Archaeological Commitment to Participation: Discovering the Local to International El Pilar Community

Summary

The El Pilar community is dynamic and includes the most proximal villages, the general communities of Cayo and Peten, the nations of Belize and Guatemala, and from there the greater international community interested in the culture and nature of the tropics. From its first archaeological recognition in the 1980s, El Pilar was destined to be play a role in the conservation and development of the Maya forest. Large and imposing, with monuments straddling the political line that separates Belize and Guatemala, there is a complex relationship locally linked and nationally divided, yet integrated in the appreciation and value of the Maya forest and ancient culture. Creating challenges and potentials over the past three decades, work at El Pilar is now a local household word with community outreach through primary schools and village organizations, recognized for a unique brand of tourism that unites traditional Maya farmers and ancient Maya settlement patterns, and for the international exploration of solutions past impacting a path to sustainable conservation and development.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Assessing Outcomes in Public Archaeology: Imperatives, Perils, and Frameworks

Keywords

Spatial Coverage