Exploring Environmental Justice Through Archaeology: Case Studies From the Maya Area
**This event is open to those of the anthropology community ONLY**
The nature/culture binary is not universal or transhistorical; rather, it is the result of colonial relations that continue to produce injustices. Contrary to colonial logics, ancient Maya engagements with environments did not place humans above the more-than-human world. In this talk, I present my research in Belize that seeks to de-naturalize contemporary colonial relations by examining contexts outside of colonialism, historicizing present-day water insecurities, and collaborating with local communities. The ancient Maya city of Aventura exemplifies how Indigenous ontologies enabled equal access to water during periods of rapid political and environmental change. British logging in the 18th and 19th centuries, followed by the explosion of the sugar cane industry, severely disrupted these ways of relating to land and water. However, intergenerational knowledge and oral histories indicate Maya ways of being did not “disappear” with the onset of these colonial industries. Alongside local collaborators, my ongoing research examines how communities build resilience in the face of political collapse, colonialism, and climate change. This work resonates with contemporary environmental justice movements by illustrating present-day injustices are the results of specific historical and political processes and equitable access to resources in times of scarcity can foster community longevity.
