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

本论文比较研究了在国家机构、外国考古项目和国际政府组织实施文化遗产政策的背景下，与春楚密尔考古区和奇琴伊察考古区相关的玛雅社区如何协商和体验他们对考古遗产的角色、意义和主张。通过对玛雅人空间、财产和所有权概念的民族志描述，考古区的司法建立和监管，以及最近建立具有国际联系的地方文化基金会的努力，本研究考虑了考古学家和当地社区目前在开发和保护文化遗产方面的努力如何促进考古区的“另类私有化”。本研究涉及玛雅研究和文化遗产研究领域，为比较研究玛雅社区如何与地区、国家和国际规模的机构、科学和商业机构的现代化影响相结合提供了基线标准。除了培养一名文化人类学的博士生外，这项研究的结果将有助于理解那些促进或阻碍文化遗产国有化和/或私有化努力的因素。

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.