Using new primary data from her excavations at the sites of Yaxuna, Chunchucmil, and Xuenkal, and new analysis of data from Dzibilchaltun in Yucatan, Mexico, Traci Ardren presents a series of case studies on how social identities were created, shared, and manipulated among the lowland Maya. She argues that the interacting factors of gender, age, familial and community memories, and the experience of living in an urban setting were some of the key aspects of Maya identities. Viewing the archeological evidence through the lens of recent social theory, Ardren demonstrates that material culture and its circulation are an integral part of the discourse about social identity and group membership.
Traci Ardren is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at the University of Miami. She co-directs the Proyecto Arqueológico Xuenkal, which explores the role of trade and economic change in the rise of Chichén Itzá from the perspective of a major site along the trade routes of the northern plains of Yucatán, Mexico. She directs the Matecumbe Chiefdom Project, which investigates the political organization and environmental adaptation of the pre-Hispanic occupants of the Florida Keys. She has curated a number of exhibits at the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami, including The Jaguar’s Spots: Ancient Mesoamerican Art from the Lowe Art Museum (2010) and Flowers for the Earth Lord: Guatemalan Textiles from the Permanent Collection (2006). She is the editor of Ancient Maya Women (AltaMira) and The Social Experience of Childhood in Ancient Mesoamerica (University Press Colorado). Her work has appeared in such journals as Antiquity, World Archaeology, Journal of Field Archaeology, and Latin American Antiquity.
