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

本论文的研究是对考古区相关的玛雅社区Chunchucmil和Chichen Itza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，如何协商和体验他们在考古遗产方面的角色、意义和主张进行的比较研究。通过对玛雅人的空间、财产和所有权概念的民族志描述，考古区的司法建立和管理，以及最近建立具有国际联系的地方文化基金会的努力，该研究思考了考古学家和当地社区目前为发展和保护文化遗产所做的努力如何促进考古区的“替代私有化”。这项研究涉及玛雅研究和文化遗产研究领域，提供了比较研究玛雅社区如何与区域、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的基线标准。除了对博士生进行文化人类学方面的培训外，这项研究的结果还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.