Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assembling the Ancient: Public Science in the Decipherment of Maya Hieroglyphs

博士论文研究：集合古代：玛雅象形文字破译中的公共科学

• 批准号: 0723636
• 负责人: Susan Gillespie
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-01 至 2008-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0723636&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Assembling; Ancient

This project focuses ethnographic attention on series of workshops in Palenque, Mexico; Austin, Texas; and Antigua, Guatemala, that have connected scholars striving to discover the history of Maya civilization with members of the general public casually or non-academically interested in the ancient Maya and their writing. While the project is not explicitly focused on developing more effective pedagogy in such workshop spaces, it does seek to describe the ways in which connections between scholars and the public have shaped what counts (scientifically) as historical accuracy. This is a particularly significant history to articulate because many of the participants in such workshops, especially those in Antigua, have been Maya, an underrepresented and politically disenfranchised group in Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States. While the linguistic knowledge of these workshop participants has played an irreducible role in hieroglyphic decipherment, they have received little in the way of material compensation and recognition of intellectual and cultural property. To the contrary, the narratives of ancient Maya violence produced by epigraphers have been used to rationalize ongoing state marginalization of indigenous communities. This project will show how such scientific knowledge has been used in unexpected ways to further disadvantage those that it claims to represent.Intellectual Merit. The proposed historical ethnography brings the perspectives of science and technology studies (STS) to bear on a new topical area: the decipherment of ancient Maya hieroglyphs. In so doing, the project relays the concerns of STS into the production of historical knowledge. While historical accounts of Maya hieroglyphic decipherment have emerged recently, their authors have all been actively involved in the process of decipherment and subsequent developments within the field of epigraphy. Such authors have produced narrow historical narratives of epigraphy's progressive accumulation of knowledge, without accounting for the diverse participants included in the scientific process. In contrast, this ethnographic treatment seeks to document the differentially interested participants in the process of decipherment and the subsequent uses of hieroglyphic knowledge outside of academic conversations. This will be accomplished through an ethnographic methodology combining interviews with scholars, enthusiasts, and Maya involved in three series of collaborative scientific workshops, and narrative analysis of published and unpublished documents produced and dispersed in such workshop spaces. The proposed phases of research extend ethnographic and archival research already conducted. Ultimately, this project uses the conceptual resources of STS and the empirical commitment of ethnography to help render the scientific process and societal consequences of hieroglyphic knowledge production more transparent. Broader Impact. As ethnography is an intrinsically collaborative field, this study will seek to develop partnerships with those who have been involved in workshops, striving to ensure that the history that is produced feeds back into the process of workshop pedagogy. The work will be publicly presented in English and Spanish at conferences attended by Maya scholars and activists in the United States and Guatemala. Finally, in addition to academic presentations and publications, research reports will be produced for public distribution in English and Spanish on the website of the Maya Exploration Center (www.mayaexploration.org), a nonprofit organization that sponsors Maya research and study abroad opportunities.

该项目集中关注在墨西哥帕伦克、德克萨斯州奥斯汀和危地马拉安提瓜举办的一系列研讨会，这些研讨会将努力探索玛雅文明历史的学者与对古代玛雅及其著作感兴趣的普通公众联系在一起。虽然该项目没有明确地侧重于在这样的研讨会空间中开发更有效的教学方法，但它确实试图描述学者和公众之间的联系如何(从科学上)塑造了什么是历史准确性。这是一段特别重要的历史，因为参加这类研讨会的许多人，特别是在安提瓜的人，都是玛雅人，在危地马拉、墨西哥和美国，玛雅人代表不足，被剥夺了政治权利。虽然这些讲习班学员的语言知识对象形文字的破译起到了不可低估的作用，但在物质补偿和知识产权和文化财产的承认方面却收效甚微。相反，金石学家对古代玛雅暴力的叙述被用来为土著社区正在进行的国家边缘化辩护。这个项目将展示这些科学知识如何以意想不到的方式被用来进一步使它声称代表的那些人处于不利地位。拟议的历史民族志将科学和技术研究(STS)的视角引入一个新的主题领域：解读古代玛雅象形文字。在这样做的过程中，该项目将STS的关注传递到历史知识的生产中。虽然最近出现了关于玛雅象形文字破译的历史记载，但它们的作者都积极参与了破译过程和随后在金石学领域的发展。这些作者对金石学逐渐积累的知识进行了狭隘的历史叙述，而没有考虑到科学过程中包括的不同参与者。相反，这种人种志处理试图记录在解读过程中不同兴趣的参与者，以及随后在学术对话之外使用象形文字知识的情况。这将通过一种人种学方法来实现，该方法结合了对参与三个系列协作科学研讨会的学者、爱好者和玛雅人的采访，以及对在这些研讨会空间中制作和散布的已出版和未出版的文件进行叙事分析。拟议的研究阶段扩展了已经开展的人种学和档案研究。最终，该项目利用STS的概念资源和人种学的经验承诺，帮助使象形文字知识生产的科学过程和社会后果更加透明。更广泛的影响。由于人种学是一个本质上相互协作的领域，这项研究将寻求与参加讲习班的人发展伙伴关系，努力确保所产生的历史反馈到讲习班的教学过程中。这项工作将在美国和危地马拉的玛雅学者和活动家参加的会议上以英语和西班牙语公开展示。最后，除了学术报告和出版物外，研究报告还将以英语和西班牙语在玛雅探索中心的网站上公开分发。玛雅探索中心是一个赞助玛雅研究和出国留学机会的非营利性组织。