COMPUTERS: are useful as donations to archaeological research projects in Latin America. Please be sure the computer actually works as neither we nor the archaeologists we donate these to, have any facility to repair a computer. Monitors should be minimum of 17 inch in size, and in color (kind of hard to do digital imaging in black-and-white). A computer without a monitor is useful only if a Pentium processor or higher. Macintosh are equally regarded, but please a model that can handle scientific software (Power PC, preferably PCI bus, otherwise they cannot be expanded to meet tomorrow's needs). We take your computer and donate it to archaeologists who need this equipment in Latin America.
CAMERAS: Please, only cameras that are in full working condition. No repairs are possible. Minolta, Canon, Pentax, and naturally Nikon, Leica, Hasselblad, and Rolliflex will do the best job. Wide-angle lenses (for architecture) and macro lens (for artifacts) are what are needed. When it joins an expedition your camera is given an exciting new life to aid archaeological research.
SOFTWARE: Major software, especially Adobe Photoshop, Adobe inDesign, AutoCAD, Microsoft Word, etc. Since F.L.A.A.R. itself already has all this software, we donate what you send us to archaeologists and institutes in Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. An instruction manual is helpful.
BOOKS: Our library has gaping holes in it and we also need books for the student archaeologists who work with us. Other books we donate to institutes, and museums throughout Guatemala and Honduras.
We need any and all books by and appreciate donations of
• Carnegie Institution of Washington,
• Royal Ontario Museum,
• Peabody Museum Memoirs,
• Peabody Museum Papers,
• Smithsonion (Bureau of American Ethnology, not their magazine),
• University of Pennsylvania (especially on Tikal or Quirigua),
• New World Archaeological Foundation,
• American Philosophical Society,
• Middle American Research Institute (MARI, Tulane University),
• Univ. of Texas Press,
• Univ. of New Mexico Press,
• Univ. of Arizona Press,
• Univ. of Oklahoma Press,
• Vanderbilt University,
• Workbooks of the various Mayan Hieroglyph Weekends,
• and comparable books by other presses on Maya, Aztec, Olmec, Teotihuacan, Toltecs, etc., as well as Inca of South America.
BOOKS ON TROPICAL FLORA AND FAUNA, and scholarly books on archaeology and ethnography of North American Indians are especially welcome (such as the Handbook of North American Indians). Our own F.L.A.A.R. library is totally lacking in books on archaeology of North America and archaeology of South America, so these titles we very much appreciate. The books on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica we tend to transfer down to Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico since they need books which describe the archaeology of their own country.
We have also donated books to the Dept of Archaeology, Belize (which has a fine library of its own). F.L.A.A.R. has donated books to the libraries of several small villages and settlements and to small town museums, as well as to many regional centers of INAH in Mexico.
BUT UNLESS YOU donate your books to us, we have no books to donate down the line to Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras! If you include a brief list (author and title) we can send a tax deduction certificate, so you can deduct the full value of these books from your income tax (F.L.A.A.R. is non-profit and tax-exempt as a research and educational institution).
F.L.A.A.R. is developing libraries for Copan Ruinas (Honduras) and for the Museo Popol Vuh (Guatemala City). We would also like to create, and then donate, libraries to the Tikal National Park, to the Universidad de San Carlos branch campus in Santa Elena, Peten, and to the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Guatemala City, which really needs a reference library. But this will happen only if you send your books.
You never need to worry whether we might already have a title, because there are dozens of libraries and scores of archaeologists who need your books. If the book is a duplicate nonetheless, we can trade it for computer equipment or camera equipment and donate that to archaeologists in Mesoamerica. Just this last month we donated an electronic typewriter, an Epson printer, and a TV+VCR unit to the village museum in Copan, Honduras. WBCC-TV, Channel 68, of Brevard Community College, donated a documentary program on the museum. The VCR system is so that visitors to Copan could see this Maya documentary (which covers jade, funerary ceramics, deity iconography, cacao, and the sacred ballgame, among other topics of interest). Since we have to pay to ship such equipment and books down to Latin America, we use 12% of the donations to cover this necessary transportation cost.
Most economical way to send your books is by UPS (or Library Rate) is to
e-mail [email protected]
The museums, universities, and research institutes of Latin America work hard for their national patrimony. They are perfectly capable on their own. But the people who live surrounded by the vestiges of Maya civilization deserve to have all the books which are based on these pre-Hispanic cultures. Students who live in these countries ought to have the same opportunities to read about the achievements of the Classic Maya as students in Europe or Japan.
The new generation of archaeologists in Latin America are motivated, highly trained, and recognized as a valued scientific research corps in their lands. Many of these scholars have been educated in France, Germany, the USA, as well as in their own national universities. But just as archaeologists here in the USA, they also can always make good use of computer equipment, photography equipment, and more research books.
Our goal is to cooperate internationally to share the world's resources for the enhancement of scholarly research and the dissemination of resulting information for improved education on the national patrimony of the lands of pre-Columbian Middle America (Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica).
High end digital imaging equipment can really make the difference here at F.L.A.A.R.
F.L.A.A.R. is non-profit and tax exempt as a research and educational institution. Donations are deductible to the extent allowed by law. Your contribution helps immediately, and keeps Maya research forging ahead.