Re-visiting the field: Collaborative archaeology as paradigm shift

The emphasis of the JFA on field methods resonates strongly with current disciplinary interest in multivocality and participatory research. In this new epistemology of inclusiveness, communities play an active role in the production of archaeological knowledge as well as in the conservation of cultural heritage. From the perspective of archaeologists trained in the U.S. who conduct research in Latin America, we historicize changes in the triadic relationship among archaeologists, contemporary communities, and things of the past. This examination focuses on the evolving social context of archaeological practice. The social milieu within which archaeology is conducted is explored further by reference to a recent survey of archaeologists that elicited comments on grand challenges to archaeology. A few examples of the many forms that an engaged archaeology might take are offered from the Maya region. Although collaborative research poses challenges that emerge as communities entangled with archaeological practice become research partners, we suggest that the enhanced relevance that accompanies this transformation is well worth the effort

Casualties of Heritage Distancing: Children, Ch’orti’ Indigeneity, and the Copán Archaeoscape

This is the published version, made available with the permission of the publisher

Mapping Indigenous Self-Determination in Highland Guatemala

The challenges of building research partnerships around community mapping are critically reviewed in reference to the politics of heritage and identity among Indigenous Maya communities in highland Guatemala. This paper discusses how the goals and interests of archaeologists meshed with those of indigenous mappers in five communities that chose to participate in the mapping program. Based on responses to a survey about the mapping project, participants report joining in order to enhance self-determination, gain cartographic literacy, and improve life opportunities. Community authority over the project and a broad base of participation (including young and old, male and female) proved essential to the program, which combined traditional practices of governance with new technologies. This paper describes the community organizational model and protocols for selecting features and topics for thematic maps as well as for gaining community consensus on map content. Finally, it reflects on this transmodern approach to indigenous mapping and the future of research partnerships

Settlement and Community Patterns at Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico: The 1984 Season

The lowlands of the vast Yucatan Peninsula, where ancient Maya civilizations flourished for 2000 years until the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century, are conventionally divided into the wet tropical Southern Lowlands of Guatemala and Belize and the dry tropical Northern Lowlands in Mexico. The apparent peak of Maya civilization, or at least of archaeologists\u27 attention to it, is in the Southern Lowlands in the centuries before its collapse around A.D. 900 (the Classic Period), with thereafter the finest remains occurring in the Northern Lowlands, especially in the Puuc (i.e. hilly) region in the northwest corner of the peninsula. Our attention has been brought to this Puuc region in part because its florescence spans the critical A.D. 800-1000 period during which great, if not cataclysmic, changes occurred in the course and locales of Maya civilization and its people. This region should, therefore, offer a most constructive contrast to the chaos of other contemporaneous and, so far, better studied regions. Furthermore, study of the dwelling places of the people should provide evidence not only for just how many they were and how they lived through those tumultuous times, but also for their trade with and possible origins from other regions, and even, perhaps, evidence that they had a significant role in the changes occurring there

Environmental Variability and Traditional Hawaiian Land Use Patterns: Manuka's Cultural Islands in Seas of Lava

Environmental variability and patterns of Native Hawaiian land use are examined from the perspective of a relatively marginal locality on the island of Hawai'i. The traditional land unit of Manuka Ahupua'a is covered with large expanses of poorly weathered lava flows, but the coastal waters are rich in marine life. Traditional land use was centered within and near klpuka (islands of older substrate surrounded by more recent lava flows). Changing patterns of land use, residence, and mobility are examined. Evidence from Manuka is compared with the early-twentieth-century 'ohana model and found to be at variance. A more general theoretical model that addresses the relationship between environmental variability and an array of traditional Hawaiian residential patterns is proposed. KEYWORDS: Hawai'i, settlement patterns, traditional land use, mobility, environmental variability, 'ohana