Taube has also written on the symbolism and deity associations of maize for other cultures, particularly in his brilliant study of "Lightning Celts and Corn Fetishes" (2000) that connects Olmec maize symbolism with the American Southwest. Underlying much of Taube's work is his interest in inter– and intra-regional exchanges and contacts between Mesoamerica, Aridoamerica and the American Southwest. An example of the latter was already mentioned; to this could be added his influential 2004 article on the so-called "Flower Mountain", turning on concepts of life, beauty, and Paradise among the Classic Maya. Taube also researched the interactions between Teotihuacan, a dominant center in Mexico's plateau region during the Classic era of Mesoamerican chronology, and contemporary Maya polities. Following Taube's sixtieth birthday in 2017, his collected articles in Mesoamerican, especially Mayan, iconography have begun to appear with the Precolumbia Mesoweb Press and online. Notes References External links Archaeological tours Taube leads educational journeys for Far Horizons Archaeological and Cultural trips Taube's tour page Karl Taube Mesoamerican archaeologists Mesoamerican anthropologists Mayanists Andean scholars American Mesoamericanists American anthropologists University of California, Riverside faculty 1957 births Living people Teotihuacan scholars 20th-century Mesoamericanists 21st-century Mesoamericanists Stanford University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Yale University alumni American people of German descent