Don Pablo, Cha Chaak Ceremonies, and Archaeological Interpretation

Summary

Don Pablo Canul, a Yucatec Maya h’men living in the village of Yaxunah, appears in vignettes throughout A Forest of Kings. Participation in ceremonies led by Don Pablo was a regular component of the Yaxuna Archaeological Research Project under the direction of David Freidel, and these experiences provided a strong and vibrant example of 20th century Maya culture in Forest of Kings. Many archaeological projects in Yucatan have collaborated with or employed the services of Maya h’men since the earliest research projects of the 1940’s. This paper will explore Don Pablo’s biography within the context of the history of collaboration between archaeologists and Yucatec h’men with the objective of exploring how such partnerships have shaped the interpretation of ancient Maya archeological materials. While such partnerships have a long history in Yucatan, few archaeologists included the voice of Maya people in their written interpretations prior to this landmark volume by Schele and Freidel.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Contextualizing Maya History and Archaeology Part II: Reflections on the 25th Anniversary of Forest of Kings   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage