Archaeological consultations with indigenous communities in southern Belize

Project Lead:

Keith Prufer, Professor, Department of Anthropology, UNM

Affiliations:

Collaborating Partner: Beth Dorgay, Scientific Director, Ya’axche’ Conservation Trust Punta Gorda, Belize

Project Description:

This Ortiz funded project will engage in consultations with five indigenous Maya communities in Belize regarding archaeological research in areas near to their customary lands. The primary goal of this project is to increase community knowledge, engagement, and collaboration in archaeological and cultural heritage research in the area of their communities. The objectives for this goal are to: (a) present and describe our archaeological research and results to the communities; (b) obtain community feedback on the methods, applications, and results of the research; (c) clarify and discuss any concerns regarding the conduct, financing, ethics, and management of the research project; and (d) solicit suggestions for research questions that community members are interested in learning about and to discuss the feasibility of answering those questions. The second goal of this project is the dissemination of research results and educational materials to community representatives. The objectives for this goal are to: (a) up-date and distribute copies of published articles from the project with Mopan and Q’eqchi’ language summaries; (b)  distribute copies of educational workbooks for children (archaeology and cultural/environmental heritage); up-date and distribute copies of health-related posters from NIH funded collaborations; (d) distribute copies of textbooks and scientific books for community libraries.