Belize, a small, newly independent country in Central America, has recently garnered a great deal of the world's attention with its commitment to the protection of the environment and its promotion of eco-tourism. This book presents a full and diverse picture of such a unique country and its history. It contains some of the best research presented at the Second Interdisciplinary Conference on Belize. The conference has succeeded in building a scholarly community for Belize scholars and in promoting the study of a country that has perhaps been unjustly understudied. The conference papers gathered in this book serve as an introduction to Belize and to current scholarship taking place in the country. Papers and their authors include: International Migration and the Ruralization of Belize, 1970-1991, Louis Woods, Joseph Perry, Jeffrey Steagall and Ronald Cossman; A History of Banking in Belize, Anthony Gabb; Predicting the Past and Preserving It for the Future: Modeling and Management of Ancient Maya Residential Sites, Scott Fedick; Population and Ethnicity of Belize, 1861, Michael Camille; The Festival of Arts: British Hunduran, Belizean, and National, Michael D. Philips.