Maya Archaeological Heritage: Ethical and Methodological Challenges from the Mexican Practice of the Discipline

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The practice of Mexican and Maya archaeology is yet to be affected by the postcolonial dialogues in the anglophone world that have discussed the terms of engagement between archaeologists and indigenous communities. Mexico is constitutionally conceived of as a multicultural nation, but the collective rights of indigenous communities are obscured under the predominance of individual rights and a single collective national identity. The contemporary Maya use languages that can be traced back to the Classic monument´s hieroglyphs, and their presence as a descendant community is implied in anthropological, national, and touristic discourses. Nonetheless, there is a serious lack of reflexivity about power relations and an ethic of responsibility for our own anthropological representations. In addition, there is a paradox created by the constitutional right that grants indigenous self-determination, and federal dominance in the managing of archaeological heritage, which is constituted by the indigenous material past. This paper will describe the relationship between archaeology and indigenous Maya communities in Mexico and, in particular, in the Palenque region. Possible paths to engage in dialog with native communities about the construction of their local histories will be discussed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25729