Customer Reviews

Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya: A Guide

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent guide for anyone interested in the Mayan world, both past and present. It is also a useful travel companion to take on a trip to Central America. The illustrations are excellent, and Ms Schlesinger writes ina clear, uncluttered style that is a real pleasure to read. A magical book about a people who saw the world through other eyes than our own.

(Planeta.com Journal) - One of the best books of the past year, this work combines the details of a scientific field guide with anthropological research. The result is outstanding.

Author Victoria Schlesinger tells the story about the animals and plants most commonly seen in Mundo Maya -- Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. The book provides a synthesis of current research and will delight specialists and travelers alike. Chapters focus on Pine-Oak, Cloud and Tropical Forests, Savannas, Mangroves and Coral Reefs.

The book is well illustrated with line drawings by Juan C. Chab-Medina. This is a beautiful book which would make an excellent holiday gift. I'm trying to think of a book that has piqued my interest as much as Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya, and I'd have to put this a category with Lane Simonian's Defending the Land of the Jaguar. Excellent!

This is one of those incredibly rare guidebooks that pushes past the confines of the genre and brings something totally fresh to the endeavor. I am not a Maya scholar, but Schlesinger's writing is so evocative that I couldn't help but be totally pulled in by her descriptions of the plants and animals that inhabited the Maya world.

This book is not simply an introduction to South American plants and animals. It is a fascinating journey through Mayan culture, with the role these elements played for the ancient Maya. This book is equal parts history, medicine, education, and adventure. I got it for Christmas and couldn't put it down.

I give this book three stars because, from the other reviews, it seems to have been quite good from the naturalist perspective. Unfortunately, I am far more of a Mayanist then a naturalist and from that point of view, the book was a sad disappointment.
First, although the title offers a Mayan concentration, the few references to indigenous cultures would be more appropriately labeled, 'Meso-American', especially as the author either cannot, or simply does not, distinguish one from the other. Many depictions, although easily traced (i.e. to the Aztecs) are labeled simply Meso-American.
Second, there is very little in the text about the plants and animals and their relations to the ancient inhabitants of Meso-America at all. Most entries fail to mention them altogether and the few that do, offer only the scantiest references.
Finally, several of the illustrations and factoid snippets that do relate to the indigenous cultures of Meso-America are woefully out of date. Indeed the author quotes Mayanist 'authorities' that, although laudable for their early work in the field, were of such an eccentric nature that it would be laughable in any other context to refer to their 'scholarship'.
As stated above, I cannot criticize this text from the standpoint of a simple field guide to various flora and fauna, but from the title, I had hoped for much, much more. Perhaps if the publisher would make a few pages available for viewing, this problem would be solved.

I have no idea who wrote this book, but it is the best thing I have ever read. Victoria Schlesinger's writing shows muscle as well as sensitivity. She disects, trisects, and intersects completely, revealing jungular dimensions of phantasmaflora.

A thousand botanists bow down before
eye flush with pride from afar.