Introduction to Class and Making the Instructor a Known Commodity (Module 01)

	Principle 3: Social Relevance- The role of environment on the development of past societies 

		Discussion - As part of my showing my own background, and as a metaphor for how archaeology 
		helps us understand past successful adaptations to environmental circumstance, I bring into discussion 
		how Dennis Puleston brought about a re-evaluation of ancient Maya subsistence (questioning maize and 
		slash-and-burn practices because of implications of extremely high house mound counts suggesting that 
		this alone would not have worked considering ecological parameters. This brought questioning resulted in 
		additional shifts in the Mayanist paradigms for the time.