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The Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research is a non-profit institution dedicated to advancing scholarly knowledge of ancient civilizations of the Americas and explaining these facts and artifacts to the general public. One of our many goals is to improve the quantity and quality of professional photography of Maya artifacts to preserve this heritage for future generations of students. F.L.A.A.R., founded some 30 years ago, is international in its scope. F.L.A.A.R. has kept a major library in GRAZ, Austria, for over fifteen years. This library serves the active and capable group of Mayanists in Graz, one of Europe's centers for Maya research. We provide an extensive library in Maya ethnology, ethnohistory, epigraphy, linguistics, ancient art and archaeology for the Museo Popol Vuh of the Universidad Francisco Marroquin, in Guatemala City. This library has been on loan to the museum for over 17 years, providing students and scholars in Central America the access that they deserve to worldwide publications about their own country. The third of F.L.A.A.R.'s research
libraries is housed in the USA. This is one of the four largest
libraries on pre-Columbian topics in Florida. This library covers
the Olmec, Teotihuacan, and all the other civilizations from
the Aztec to the Zapotec. This is a full-scale in-house research
library, not a loaning library. In order to make books available
for others, we have a separate Art &
Archaeology Book Service. F.L.A.A.R. also publishes monographs and other scholarly reports on the pre-Colombian Maya culture. In addition to selling our own publications we also specialize in making hard-to-find books from obscure foreign publishers available to students and scholars in America. The F.L.A.A.R. Director, Dr. Nicholas Hellmuth, was honored with an appointment as Visiting Professor at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan and previously served as a consultant for this prestigious museum. This museum has no antiquities and no artifacts whatsoever from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, or El Salvador--it is entirely devoted to the ethnography of traditional cultures. Their recent exhibit, organized by Dr. Yoshiho Yasugi, was on native weaving and traditional clothing of the Maya of Guatemala and Mexico.
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On the international scene, F.L.A.A.R. provides traveling photo exhibits and slide lectures, especially for Europe. These slide shows are in any of three languages, English, Spanish, or German (the F.L.A.A.R. Director resides in Germany, if he is not in his office or at a remote place anywhere in the world, as he is most of the time).
Since many people cannot leave their families or business--or do not wish to set foot in the jungle - we have several developed programs that will bring an archaeologist to your home town. Actually you can have Professor Hellmuth give a Living Room Lecture about Maya archaeology in your own home. We also provide lectures in your company headquarters, at your school, or in your club. |
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Since you can learn so much more about the fascinating cultures of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize by visiting these countries, in the past we have organized travel programs for all ages and all backgrounds. F.L.A.A.R. has also organized archaeology tours to Peru and Bolivia.
Both Hellmuth and his Institute are best known among Mayanists
for the extremely precise photography
of Maya vases, bowls, urns, and plates. The goal of
this long range program is to rescue, though photography, the
figural and symbolic art of an entire civilization, and to make
this available for scholarship. Entire dissertations (in Europe
and in America, most notably at Yale University) have been based
on the material in this remarkable research resource. F.L.A.A.R.
photographs primarily in large format, both 8x10 inch (Linhof)
and 4x5 inch (again Linhof). Courtesy of a magnanimous donation
we now have a rollout camera. Decades of experience while photographing and doing research worldwide has resulted in being in demand for information on every imaginable topic. We were paid a handsome sum for developing packaging, logo, and ad copy for a major Mexican corporation which wanted to launch a product in the United States. They wanted an enticing pre-Columbian image for their beverage. F.L.A.A.R. frequently receives requests for professional consulting services, especially from museums, television, Hollywood, news organizations, and of course companies interested in promoting travel to archaeological or ethnographic destinations. |
Yasugi's book on Maya textiles,
grants received and program with Japan's National Museum of Ethnology