national identity, including identity processes and negotiation during intercultural encounters and in formalinformal learning contexts. Since 1999 he has been conducting, with the support of the Ford, Spencer and Bernard Van Leer Foundations, a long term ethnographic research project on the integratedbilingual Palestinian-Jewish schools in Israel. He has also recently become involved in the study of identity construction and development in educational computer-mediated environments. In brief, his interests lie in human learning processes, their development and practice, both in formalinformal and realvirtual environments processes which, from the socio-historical perspectives within which he has been raised and from which he continues to learn, comprise a large portion of human activity. He has published numerous papers in these fields of study and is the editor (with Seonaigh MacPherson) of the refereed journal Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education An International Journal (Taylor & Francis, 2007). His recently published books include (edited with Nicholas Burbules and Diana Keller Silverman) Learning in Places The Informal Education Reader (Peter Lang, 2006) (with Claire McGlynn) Addressing Ethnic Conflict through Peace Education International Perspectives (Palgrave McMillan, 2007) (with Ezra Kopelowitz) Cultural Education-Cultural Sustainability Minority, Diaspora, Indigenous and Ethno-Religious Groups in Multicultural Societies (Routledge Education LEA, 2008) and (with Diana Silberman-Keller, Henry A. Giroux, and Nicholas Burbules) Mirror Images Popular Culture and Education (Peter Lang 2008). Thomas Geisen,is senior lecturer and researcherat the School of Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. His maininterests are in the study of migration, ethnicity and cultural issues as well as in questions of identity and belonging. Other fields of interest and research are worklabor relations and violence. His research encompasses racism,migrant families, family relations of right-wing youth and disability management. He has published numerousbooks andpapers in these fields among his recent publications areArbeit und Subjektwerdung in der Moderne.Eindialogue imaginaire zwischen Karl Marx und Hannah Arendt (VS Verlag, 2011) (edited with Henry Harder) Disability Management and Workplace Integration (Gower, 2011)(edited with Pat Cox and Roger Green) Qualitative Research and Social Change. European Contexts (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) (edited with Anthony Andrew Hickey and Allen Karcher) Migration, Mobility and Borders. Issues of Theory and Policy (IKO Verlag, 2004) (edited with Christine Riegel) Jugend, Partizipation und Migration. Orientierungen im Kontext von Integration und Ausgrenzung (VS Verlag, 2007) and Jugend, Zugehorigkeit und Migration. Subjektpositionierungen im Kontext von Jugendkultur, Ethnizitats- und Geschlechterkonstruktionen (VS Verlag, 2007) edited Arbeitsmigration. WanderarbeiterInnen auf dem Weltmarkt fur Arbeitskraft (IKO Verlag, 2005).

Author: Prudence M. Rice File Type: epub Historical and Archaeological Perspectives on the Itzas of Peten, Guatemalais the first exhaustively detailed and thorough account of the Itzasa Maya group that dominated much of the western lowland area of tropical forest, swamps, and grasslands in Peten, Guatemala. Examining archaeological and historical evidence, Prudence Rice and Don Rice present a theoretical perspective on the Itzas origins and an overview of the social,political, linguistic, and environmental history of the area explain the Spanish view of the Itzas during the Conquest and explore the material culture of the Itzas as it has been revealed in recent surveys and excavations. The long but fragmented history of the Peten Itzas requires investigation across multiple periods and regions. Chapters in this six-part overview interweave varying data pertaining to this grouparchaeological, artifactual, indigenous textual, Spanish historicalfrom multiple languages and academic fields, such as anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, ecology, and history. Part I introduces the lowland Itzas, northern and southern, with an emphasis on those of the central Peten lakes area. Part II discusses general Itza origins and identities in the Epiclassic period, while part III reviews Spanish perceptions and misconceptions of the Peten Itzas in their Contact-period writings. With these temporal anchors, parts IV and V present the archaeology and artifacts of the Peten Itzas, including pottery, architecture, and arrow points, from varied sites and excavations but primarily focusing on the island capital of TayzaNojpeten. Part VI summarizes key data and themes of the preceding chapters for a new understanding of the Peten Itzas. A companion volume toThe Kowoja similar treatment of the Peten Itzas regional neighborsHistorical and Archaeological Perspectives on the Itzas of Peten, Guatemalademonstrates the unique physical, cultural, and social framework that was home to the Peten Itza, along with their backstory in northern Yucatan. Archaeologists, historians, art historians, and geographerswhospecialize in the Mayaand the Postclassic, Contact, and Colonial periods will find this book of particular interest. Contributors Mark Brenner, Leslie G. Cecil, Charles Andrew Hofling, Nathan J. Meissner, Timothy W. Pugh, Yuko Shiratori **