the local and the global. Their work enables a controlled cross-cultural comparison across national boundaries and histories that in turn illuminates the articulation between locally constructed meanings and global transformations.

[A]ltogether this book stimulates many ideas from one approach to language origins. It is well written, thoroughly referenced, and makes a substantial contribution to the ongoing discussion of this issue. --Grant Jones, Davidson College

The authors are all leading scholars of the Maya region who have carried out long term fieldwork projects among different groups in the area…. Each essay presents original arguments and new data, and several … are really fabulous. --John Monaghan, University of Illinois at Chicago