Doctoral Dissertation Research: Preservation through Privatization: Maya Heritage Workers and Transnational Institutions in Yucatan, Mexico

William Marsh Rice University, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation research is a comparative study of how those Maya communities associated with the archaeological zones, Chunchucmil and Chichen Itza, negotiate and experience their roles, meanings, and claims over archaeological patrimony in the context of the implementation of cultural heritage policy by national institutions, foreign archaeological projects, and international government organizations. Through ethnographic description of Maya conceptions of space, property, and ownership, the juridical establishment and regulation of archaeological zones, and the recent efforts to establish local cultural foundations with international ties, the research considers how current endeavors on the part of archaeologists and local communities to develop and preserve cultural heritage promote "alternative privatizations" of archaeological zones. This study engages the fields of Maya studies and cultural heritage studies, providing baseline criteria by which to comparatively study how Maya communities integrate with the modernizing influences of institutional, scientific, and commercial agencies of regional, national, and international scale. In addition to training a doctoral student in cultural anthropology, the findings of this research will contribute to understanding those factors that enhance or impede efforts to nationalize and/or privatize cultural heritage.