Ancient Maya Beekeeping The Stingless Bee (Melipona beecheii)

Beekeeping—providing a safe residence for bees in order to exploit them—is an ancient technology in both the Old and New Worlds. The oldest known Old World beehives are from Tel Rehov, in what is today Israel, about 900 B.C.E.; the oldest known in the Americas is from the Late Preclassic or Protoclassic period Maya site of Nakum, in the Yucatà ¡n peninsula of Mexico, between 300 B.C.E.–200/250 C.E. American Bees Before the Spanish colonial period and long before the introduction of European honeybees in the 19th century, several Mesoamerican societies including Aztec and Maya kept hives of stingless American bees. There are about 15 different bee species native to the Americas, most of which live in humid tropical and subtropical forests. In the Maya region, the bee of choice was Melipona beecheii, called xunaan kab or colel-kab (royal lady) in the Maya language. As you might guess from the name, American bees dont sting—but they will bite with their mouths to defend their hives. Wild stingless bees live in hollow trees; they dont make honeycombs but rather store their honey in round sacks of wax. They make less honey than European bees, but American bee honey is said to be sweeter. Precolumbian Uses of Bees The products of bees—honey, wax, and royal jelly—were used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica for religious ceremonies, medicinal purposes, as a sweetener, and to make the hallucinogenic honey mead called balche. In his 16th century text Relacion de las Cosas Yucatà ¡n, Spanish bishop Diego de Landa reported that indigenous people traded beeswax and honey for cacao seeds (chocolate) and precious stones. After the conquest, tax tributes of honey and wax went to the Spanish, who also used beeswax in religious activities. In 1549, over 150 Maya villages paid 3 metric tons of honey and 281 metric tons of wax in tax to the Spanish. Honey was eventually replaced as a sweetener by sugar cane, but stingless bee wax continued in importance all through the colonial period. Modern Maya Beekeeping Indigenous Yucatec and Chol  in the Yucatan peninsula today still practice beekeeping on communal lands, using modified traditional techniques. Bees are kept in hollow tree sections called jobà ³n, with the two ends closed by a stone or ceramic plug and a central hole through which bees can enter. The jobà ³n are stored in a horizontal position and the honey and wax is retrieved a couple times a year by removing the end plugs, called panuchos. Typically the average length of the modern Maya jobon is between 50-60 centimeters (20-24 inches) long, with a diameter of about 30 cm (12 in) and walls more than 4 cm (1.5 in thick). The hole for the bee entryway is typically less than 1.5 cm (.6 in) in diameter.   At the Maya site of Nakum, and in a context firmly dated to the late preclassic period  between 300 B.C.E.–C.E. 200, was found a ceramic jobon (or quite possibly an effigy). Archaeology of Maya Beekeeping The jobon from the Nakum site is smaller than modern ones, measuring only 30.7 cm long (12 in), with a maximum diameter of 18 cm (7 in) and an entry hole only 3 cm (1.2 in) in diameter. The external walls are covered with striated designs. It has removable ceramic panuchos at each end, with diameters of 16.7 and 17 cm (about 6.5 in). The difference is size may be a result of the different bee species being taken care of and protected.   The labor associated with beekeeping is mostly protection and custodial duties; keeping the hives away from animals (mostly armadillos and raccoons) and the weather. That is achieved by stacking the hives in an A-shaped frame and building a thatch-roofed palapa or lean-to over the whole: beehives are typically found in small groups near residences.   Maya Bee Symbolism Because most of the materials used to make beehives—wood, wax, and honey—are organic, archaeologists have identified the presence of beekeeping at pre-Columbian sites by the recovery of paired panuchos. Artifacts such as incense burners in the shapes of beehives, and images of the so-called Diving God, likely a representation of the bee god Ah Mucen Cab, have been found on the walls of temples at Sayil and other Maya sites. The Madrid Codex (known to scholars as the Troano or Tro-Cortesianus Codex) is one of the few surviving books of the ancient Maya. Among its illustrated pages are male and female deities harvesting and collecting honey, and conducting various rituals associated with beekeeping. The Aztec Mendoza Codex shows images of towns giving jars of honey to the Aztecs for tribute.   Current Status of American Bees While beekeeping is still a practice by Maya farmers, because of the introduction of the more productive European honeybee, the loss of forest habitat, the Africanization of honey bees in the 1990s, and even climate change bringing destructive storms into the Yucatan, stingless beekeeping has been severely reduced. Most of the bees farmed today are European honey bees.   Those European honey bees (Apis mellifera) were introduced in the Yucatan in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Modern apiculture with bees and using moveable frames began to be practiced after the 1920s and making Apis honey became a principal economic activity for the rural Maya area by the 1960s and 1970s.  In 1992, Mexico was the fourth largest honey producer in the world, with an average annual production of 60,000 metric tons of honey and 4,200 metric tons of beeswax. A total of 80% of the beehives in Mexico are kept by small farmers as a subsidiary or hobby crop. Although stingless bee farming was not actively pursued for decades, today there is a regrowth in interest and a sustained effort by enthusiasts and indigenous farmers who are beginning to restore the practice of stingless bee farming to the Yucatan.   Sources Bianco B. 2014. The log hives of Yucatan. Anthropology Now 6(2):65-77.Garcia-Frapolli E, Toledo VM, and Martinez-Alier J. 2008. Adaptations of a Yucatec Maya Multiple-Use Ecological Management Strategy to Ecotourism. Ecology and Society 13.Imre DM. 2010. Ancient Maya beekeeping. University of Michigan Undergraduate Research Journal 7:42-50.Villanueva-Gutià ©rrez R, Roubik DW, and Colli-Ucan W. 2005. Extinction of Melipona beecheii and traditional beekeeping in the Yucatan peninsula. Bee World 86(2):35-41.Villanueva-Gutià ©rrez R, Roubik DW, Colli-Ucà ¡n W, Gà ¼emez-Ricalde FJ, and Buchmann SL. 2013. A Critical View of Colony Losses in Managed Mayan Honey-Making Bees (Apidae: Meliponini) in the Heart of Zona Maya. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 86(4):352-362.Zralka J, Koszkul W, Radnicka K, Soleto Santos LE, and Hermes B. 2014. Excavations in Nakum Structure 99: New data on Proclassic rituals and Precolumbian Maya beekeeping. Estudios de Cultura Maya 64:85-117.

The Effects Of Autism On A Cheerleading Team - 999 Words

Advancing in the Aspie World I bet you’ve seen at least one before. You know, those articles on the news about someone with autism, doing something amazing that any typical person would never envision them doing. Getting elected homecoming king, being on a cheerleading team, or carrying out an act of kindness that even non-autistic people wouldn’t ever consider are just some of the things that I’ve seen. Though these are spectacular self-esteem lifters for these individuals, warm and fuzzy stories for the public and excellent publicity for wherever they occur, many often forget that autism is a spectrum condition, and functioning levels vary, from wheelchair bound individuals to those in society whose names everyone recognizes. There are autistic individuals on both ends of the spectrum. Those on the lower end exhibit some of the behaviors associated with â€Å"classical autism,† like jitters and cognitive impairment. While others, like myself, are on the other end, still â€Å"auti stic,† but can mask mild symptoms quite well, and function in society though wearing labels of â€Å"odd† or â€Å"quirky† with high functioning autism, and some are in the middle. No matter which form of autism an individual has, life is different for that person in more ways than one, both beneficial and challenging. I myself have a form of high functioning autism known as Asperger’s Syndrome. Asperger’s Syndrome, or AS for short, was discovered in the early 20th century by a physician for whom it’s named, whoShow MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesand Moods 97 Personality and Values 131 Perception and Individual Decision Making 165 Motivation Concepts 201 Motivation: From Concepts to Applications 239 3 The Group 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Foundations of Group Behavior 271 Understanding Work Teams 307 Communication 335 Leadership 367 Power and Politics 411 Conflict and Negotiation 445 Foundations of Organization Structure 479 v vi BRIEF CONTENTS 4 The Organization System 16 Organizational Culture 511 17 Human Resource Policies

Literature Review Paper Corporate Restructuring

Question: Discuss about theLiterature Review Paperfor Corporate Restructuring. Answer: Corporate Restructuring in the West The restructuring literature in the companies found in the west provides a hint of the failure or success of actions of restructuring undertaken by the management in determining and creating business value. (Ruigrok, 1999) argues that the experiences of the companies found in the West, can be of benefit to other businesses found in the developing countries.The main aim of enterprise restructuring is to transform businesses into capitalist firms which creates value. Western Europe and North American managers, scholars, and politicians have long regarded restructuring as mainly a temporary phenomenon(Ruigrok, 1999). In this view, restructuring was considered as a company stage during which it had to adapt to the changes of the environment such as Asian competition, slower growth rate, and higher prices of input. The late 1980s to 1990s events have made this perspective unsustainable(Ruigrok, 1999). It seems unsafe to continue assuming that many firms will continue in the coming years t o restructure. This is because of the ongoing monetary and economic integration in the EU (European Union), further discussions on economic integration with North Atlantic Area and the Americas, and the economic crisis in the Asia (Onundo Riany, 2012). As a result, this brings up questions of the direction and nature of the efforts of corporate restructuring, and possible differences of cross-nationals among the West corporates. Through literature review, this study analyzes the significance to restructuring to the organizations, especially the West trading companies. The Firms Performance and Organizational Restructuring For the organizations that want to remain relevant in the world of business, organizational restructuring is a vital strategy. (Shermon, 2012) defines the restructuring as the changing of the structure of a firms operations, governance, financing, and investment structures. (Three Sigma Inc, 2002) defines restructuring as the process of introducing structural changes in the daily business management for onetime transaction activities such as acquisitions, debt swaps, spin-offs, and repurchasing stock. It is viewed that the main concern of restructuring is to change structures for the quest of long-term and short-term benefits. According to (Shermon, 2012) the undertakings of restructuring can be categorized into three main classifications. Those types are the portfolio, organizational, and financial restructuring. Restructuring that is based on financials comprises of the firms capital changes, which includes the debt-equity swaps, recapitalization leverage, and leverage buyout. A financial restructuring common way is to increase equity through new share issuing. However, portfolio restructuring comprises substantial changes in the firms asset mix or the firms business lines, which include spin-offs, liquidation, and asset sales (Vyacheslav, 2000). On the other hand, organizational restructuring encompasses substantial changes in the firms organizational structure, which comprises of the spreading span of control, corporate governance reformation, reducing product diversification, redrawing of divisional boundaries, downsizing employment, revising compensation, and flattening of hierarchic levels. This pap er is focuses on the restructuring of the organizational which comes with the changes in policies of human resources. There is need to change the current human resource policies in line with the changing situation. The department of the human resource needs to initiate change management. (Vyacheslav, 2000) demonstrates that in order to maintain the employees external and internal equity, there should be streamlining of the current pay structure. (Andreas Kemper, n.d.) notes that there are signs that can be used to determine the need for organizational restructuring. Such signs include influenced performance appraisals; unpredictable organizational communications, significant staffing increases or decreases are contemplated; accountability for results are not communicated clearly and measurable resulting in subjective and retaining personnel and turnover becomes a problem that is significant; parts of the organization are substantially under or over staffed; new skills and capabilities are needed to meet current or expected operational requirements; technology and/or innovation are creating changes in workflow and production processes; fragmented, and inefficient; and stagnant workforce productivity or diminishing morale (Jarso, 2016). Organizational restructuring in a number of ways has shown to be important and that they are more important in strategies implementation of due to good formulation but that are not confined to reducing costs of operation. A study conducted by (Srivastava, 2013) on the effect of restructuring on the operational issues of the West countries public traded companies in 2013, tested whether the restructuring resulted in substantial changes. In their study, they applied profit margin, the ratio of total asset turnover after and before the restructuring as substitute for the firms performance, return on assets, and changes in revenues (Srivastava, 2013). They were able to determine through the analysis that there was substantial increase in return on assets, profit margin, and total revenue after restructuring. However, there was no proof of substantial effect on the ratio of asset turnover. The researchers were able to find existence of substantial evidences of significant market expectations and over response to the announcements of restructuring. They performed a study to explore corporate performance improvements in companies involved in acquisition and merger. Similarly, other researchers carried out a study to analyse the merger relationship in the US steel industry. The research used the methodology of New Empirical Industrial Organization. This analysis was carried out by observing the time between 1951 to 1988. The study examined the relationship between mergers in the U.S. steel industry and the market power. According the study results, there was slight boost to power in the steel industry since 1972 1984 (Jarso, 2016). In steel industry, acquisition and merger resulted in improvement of solvency, cash flow positions, liquidity, and efficiency. Also, one study conducted in the US in 1998 found out than less than 20% of the firms, had considered restructuring as an essential step of integrating the acquired firm into their organization (Jarso, 2016). However, firms which have a comprehensive integration plans, have managed to develop in their industries, an average value. (Wambui, 2012) conducted a research on the impact of restructuring on the operation of the organization specializing in mobile phone industry in UK. The study agreed that, all three techniques of restructuring have positive impact on the firms market share and growth. The findings from their study demonstrated that organizational restructuring had the least effect on the firms market share, the second was portfolio restructuring, whereas, financial restructuring had the highest impact. Nonetheless, on the market growth rate, organizational restructuring had the highest impact. References Andreas Kemper, F. K., n.d. Corporate Restructuring Dynamics: A case Study Analysis, Oestrich-Winkel, German: s.n. Jarso, H. A., 2016. Restructuring Strategy and Performance of Major Commercial Bank in Kenya, Nairobi: University of Nairobi, Kenya. Onundo Riany, G. H. M. O. O., 2012. Effects of Restructuring on Organization Performance of Mobile Phone Service ProvidersChrista. International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities, 4(1), pp. 198-204 . Ruigrok, W. P. A., 1999. Corporate Restructuring and New Forms of Organizing: Evidence from Europe.. [Online] Available at: https://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Management-International-Review/57645213.html [Accessed 25 4 2017]. Shermon, G., 2012. Creating an optimized organisation: Key Opportunities and Challenges, s.l.: s.n. Srivastava, S. B., 2013. Organizational Restructuring and Social Capital Activation, Berkeley: University of California . Three Sigma Inc, 2002. Organizational Restructuring, s.l.: s.n. Vyacheslav, T., 2000. An Investigation into Methods of Restructuring and Reorganizing Industrial Enterprises. Club of Economics in Miskolc TMP , Volume 5, pp. 81-84. . Wambui, N. A., 2012. Corporate Restructuring and Firm Performance In The Banking Sector Of Kenya, Nairobi Kenya: University of Nairobi.