Heritage Activism in Quintana Roo, Mexico:

The future of archaeology is (still) community collaboration

“…Nonetheless, there have been archaeologists from Latin America, working in Latin America, who have steadfastly applied the principles of community-based research in their work (e.g. Hernández Álvarez & Martín Medina 2016; Balanzátegui Moreno 2018; Ichikawa 2018; Migeon 2019; Diserens Morgan & Leventhal 2020; Harrison-Buck & Clarke-Vivier 2020; Fryer & Diserens Morgan 2021; McAnany et al 2021; Hartemann 2022; Weaver et al 2022). One particularly strong example is the El Proyecto Santa María de la Antigua del Darién project which began in 2013 at the behest of the Colombian Ministry of Culture, the National University of Colombia, and the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History.…”

Coloniality in the Maya Lowlands: Archaeological Perspectives

“…Although not every project focused on the recent past will be overtly political, the reality of coloniality means that such projects will be difficult to disentangle from the sociopolitical concerns of the present moment, and we remain unconvinced that they should be. Aligning with recent trends in archaeology and anthropology (e.g., Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Ferguson 2007;Hale 2007;Atalay 2012;Atalay et al 2014;McAnany 2016;Fryer and Diserens Morgan 2021), many of our authors thus combine their archaeological research with ethnographic, engaged, and activism-oriented methodologies, examining the impact of their work on modern-day descendant communities and the ways engagement with modern-day communities in turn impacts their research.…”