front cover of Keywords in Design Thinking
Keywords in Design Thinking
A Lexical Primer for Technical Communicators and Designers
Jason C. K. Tham
University Press of Colorado, 2023
At a time when design thinking is viewed by many as itself a contested term, Keywords in Design Thinking explores keywords and associated practices related to the use of this critical concept in technical and professional communication. The chapters in this edited collection offer definitions stable enough to allow readers to determine the value of design thinking and to apply and examine its usefulness in the design of technical and professional discourse. The contributors to this collection include faculty at research-intensive and comprehensive colleges, graduate students, and industry practitioners. This configuration of contributors is intended to increase the diversity of perspectives and offer a variety of routes to understanding design thinking. 
 
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front cover of The Kowoj
The Kowoj
Identity, Migration, and Geopolitics in Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala
Prudence M. Rice
University Press of Colorado, 2009
Neighbors of the better-known Itza in the central Petén lakes region of Guatemala, the Kowoj Maya have been studied for little more than a decade. The Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Geopolitics in Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala summarizes the results of recent research into this ethno-political group conducted by Prudence Rice, Don Rice, and their colleagues.

Chapters in The Kowoj address the question "Who are the Kowoj?" from varied viewpoints: archaeological, archival, linguistic, ethnographic, and bioarchaeological. Using data drawn primarily from the peninsular site of Zacpetén, the authors illuminate Kowoj history, ritual components of their self-expressed identity, and their archaeological identification. These data support the Kowoj claim of migration from Mayapán in Yucatán, where they were probably affiliated with the Xiw, in opposition to the Itza. These enmities extended into Petén, culminating in civil warfare by the time of final Spanish conquest in 1697.

The first volume to consider Postclassic Petén from broadly integrative anthropological, archaeological, and historical perspectives, The Kowoj is an important addition to the literature on late Maya culture and history in the southern lowlands. It will be of particular interest to archaeologists, historians, ethnohistorians, art historians, and epigraphers.

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front cover of Kukulcan's Realm
Kukulcan's Realm
Urban Life at Ancient Mayapán
Marilyn Masson
University Press of Colorado, 2014
Kukulcan's Realm chronicles the fabric of socioeconomic relationships and religious practice that bound the Postclassic Maya city of Mayapán's urban residents together for nearly three centuries. Presenting results of ten years of household archaeology at the city, including field research and laboratory analysis, the book discusses the social, political, economic, and ideological makeup of this complex urban center.

Masson and Peraza Lope's detailed overview provides evidence of a vibrant market economy that played a critical role in the city's political and economic success. They offer new perspectives from the homes of governing elites, secondary administrators, affluent artisans, and poorer members of the service industries. Household occupational specialists depended on regional trade for basic provisions that were essential to crafting industries, sustenance, and quality of life. Settlement patterns reveal intricate relationships of households with neighbors, garden plots, cultivable fields, thoroughfares, and resources. Urban planning endeavored to unite the cityscape and to integrate a pluralistic populace that derived from hometowns across the Yucatán peninsula.

New data from Mayapán, the pinnacle of Postclassic Maya society, contribute to a paradigm change regarding the evolution and organization of Maya society in general and make Kukulcan's Realm a must-read for students and scholars of the ancient Maya and Mesoamerica.


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