Ethnography as a Methodological Alternative for Heritage Understanding in the Maya Highlands

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Heritage conservation and restoration practices focus primarily on the physical intervention of the object. Changes in the fabric are associated with a loss of information and knowledge that break a tangible link with the past; thus, restorers focus on stopping those changes from happening and maintaining the physical and chemical stability of the object to ensure its permanence for the future. However, other points of view and meanings associated with heritage are only sometimes considered or explored by professional restorers, such as those from the communities that currently use that heritage. In order to better understand these meanings, an ethnographic methodology approach can be an alternative. Through the case study of the Tojolabal indigenous community in the Highlands of Chiapas, in which the Catholic traditional feasts get intertwined with the significance ascribed to the Postclassic archaeological site of Tenam Puente, different meanings were discovered, proving that there is much more to understand from the objects if the communities are given the possibility to share their stories. This case study follows an ethnographic approach in which the community’s knowledge is the critical component to deepen our understanding of their cultural heritage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53497