Embodying Ecological Heritage in a Maya Community: Health, Happiness, and Identity provides an ethnographic account of life in a rural farming village in southern Belize, focusing on the connections between traditional ecological practices and the health and wellness of the Maya community living there. It discusses how complex histories, ecologies, and development practices are negotiated by individuals of all ages, and the community at large, detailing how they interact with their changing environments. The study has wide applicability for indigenous communities fighting for rights to manage their lands across the globe, as well as for considering how health is connected to heritage practices in communities worldwide.

By Kristina Baines

List of Figures
Chapter 1. Beginning at the End: "he is nearly dead"
Chapter 2. The Mopan Maya in Belize: "They do it different across"
Chapter 3. Nutrition as Tradition: "It's what Indian people eat"
Chapter 4. Bodies at Work, Bodies at Rest: "we boss ourselves"
Chapter 5. Educating Well: "they are lazy to learn it now"
Chapter 6. Changing Spaces, Changing Faces: "I could not live where there is no jippy jappa"
Chapter 7. Alone, Together: "you are not afraid?"
Chapter 8. Ending at the Beginning: "the past is the future"
References
About the Author