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We studied the composition, colour chromaticity and form of application of red pigments in human bone samples from seven Classic period Lowland Maya sites. The samples were analysed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray energydispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Colour was measured using conventional colour identification standards (Munsell) and reflectance spectroscopy. Cinnabar and hematite were identified as the pigments used. We conclude that the reflectance method has advantages over conventional visual results, as it provides precise, objective and quantifiable optical data to distinguish the chromaticity, colour saturation and brightness of the pigments.

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As James Caesar highlights in Reconstructing America, the word “globalization” seems sometimes to be synonymous with “Americanization” or “Americanism,” evoking negative images. Globalization may bring indigenous cultures to their death and cause national individualism to disappear into a shapeless muddle. On Americanism, Heidegger declared that it was “the future monstrosity of modern times.” This would be homogenization, the rubbing out of cultural specificity, life in one universe, one dimension. Extremists like Alexandre Kohève take it further still. It would be the end of history. Third world nations, particularly the Caribbean countries, would be predesignated victims of such an order, without power in political or economic realms, only making the front page of newspapers during cataclysm and natural catastrophes like Hugo, George, and Mitch. The tiny island of Montserrat, never before known to the West, rose to international fame when its volcano La Soufrière began to erupt. Rwanda would be known for genocide, and the Congo for a civil war and the assassination of its leader.

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