I am a bioarchaeologist and my research integrates biological and contextual data to examine long term human-environment interactions and the health consequences of social inequality among the precolonial and early colonial peoples of Mesoamerica. I have conducted research at Maya sites in Yucatán, Tabasco, and Chiapas, including Mayapán (2003-present), Comalcalco (2011-present), and Moxviquil (2018-present). My research interests include warfare, diet, health, body modification, mortuary practices, migration, climate change and engaged scholarship.
My current project examines social identity and interregional interaction on the western Maya frontier and centers on Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) Comalcalco in coastal Tabasco and a funerary cave at Late Classic-Early Postclassic (A.D. 600-1250) Moxviquil in highland Chiapas. This project integrates the literatures on corporeal presentation and material culture style with the bioarchaeological study of identity to reveal differences in how intergroup boundaries are manipulated and modified through time in highland and coastal communities in a border region. Further, the chance discovery of these funerary deposits highlights the importance of incorporating site peripheries into reconstructions of social landscapes of death for non-elites. This research produced the article, “A Funerary Cave at Moxviquil, Chiapas, Mexico,” (Journal of Field Archaeology 2020).
This study grew out of research exploring Postclassic Maya inequality and urbanism, and the rise and fall of the last major precolonial Maya polity at Mayapán. I worked as part of a large multidisciplinary team that integrated high-precision radiocarbon dates with paleoclimate, skeletal trauma, health, and archaeological data to investigate the responses of different segments of late precontact Maya society to environmental change. We found that drought exacerbated underlying political tensions and ultimately led to the violent overthrow and collapse of Mayapán’s government, although much of city’s population had already chosen to leave and resettle elsewhere by then. This research appears in Nature Communications (2022).
Our team is currently investigating long term human-environment interaction and societal resilience among the Maya of northwest Yucatan, focusing in particular on the period preceding the rise of Mayapán and the aftermath of its collapse and Spanish colonization. It is not yet known how this region was able to thrive during the Terminal Classic period (A.D. 800-1000) while many southern lowland Maya settlements were being depopulated. Further, it has been suggested that the major droughts of the eleventh century led to demographic collapse but this has yet to be demonstrated. Also, fundamental questions remain regarding the timing of the rise and fall of important centers in this region and their relationship to Chichén Itzá. Evidence for the important role of rural resilience in Postclassic Maya population recovery is presented in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology (2024), while preliminary findings on the early Colonial component appear in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology (2021).
My research addresses the role of inequality in how societies adapt to long term environmental changes, which provides insight relevant to current global efforts to combat climate change. It contributes to anthropological debates on the role of social identity in ancient cities and borderlands and, lastly, advances knowledge and theory of ancient communities on the western Maya periphery and in the Postclassic period.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
I regularly present my research and participate in workshops at national and international conferences, some of which have included:
Society for American Archaeology
American Association of Biological Anthropologists
Paleopathology Association
Dental Anthropology Association
Australasian Society for Human Biology
Australian Archaeological Association
Australian and New Zealand Association of Clinical Anatomists