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ABSTRACT Over the last several decades, scholars have reexamined the importance of spatiality to human life and argued that space produces and is produced by social relationships. This article adopts such a relational understanding of space to examine the production of eco‐archaeological tourist attractions in the eastern Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and beyond. Specifically, this article considers the common practice of declaring areas encompassing archaeological sites as nature parks or wildernesses. Because so many sites are currently located in areas that have been deemed natural, scholars cannot fully understand the contemporary production of archaeological space without examining the historic production of nature and wilderness. Using the Xcaret Eco‐Archaeological Park and the Otoch Ma'ax Yetel Kooh, this article shows that although the creation of archaeological nature parks frequently harms indigenous peoples through processes of spatial colonization and spatial commodification, the production of such spaces can also enable and empower local, marginalized groups. [wilderness, political authority social inequality, community archaeology, the Maya]
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Maya cartographies: Two maps of Punta Laguna, Yucatan, Mexico
It is common to view maps as simple reflections of the world. Maps, however, are more complex and dynamic. They are a potent form of spatial imagination and a powerful means of producing space. This article encourages archaeologists to experiment with, and to produce a multiplicity of, maps and other spatial images. As an example, this article juxtaposes two previously unpublished maps of Punta Laguna, Yucatan, Mexico: a site map created using traditional archaeological conventions and a visual cartographic history created using Indigenous Maya spatial ontologies. Because they depict space relationally, Indigenous Maya maps are arguably more congruous with contemporary social theories about space than are traditional Western maps. Further, the juxtaposition of two radically different maps of the same place highlights those mapping conventions that scholars often take for granted; demonstrates how specifically maps are selective and subjective; and emphasizes that Western worldviews are neither natural nor ubiquitous.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1725340
- PAR ID:
- 10185141
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Social Archaeology
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 1469-6053
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 119 to 143
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605320914105
