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Archaeological spaces can be viewed as material manifestations of human drama—sites for the production, expression, and manipulation of social life, power, and history. By viewing such spaces as stages for the enactment of processes of social memory, we may further enrich considerations of the interplay of materiality and history. Here I address the insights archaeologists may gain from engaging with theories of social memory by exploring their application to the analysis of settlements occupied during the Late to Terminal Classic period transition (a.d. 650–900) in pre-Columbian southeastern Mesoamerica. I also consider their relevance to community initiatives engaged by archaeologists today. Ultimately, I argue that processes of making, altering, and remaking place are one among many ways that memory may have served as a tool for political strategies and discourses about power.
Archaeological research can draw on material remains to understand the ways that individuals may have expressed their identities in pursuit of specific goals. Here ritual performances in ancient Mesoamerica are considered for their role in shaping identities deployed to gain social and political power. The Late to Terminal Classic period (A.D. 650 -960) site of Las Canoas, Honduras, is offered as a case study. In particular, the monumental Main Plaza Group at Las Canoas is examined as a spatial setting for the performance of rituals involving the use of incense burners and ceramic anthropomorphic figurines. These performances are argued to have facilitated the efforts of certain members of the community to take advantage of shifting political and economic alliances in the region and make a bid for power. Ultimately, however, their efforts to establish spiritual and political leadership did not endure.
These profound paradigm changes are supported by building networks of trust, and anthropologists are often particularly good at facilitating connections across university/college boundaries. We understand the multiple languages that have to be used to connect facilities management folks with undergraduates, and faculty with community organizations. We also have skills in grant-writing and public relations, as well as in facilitating discussions, which can be helpful to the broad-based grassroots groups that usually form the engine behind campus change.We hope to see interested ASTE members at the workshop in Chicago! Please send items of interest, essays, commmturies and news to Rebecca Zarger; rzarge@uga.edu or rzargd&us.edii; The National Acudemies, WSllO3, 500 Fifth St, NW Washington, DC 20001; tel 202/334-3915. Dept ofAfncan and Afro-American Studies, CB 3395, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599; tel 919/962-3536; fa 91 9/962-2694; mlambert@mail.unc.edii.Withdrawing middle class privilege is a process liable to provoke legitimization crises and potentially revolt, and thus needs to be carefully orchestrated in order to gain people's consent to
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