History and Archaeological Heritage and the Modern Maya

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Modern Maya peoples have been denied of their right to appropriate their own history and archaeological heritage. After almost three decades of multiculturalism in Mexican laws and state rhetoric there is still a lot of colonial ideas, practices, and laws that prevent the participation of indigenous communities in the heritage discourses and their involvement in the management of

archaeological heritage. This paper is about the current perceptions of history, archaeology and heritage among the Maya Ch´ol of northern Chiapas, who have articulated, without the help and despite the Mexican national state, a sense of history and time in their landscapes. The Ch´ol and the modern Maya peoples are interested to hear from the words written by the Classic Maya in languages related to what they speak now, and they have their own questions to ask the historical and archaeological record. They want the world to know that they walk next to us carrying the wisdom of their ancestors.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33176