Technologies and the State: analyzing the impact of economic growth through archaeological science

Summary

Mexico’s government attempts to eradicate poverty through infrastructure building and welfare policies have changed the social dimension of griddle and basket making at Cuentepec, in the State of Morelos Mexico. For generations, the house embodied the knowledge of making griddles and baskets, evoking people to remember fragments of the social practices of distant pasts and collectively lived histories. The act of remembrance is compromised with the building of welfare landscapes. Memory is intimately linked with the landscape, as it creates a sense of place that legitimizes the many identities and social worlds that have existed through time. In this hybrid landscape of welfare and memory, we characterized the technology of griddle making and approached the spatial and chemical analysis of residues left by the cycle of activities that interweave domestic tasks with production for more than a decade. In addition, we introduced a social impact assessment to our study to corroborate our findings. Results from these investigations provide a framework for evaluating the potential of applying archaeological science to analyze the impact of economic growth to the preservation of ancient technologies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Unraveling Social Dynamics through Archaeological Science

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14432