Este artículo tiene como objetivo analizar las representaciones discursivas de “las yucatecas” presentes en el periódico literario el Museo Yucateco (1841–1842), como parte de las ficciones fundacionales de la identidad yucateca que fueron configuradas por la élite criolla de Yucatán, cuanto esta entidad era independiente de la nación mexicana a mediados del siglo XIX. Se observará que esta construcción de la identidad regional se basa en un discurso nacionalista apropiado por la ideología regionalista y que posee en una estructura patriarcal de carácter binario, la cual imagina las identidades políticas de modo iconizado (lo público y lo privado) y modela el poder del sujeto masculino sobre el femenino como parte de su búsqueda de una hegemonía política y simbólica.

The regulatory framework of the red octopus (Octopus maya) fishery includes total allowable catches (TAC), which are based on studies conducted on the population that occurs in shallow waters. In fact, most of the biological studies of this species refer to the fraction of the population that occupies waters less than 30 m deep; however, O. maya can occur up to a 60 m depth. The aim of this study is to assess the stock of O. maya that occupies waters between 30 m and 60 m deep. Four research cruises were carried out during the closed and fishing seasons, from May 2016 to January 2017. An average of 29 sampling sites were surveyed in each cruise (±2 sampling sites) using a commercial vessel with a uniform sampling effort. In each sampling site, the swept area, the total number of octopuses captured, the total weight of the catch, and the individual weight of octopuses were recorded. Biomass was obtained with four methods: stratified random method, swept area method, geostatistical biomass model, and an unpublished method of weighted swept area. The four methods provided consistent results. The distribution pattern of species was in patches, although before the fishing season started it was more homogeneous. The fraction of the population that occurs between 30 m and 60 m deep consisted mostly of adult organisms, so it could be contributing significantly to the recruitment of the entire population, even to the fraction that is exploited.

Climatic fluctuation is often cited as a major factor in the collapse of Maya civilisation during the Terminal Classic Period (e.g. Luzzadder-Beach et al.2016). Evidence of how people dealt or failed to deal with it has only recently become a more widespread focus for archaeologists. Investigations at Xcoch in the Puuc Hills show the various ways in which resident populations sought to manage water stores when faced with a climate prone to drought and other meteorological extremes. The study also presents results from the analysis of nearby speleothem laminae, which indicate that severe episodes of flooding and droughts may have contributed to a collapse in the population around AD 850.

El artículo analiza los cambios en la estructura tributaria de Yucatán, México, durante la transición del régimen colonial a la fiscalidad liberal, de 1850 a 1902. Caracteriza sus etapas en función de la composición y el protagonismo alternativo de los impuestos directos y los impuestos indirectos en las rentas públicas. Durante los profundos cambios en la estructura económica, la tributación indirecta al consumo y los impuestos directos sobre los sectores secundario y terciario protegieron el crecimiento del sector productivo del henequén (1869-1882). Finalmente, el impuesto sobre el henequén no sustituyó a los ingresos indirectos. La modernización fiscal (1896-1902) equilibró la tributación directa de producto con los aplicados a sectores más urbanos, el secundario y las ventas del sector mercantil.

Recently discovered sculpture fragments from the area surrounding the important but little-studied site of Telantunich confirm a regional tradition of human portraiture quite distinct from the better-known canon of Maya stelae. Comparative material presented here shows connections between this tradition and a regional emphasis on depictions of masculine sexuality, especially depictions of human phalli. The authors present an analysis of this corpus that confirms that such depictions both reflect Classic Maya conceptions of masculinity and were deployed to convey and reify such conceptions within society.

Measurement and dissection of 97 museum specimens provided information on morphology, food habits, and reproduction in the colubrid snake Symphimus mayae. This medium-sized (<910 mm total length) diurnal species from the Yucatán Peninsula is an inhabitant of lowland xerophytic habitats, and an orthopteran dietary specialist. Sexual dimorphism is evident in relative tail length, head length, and numbers of subcaudal scales, but not in the number of ventrals, and males and females attain similar adult body sizes. Symphimus mayae feeds almost exclusively on orthopteroid insects, principally katydids (Tettigoniidae) and crickets (Gryllidae). These taxa jointly accounted for >50% of the total number of prey items recovered from stomachs and had been eaten by >70% of the snakes examined, with little intraspecific or seasonal variation. Other, less frequently used prey groups are (in order of relative importance), stick insects, mantids, Jerusalem crickets, grasshoppers and spiders. All size classes of snakes eat orthopterans, but stick insects are consumed predominantly by adults (>300 mm SVL), and mantids exclusively by large adults (>420 mm SVL). More than 55% of individuals from monthly samples contained recently ingested food, suggesting that feeding in S. mayae occurs year-round and is not significantly curtailed by the local dry season. Reproduction is probably annual, although it does not occur in all females every year, and a single clutch of two to four eggs is produced with oviposition and hatching timed to the wet season.

The basis of obligate epiphytism remains poorly understood. In this study we compare mortality, growth and fecundity for two populations of the epiphytic bromeliad Tillandsia brachycaulos in Yucatán. The fate of dislodged individuals of Tillandsia brachycaulos was compared with that of specimens anchored on tree bark in a dry forest in south-east Mexico. Annual percentages of dislodgement differed among location on phorophytes and epiphyte life stage, ranging from 1% on primary branches to 32% on quaternary branches, and from 7% for adult ramets to 64% for seedlings. Fallen versus attached individuals exhibited different mean annual leaf production, 18 and 21 leaves per individual respectively. The same pattern was observed for capsule (0 and 1.04±1.09 capsules per individual) and ramet production (0.01±0.08 and 0.54±0.68 ramets per individual). Annual percentage mortality was different for fallen (92%) and attached individuals (72%). The plants on the ground and those still anchored to hosts performed differently in ways that help explain why this bromeliad is an obligate epiphyte at the study site. More fundamental causes for its obligate status are also considered.

Dew deposition was calculated for leaves of the epiphytic bromeliads Tillandsia brachycaulos and T. elongata in a tropical dry deciduous forest in Yucatán, Mexico, over one year. Plant characteristics and water relations were also measured. Estimations were made by using energy balance analysis and the Penman–Monteith equation. Dew accumulation was also quantified using a cloth-plate method and by change in mass of whole plants. Tissue water content and total leaf area were similar in the two species, but maximum tank water content was three-fold greater for T. elongata than for T. brachycaulos, which had a lower degree of tissue desiccation tolerance than T. elongata. Succulence for T. brachycaulos changed little during most of the year, decreasing significantly only during one month in the dry season. Leaf water potential and osmotic pressure did not change significantly after a dew-deposition event. Theoretical dew per night on leaves was greatest during the early dry season (about 0.72 mm) compared with 0.34 mm in the rainy season and 0.008 mm in the late dry season. Dew amounts alone are not adequate to support growth but may maintain a favourable water balance for epiphytic bromeliads during the driest months of the year.

This article discusses the development of social categories and ethnicity in the peninsula of Yucatán, Mexico, since the Conquest in the sixteenth century. Based on the Yucatec case, it demonstrates that ethnicity is not a ubiquitous form of social organisation, but rather a historical process related to specific techniques of social distinction. It argues that the starting point for the analysis of ethnicity should not be ethnic collectives, but instead the ways in which individuals use ethnic categories in social interaction.