Anthropology

A Collaborative Approach to Relational Landscapes in Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico

Christopher Hernandez
Department of Anthropology
Loyola University Chicago

February 2, 2023, 4:00 pm via Zoom

In this talk, I demonstrate how an intersectional approach to collaborative archaeology promotes social justice and leads to a more robust archaeology. In partnership with the Mayas who live in Puerto Bello Metzabok, Chiapas, Mexico, I have applied geospatial analysis, traditional excavation methods, and relational philosophies to understand how past peoples made war with the landscape. This work demonstrates how the war-making process extends to actors beyond those on the battlefield and how collaborative archaeologies can promote Indigenous self-determination in the present.

Christopher Hernandez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Loyola University Chicago. As an anthropological archaeologist his research focuses on issues of archaeological ethics, the application of community-based methods, relational philosophy, and understanding social conflict in long-term perspective. Through the application of aerial laser scanning (lidar), documentary analysis, and collaborative excavations, he investigates how the process of making war shaped landscapes in the Mensabak region of Chiapas, Mexico. Some of Hernandez’s musings on the past, present, and future of the human experience can be found on Twitter (@profclh) and his YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRSZmN-VAlp-H8X22Uw0vPQ).