Ancestors, Archaeology, and Ethics in Central Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ethical Dilemmas in the Study and Care of Human Remains beyond North America" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

While engaging in collaborative fieldwork at Xaltocan in 2009, I was surprised that descendants wished to exhibit all their excavated ancestors in the community museum. Subsequent ethnographic research with Juan Argueta showed that displaying and analyzing the dead was a crucial tool in affirming their Indigenous identities and land rights; my surprise reflected my own positionality as a post-NAGPRA American researcher. In 2018, we argued that refusing to display their ancestors may unwittingly perpetuate colonial practice. In this presentation, I revisit the question of how we should study and care for central Mexican ancestors, considering sensitive subject matter, specifically. I draw on recent conversations with my community collaborators at Tepeticpac, Tlaxcala after the recovery of boiled and roasted human remains. Indigenous scholars such as Kisha Supernant and Alyssa Bader have demonstrated bioarchaeology’s potential in the service of truth, restorative justice, and disciplinary change. In Tlaxcala, Keitlyn Alcantara has similarly linked the bioarchaeology of ancestral cuisine to contemporary food sovereignty. This talk wrestles with archaeological finds that do not so clearly advance such goals, which are especially important in Tlaxcala, where Indigenous conquistador ancestors were vilified by Mexican nationalism as “traitors,” and where archaeological narratives can counter this exercise of power.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Ethical Dilemmas in the Study and Care of Human Remains beyond North America

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52684