Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Classic Maya Human-Animal Interactions

Washington University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. David Freidel, Diana Fridberg will analyze remains and depictions of animals excavated since 2003 at the Classic Period (ca. 200-750 CE) sites of El Perú-Waka and La Corona, Guatemala. The sites of El Peru and La Corona are located in Laguna del Tigre National Park, a protected jungle enclave in northwestern Petén, Guatemala. Although these ancient cities were politically important during the Maya Classic Period (ca. 200-750 CE), research has not yet addressed how inhabitants utilized the surrounding environment. Ms. Fridberg's research will address the ways in which humans interacted with and made use of tropical forest fauna in activities related to both daily living and ceremonial pursuits. The research is innovative in combining data from multiple sources since both actual faunal remains as well as iconographic images will be combined within a single analytic framework. This will provide a model for similar approaches to sites from multiple time periods and multiple regions of the world. Human-animal relations underpin many aspects of food consumption, craft production, and the development of cultural and religious practices. They are understood to vary in time and space, but little is known about this variation in the vast Maya region. Knowledge of the ways in which human populations have managed and utilized the natural environment, including animals, is essential for understanding the success or failure of these strategies. This study will utilize material that has been excavated from El Perú and La Corona but for which specialized analysis has not previously been available. Skeletal analysis of animal remains will be performed to determine taxonomic identity of represented fauna. The abundance and diversity of animals represented in ceremonial and mundane contexts such as palaces, temples, tombs, and residential areas will be used to assess the nature of animal use. Depictions of animals in art and architecture will also be analyzed. Considering the ways in which people both used physical animals and represented the natural world artistically has been fruitful for untangling how ancient populations elsewhere in the world thought about and interacted with their environments. This project involves collaboration with between American and Guatemalan archaeologists and universities. The results of this research will be presented in conferences and peer-reviewed journals in the United States and Guatemala. The specimen collection portion of this research will aid the biology departments at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala in augmenting sparse faunal collections used for teaching and research. In addition, public outreach efforts will involve the production of accessible and publically available media to aid in the dissemination of knowledge about both ancient culture and modern wildlife. This will include Internet publication of datasets and the creation of English and Spanish language brochures on ancient uses and modern conservation status of animals in Laguna del Tigre. Although a protected zone, the Park and its endangered habitats are threatened by the encroachment of settlement. The presence of ongoing research camps, such as those of the El Perú and La Corona archaeological projects, slows encroachment while gathering data on threatened natural and cultural resources.