Product Description
Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include


* customs, values, and traditions
* historical, religious, and political background
* life at home
* leisure, social, and cultural life
* eating and drinking
* do's, don'ts, and taboos
* business practices
* communication, spoken and unspoken


"Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers." Sunday Times Travel

"... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries." Global Travel

"...full of fascinating-as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas." Observer

"...as useful as they are entertaining." Easyjet Magazine

"...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world." New York Times ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

In dire need of a good editor
This book provides some basic information but is badly organized.In the section on Guatemalan history, which is organized chronologically, events are often described out of sequence. Better than nothing, but a great editor could make it better organized and easier to follow.
... Read more

Product Description

Culture and Customs of Guatemala offers a well rounded portrait of the people of the land known for breathtaking highlands, brilliantly colored Mayan textiles, generations of ruthless dictators, and violence against the Mayas since the Spanish conquest. This Central American hotspot is the home to a majority of Mayas, their coexistence with Ladinos—the non-Mayas, and the issue of land ownership provide the framework for understanding contemporary society. The blend of Mayan and Ladino cultural identities that shape Guatemala today permeates Shea's discussion of history, religion, social customs, media, literature, cinema, performing arts, and contemporary art. Students and other interested readers will come to understand how the traditions and reforms are shaping Guatemala in the 21st century.

Culture and Customs of Guatemala proffers a well rounded portrait of the people of the land known for breathtaking highlands, brilliantly colored Mayan textiles, generations of ruthless dictators, and violence against the Mayas since the Spanish conquest. This Central American hotspot is the home to a majority of Mayas, their coexistence with Ladinos—the non—Mayas, and the issue of land ownership provide the framework for understanding contemporary society. The blend of Mayan and Ladino cultural identities that shape Guatemala today permeates Shea's discussion of history, religion, social customs, media, literature, cinema, performing arts, and contemporary art. Students and other interested readers will come to understand how the traditions and reforms are shaping Guatemala in the 21-first century.

After an overview of Guatemalan history, geography, and demographics, a chapter on religion reveals the prevalent mixture of Catholic/Spanish and indigenous influences. In the Social Customs chapter, customs and festivals, many related to Catholic saints' days, the importance of Mayan weaving, and Guatemalan cuisine are emphasized. The recent lessening of censorship is a factor in the discussions of the status of broadcasting and print media and a small but emerging film industry. In the Literature chapter, Shea portrays a rich centuries-old literary tradition influenced by pre and post conquest indigenous texts and contemporary experimental trends whose themes are saturated in the country's social conflicts. Coverage of performing arts and contemporary art is evocative of the vibrant mixtures of cultures in Guatemala, with notable artists introduced and a description of architecture and housing. A chronology and glossary enhance the text.

Customer Reviews (1)

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Series Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
Chronology xvii
1 History, Geography and Demographics 1
2 Religion 29
3 Social Customs 37
4 Broadcasting and Print Media 65
5 Cinema 71
6 Literature 75
7 Performing Arts 105
8 Contemporary Art and Architecture/Housing 119
Glossary 131
Bibliography 135
Index 147 ... Read more

Product Description
Guatemala is the most "Indian" of Central American nations, and Mayan culture permeates many aspects of language, dress and artistic expression. "Guatemala in Focus" is an authoritative and up-to-date guide to this wonderful country. It explores the land, history and politics, economy, society and people, culture and includes tips on where to go and what to see. Photos and maps. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

quick & informative
We are adopting from Guatemala and have been desperate to find books to read on the country & culture.This offered a quick glance into the specifics of the country: a brief history, economy, politics, religion, the people, etc.Very good for a general overview of Guatemala.I would recommend to any adopting parent that is going there!

Guatemala from the eyes of a concerned American
Seldom have I seen such an easy read which is a concise, accurate, and to-the-point review of the Guatemalan Maya and their progeny from the Classic Period to the 1990s.In the interests of brevity, early cultural history is scanned, but the essential information is covered from 209 AD to the entrada of the Spanish Conquistadors led by the cruel Pedro de Alvarado and continuing through the multiple exploitations that occurred to recent days.The role of the United Fruit Company, the military, and the CIA are discussed frankly.Topics of the economy and society are succinctly covered as are current religious practices with the syncretism of the Catholic, Mayan, and the encroaching protestant sects.Visit Guatemala and you will know that these tough, resilient people, both Mayan and Ladino, are not to be denied.While there, visit with individuals who survived the Civil War and hear their stories.You can not help but become a sympathetic traveler, not just a tourist.

Volums have been written about the turmoil in Guatemala and elsewhere in Central America, but if your time is limited, here is a helpful shortcut.

nice and to the point
i'm adopting a child from guatemala soon and wanted to get a good, general overview of the country.it's an easy read and i learned enough to be dangerous....

great overview of Guatemala's history and culture
This title offers an easily readable introduction to Guatemala. It is great for the first-time traveler to Guatemala who wants to understand the modern country in the context of its history and culture. It explains thecurrent status of Guatemala and its uneasy balance between the remainingMayan culture and the ladinos. The book is a quick and enjoyableread--truly a great orientation. It also points out how the intrusion ofthe U.S. CIA interrupted Guatemala's transition toward agrarian reform--aneye opener for me, anyway.Read and learn! ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from E, published by Earth Action Network, Inc. on July 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1043 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Culture of Fire.(Guatemala)(Brief Article)
Author: Megan Epler Wood
Publication: E (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 1999
Publisher: Earth Action Network, Inc.
Volume: 10Issue: 4Page: 19

Article Type: Brief Article

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In this valuable book, ethnographer and anthropologist Brigittine French mobilizes new critical-theoretical perspectives in linguistic anthropology, applying them to the politically charged context of contemporary Guatemala. Beginning with an examination of the “nationalist project” that has been ongoing since the end of the colonial period, French interrogates the “Guatemalan/indigenous binary.” In Guatemala, “Ladino” refers to the Spanish-speaking minority of the population, who are of mixed European, usually Spanish, and indigenous ancestry; “Indian” is understood to mean the majority of Guatemala’s population, who speak one of the twenty-one languages in the Maya linguistic groups of the country, although levels of bilingualism are very high among most Maya communities. As French shows, the Guatemalan state has actively promoted a racialized, essentialized notion of “Indians” as an undifferentiated, inherently inferior group that has stood stubbornly in the way of national progress, unity, and development—which are, implicitly, the goals of “true Guatemalans” (that is, Ladinos).

French shows, with useful examples, how constructions of language and collective identity are in fact strategies undertaken to serve the goals of institutions (including the government, the military, the educational system, and the church) and social actors (including linguists, scholars, and activists). But by incorporating in-depth fieldwork with groups that speak Kaqchikel and K’iche’ along with analyses of Spanish-language discourses, Maya Ethnolinguistic Identity also shows how some individuals in urban, bilingual Indian communities have disrupted the essentializing projects of multiculturalism. And by focusing on ideologies of language, the author is able to explicitly link linguistic forms and functions with larger issues of consciousness, gender politics, social positions, and the forging of hegemonic power relations. ... Read more

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Introduces the geography, history, religion, government, economy, and culture of one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. ... Read more

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Chapters: Music of Guatemala. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 70. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The music of Guatemala is diverse. Guatemala's national instrument is the marimba, an idiophone from the family of the xylophones, which is played all over the country, even in the remotest corners. Towns also have wind and percussion bands -week processions, as well as on other occasions. The Garifuna people of Afro-Caribbean descent, who are spread thinly on the northeastern Caribbean coast, have their own distinct varieties of popular and folk music. Cumbia, from the Colombian variety, is also very popular especially among the lower classes. Guatemala also has an almost five-century-old tradition of art music, spanning from the first liturgical chant and polyphony introduced in 1524 to contemporary art music. Much of the music composed in Guatemala from the 16th century to the 19th century has only recently been unearthed by scholars and is being revived by performers. Guatemalan marimba bandThe marimba's first documentary evidence of existence comes from an account of a performance in front of the cathedral of Santiago de Guatemala, present-day Antigua Guatemala, in 1680. Later, historian Juan Domingo Juarros mentioned and described it in his Compendium of the History of Guatemala. The instrument however may be probably much older, as an attempt at recreating an older West African instrument, and could have been introduced by Afro-Caribbean slaves as early as 1550. . The arch marimba was probably the first, followed by a simple instrument with a diatonic row of wood bars played with mallets, with gourd resonators, placed on a wooden a stand. In 1894 came a major breakthrough, when Julián Paniagua Martínez and Sebastián Hurtado developed the chromatic marimba, by adding to the dia...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=442870 ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from SAM Advanced Management Journal, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 5557 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Culture, self-directed learning readiness, and per capita income in five countries.
Author: Paul J. Guglielmino
Publication: SAM Advanced Management Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 71Issue: 2Page: 21(9)

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Product Description
Guatemala has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more