[Aztlan] Interesting Lecture for Students at Baylor U.

[Elaine Day Schele]

Mayans and guerillas part of field work

>From Baylor University's "Lariat" Online News

March 20, 2008 

By Elizabeth Herring

 

Working with local guerrilla groups in the Usumacinta River region in
Guatemala was a normal part of daily life in the anthropology field for Dr.
Andrew Scherer. Scherer, an assistant professor of physical anthropology,
will be discussing his experiences working with the Maya from 4 p.m. to 5
p.m. today in the 116 Draper Academic Building. His lecture is entitled
"Guerrillas, Looters, Narcotraffickers, and United Fruit Archaeology: Modern
Politics in the Study of the Ancient Maya". 

 

Scherer is a biological anthropologist and archeologist whose study is
focused on ancient Maya burials and human skeletal remains. His lecture will
focus on the challenges he faced while working in the Usumacinta River
region because of the political unrest. This region is along the border of
the Mexican state of Chiapas and Guatemala. 

 

Students need to "think about politics and think how our own (anthropology)
work has a positive and negative affect on the regions where we work,"
Scherer said. He said he it is important for students who want to do field
work to know about obstacles that other researchers have faced to help them
gain perspective. 

 

He said he does not want them to try to "navigate the international waters"
without being aware that there will be challenges. Dr. Sara Alexander, the
chair of the anthropology, forensic science and archaeology department, said
that field work is a very important part of studying anthropology. 

 

"Field work is the primary means that anthropologists use to gather data,"
Alexander said. It is important to go to a place and learn first hand about
the people, the culture, and the life they live there, Alexander said. "I
would hope [the lecture] would help give [students] a better understanding
of our world and how it works," Alexander said. The region Dr. Scherer will
be discussing has had a volatile political and economic past. When a
location is politically unstable, it impacts what can be learned there,
Alexander said.

 

Elaine Day Schele

Maya Meetings Volunteer Coordinator

PhD Student

University of Texas 

Latin American Studies

eschele at austin.rr.com

http://www.utmaya.org/

 <http://www.myspace.com/hixwitzutmayameeting>
http://www.myspace.com/hixwitzutmayameeting