The Managed Mosaic: Papers in Honor of Scott L. Fedick

DOCUMENT Citation Only Bethany Morrison.

Beyond his career as a professor and researcher, Dr. Scott Fedick has been a patient and dedicated teacher of archaeological field schools. In this capacity he leaves a legacy of changed lives. This paper looks back on the BRASS and Yalahau field schools and the lasting impression they left on participants. It also discusses field school pedagogy, looking at what has changed and what remains the same since the days of Scott´s famous death marches. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Gust.

The Caste War left an indelible mark of the Yucatan Peninsula including helping to perpetuate abusive labor system that continued until the Mexican Revolution. This paper explores the living conditions at sugar productions facilities near the north coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico through comparison to a similarly-aged site in western Belize, San Pedro Siris. San Pedro Siris was a free village of primarily Maya families that were pushed south into Belize by refugees as the Caste War ended. ...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lucia Gudiel.

Dr. Scott Fedick’s research goals have always emphasized the importance of understanding the diversity and ingenuity of lowland Maya subsistence. Through his guidance and mentorship my dissertation focus was developed to explore the role of root-crops in ancient Maya subsistence. Recent paleoethnobotanical research has demonstrated that the ancient Maya diet included a wide array of plant foods.Currently lacking is enough evidence for the role of roots-crops.To begin to acquire an understanding...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeffrey Glover. Dominique Rissolo.

Glover and Rissolo owe a great deal to Scott Fedick for his mentorship through our graduate school years and for his friendship and council as we embarked on our own multidisciplinary project, the Proyecto Costa Escondida. This paper highlights the contributions Scott has made to interdisciplinary research in the Maya area. In so doing, we discuss how our project on the north coast of Quintana Roo builds on this intellectual heritage. We, like Scott, are investigating the dynamic interplay...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Leonard. Jennifer Chmilar.

It was nearly ten years ago when Dr. Scott Fedick unleashed his graduate students Daniel Leonard and Jennifer Chmilar into the Yalahau wetlands. Upon their return, Scott asked what questions each had about the wetlands, and two projects were born. During the ensuing field seasons, and time in between, Scott helped to solidify and expand on background knowledge, encourage interdisciplinary collaborations, and offer much needed support. In time, both Dan and Jen emerged from the wetlands able to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shanti Morell-Hart.

The legacy of Scott Fedick in ethnoecology, ethnoarchaeology, and landscape studies cannot be understated. Aside from years of active collaborative work and mentorship, the dissemination of his research has led to rich interpretations far beyond his immediate influence. In the first part of this paper, I follow impacts of Fedick's scholarship in several fields, as tracked through citations and students. I also trace his impacts on public policy and common understandings of Maya lifeways. In...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicholas Hearth.

Scott's body of multidisciplinary and collaborative research resists categorization to a single rubric, even in ones as broad as historical ecology or cultural geography. However, many archaeologists I've met who haven't worked directly with him only understand his long-term research projects within these two paradigms. Few remember or realize that Scott began his graduate school career examining the lithic economy of the Tikal-Yaxha survey transect and that he has continued to facilitate and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer Mathews. Kathy Sorensen.

Scott Fedick co-founded the Yalahau Regional Human Ecology Project in 1993, and his cross disciplinary approach continues to influence both his colleagues and students. This paper provides an overview of how Fedick’s mentorship and scholarship shaped and guided the research of two former students at various sites in the Yalahau region, and how this research has led to a deeper understanding of the settlement patterns during the Preclassic/Classic transition and into the recent historic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Darcy Wiewall.

Over the past several decades, Scott Fedick’s pedagogical approach to understanding local-scale environmental and biological diversity has inspired and influenced numerous students and colleagues perspectives on Maya household subsistence strategies. The first part of my presentation will discuss my participation in the Yalahau Regional Human Ecology Project and how Scott’s heterogeneous approach to resources management strategies influenced my later research on local subsistence strategies...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anna Hoover.

Mentoring and strong teaching methods are the hallmarks of Scott Fedick's career. When just an undergraduate, Fedick took a chance on Anna Hoover and guided her into studying an ancient agricultural technique that is actually still practiced today. Chi'ich mounds, or small rock/pebble mounds, are utilized where surface soils are thin of temperatures are dry and arid. Serving as both mulch and root stabilizers for vines, shrubs and trees, these little features can be found n archaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lance Wollwage.

Sediment cores from a cenote (sinkhole) at the center of T’isil, an archaeological site in the Yalahau region of Quintana Roo, Mexico, held a great abundance of well-preserved snail and clam shells in stratigraphic context. Many snail species are sensitive to water quality and depth, or otherwise inhabit specific environmental niches. Their shells are easy to identify and quantify, and where preserved may serve as sensitive paleoenvironmental proxies. At T’isil, variation in snail abundance...