Dr. Mary Pohl specializes in the archaeology of the Olmec and Maya cultures. Her main focus is the domestication of flora and fauna. She is particularly interested in the transition from forging to agriculture with a special concern for the evolution of maize. She is studying the role of the economic base in the rise of complex society in tropical lowland civilizations in Mesoamerica. Other areas of research include the domestication of dogs and deer as well as the role of gender in food production for both subsistence and ritual use.

Michael D. Carrasco's areas of specialization include the art history of Mesoamerica, Maya epigraphy, and Yucatec Mayan. He teaches courses on the art and culture of the indigenous Americas as well as courses on image theory and the intersection of anthropology and art history. Additionally, he has taught courses on Maya epigraphy for Wesleyan University, the University of North Carolina and Duke Summer Yucatec Program, and at the Maya Meetings at the University of Texas, Austin. He is currently working on two book-length projects. The first is tentatively entitled Of How they Pleased the Hearts of their Gods, and explores issues of divine embodiment and icon use among the Maya and other Mesoamerican cultures. The second, From the Stone Painter’s Brush: An Anthology of Classic Maya Literature, (with Kerry M. Hull) presents translations of important texts from the corpus of Classic Maya inscriptions.

I am a doctoral student, specializing in Mesoamerican archaeology, under the direction of Dr. Mary Pohl. My current research focuses on the development of Mesoamerican writing systems in the Preclassic period and the correlation of emerging scripts with diachronic changes in material culture. I am also interested in more general questions regarding the development of complex societies, linguistic acquisition, and anthropological theory. I have lived, worked, or studied in a variety of countries, including Nepal, India, Thailand, England, Kenya, and Mexico.

Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán

My primary research concerns the political economy of emerging social complexity in Formative period Mesoamerica. I am especially interested in issues of agricultural intensification and food processing. I use molecular archaeology and paleobotanical analysis to explore these topics. I also research the role of intoxication, particularly with alcohol, in ritual and politics in ancient Mesoamerica.

My Master’s thesis research involved multiple forms of molecular analyses of absorbed organic residues in ceramics from a feasting midden at the Olmec site of San Andrés, Tabasco, Mexico, located nearby the major ceremonial center of La Venta. Comparison of maize-use patterns between classes of vessels as seen in bulk stable carbon isotope analysis suggested that the Olmec drank maize beer at feasts.

I am currently conducting my dissertation research on agricultural intensification associated with the beginnings of early kingship at the ancient Maya site of San Estevan, northern Belize. My research will compare paleobotanical macroremains and absorbed organic residues in ceramics from middens preceding and coinciding with the earliest kings at the site. I conducted fieldwork at San Estevan in 2005 and 2008 with archaeological field schools run by Dr. Robert Rosenswig of SUNY Albany, working as an excavation supervisor in 2005 and as field director in 2008.

San Estevan Archaeological Project

MA Thesis

My dissertation research focuses on the archaeobotanical remains from the Formative Period site of Cantón Corralito, Chiapas, Mexico (1600-1000 BC). Cantón Corralito has initially been interpreted as a colony of Gulf Olmec peoples, located approximately 300 miles south of traditional Olmec territory in the Soconusco region on the Pacific Slope of Chiapas. Research at the site done by David Cheetham in 2004, links Cantón Corralito with the Olmec urban center of San Lorenzo. Initial interpretations of Cantón Corralito as a Gulf Olmec colony have been made based on comparative analyses of ceramics and figurines at the site with those found at San Lorenzo.

My data set consists of the archaeobotanical remains present in soil samples collected from the 2004 excavations at Cantón Corralito. Archaeobotanical remains were recovered through water flotation. The technique takes advantage of the differing densities of organic and inorganic remains within the soil sample to separate the archaeobotanical remains from the soil matrix (Pearsall 2000:14). Water flotation entails immersing the midden sample in water and agitating the sample to separate the archaeobotanical remains from the soil. The remains then “float” to the surface where they are skimmed off and collected for analysis (Pearsall 2000:15). The soil samples were located at the New World Archaeological Foundation Laboratory in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. During May of 2007, I processed the samples by flotation in Mexico and packaged them to be shipped to Florida State University where I am analyzing the samples.

My analysis of the archaeobotanical remains at the site will provide a new perspective on the economic, political, and social implications of food procurement in the Early Formative Period in Mesoamerica. I am addressing two central issues in analyzing the archaeobotanical remains at Cantón Corralito. First, I am going to analyze the plant remains to make interpretations about what kind of changes are occurring at the site during the Early Formative Period. The project will identify what plant remains were being utilized by the inhabitants of Cantón Corralito and how they reflect the overall changes in subsistence strategies during the Formative Period. Second, I am using Cantón Corralito as a test case to research the interaction between foodways, social identity, and food symbolism. This second contribution explores more creative and original avenues by going beyond the identification of particular plant species to investigate why societies differ in what they consider food, how societies use these differences to communicate social identity within and between groups, and how these concepts connect to symbolic manifestations of food imagery.

I am a PhD candidate in cultural/linguistic anthropology, focusing on tourism and language usage among the Maya of southern Mexico. I'm interested in the relationship between language and identity, attitudes towards language use and the tourism industry, and the overall linguistic construction of personhood created through the interaction between Maya workers and foreign tourists. Other topics of interest include historical/comparative linguistics, gender and language, Maya history, and various aspects of cultural anthropology. I will teach Language and Culture starting in fall 2007 and have been a TA for this class and Intro. to Cultural Anthropology for the past three years. My advisor is Dr. Uzendoski, and also study under the supervision of Dr. Hellweg, Dr. Pohl, and Dr. Sunderman.