Engaging Local Communities in Archaeology: Observations from a Maya site in Yucatán, México

Abstract

How do we—whether cultural resource managers, heritage professionals, museum curators, educators, or archaeologists—measure either the significance or success of a public archaeology outreach project? Further, to what degree and upon what terms do the differently constituted “publics” of archaeological work engage in outreach endeavors? In this chapter, I present the case of a developing archaeological site, Chanmula, located in the northwest of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.1 The account I give is drawn from my ethnographic research in the site’s neighboring communities over the course of their increasing involvement in the excavation work of a US-based archaeological team over the past several years. At this site, archaeologists have made great efforts toward maintaining a high degree of transparency in their motives and methods. They have reached out to the affected public by seeking local participation in the production of archaeological knowledge and the creation of tourism development plans centered on the site. Yet as these archaeologists strive toward a reciprocal engagement with the local Yucatec Maya community, a series of miscommunications and misunderstandings have arisen due in part to the complexities of cross-cultural differences in legal, ethical, and ideological realms. While local residents called into question the motives of foreign archaeologists as well as legalities of work on their communal agricultural land, researchers assume that locals would (and indeed should) welcome archaeological development—and its promises to rejuvenate the weak local economy—with open arms. While archaeologists see their work as strengthening local cultural identity by using the site as a pedagogical tool to link ancient and contemporary Maya populations, Chanmula’s neighboring residents challenge the expediency and appropriateness of this cultural continuity model. For them, “heritage” is a modern, not 5 Engaging Local Communities in Archaeology: Observations from a Maya Site in Yucatan, Mexico