Maya Cultural Heritage : How Archaeologists and Indigenous Communities Engage the Past

McAnany sheds light on the varied ways today’s Maya communities relate to—and are often distanced from—their deep past, historicizes the role of archaeologists and nations in pre-Columbian heritage, and highlights how grass-roots heritage programs can bridge scientific investigation and local community interests.

Situated at the intersection of cultural heritage and local community, this book enlarges our understanding of the Indigenous peoples of southern México and northern Central America who became detached from “the ancient Maya” through colonialism, government actions, and early twentieth-century anthropological and archaeological research. Through grass-roots heritage programs, local communities are reconnecting with a much valorized but distant past.Maya Cultural Heritage explores how community programs conceived and implemented in a collaborative style are changing the relationship among, archaeological practice, the objects of archaeological study, and contemporary ethnolinguistic Mayan communities. Rather than simply describing Maya sites, McAnany concentrates on the dialogue nurtured by these participatory heritage programs, the new “heritage-scapes” they foster, and how the diverse Maya communities of today relate to those of the past.