E Christian Wells
Biographic Data
| ID | 154263 |
|---|---|
| NAME | E Christian Wells |
| GIVEN NAMES | E Christian |
| FAMILY NAME | Wells |
| SIGNATURE | WELLS E C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of South Florida |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1966-2680 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 49 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 265 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Harvesting Hope in the University Area Community
Archeology and social science theory and method
Integrating Community Engagement and Service Learning into Environmental Engineering Curricula
Engineering education is evolving to train students to work more closely with communities to support holistic sustainability. This has increasingly involved collaborative and participatory research models that address environmental justice challenges within local communities. This research evaluates student learning experiences and changes in perceptions about race, justice, and community in a pair of undergraduate service learning courses in env…
Improving and quantifying organizational resilience for sustainable management of critical infrastructures
Environmental justice from the ground(water) up
How do communities living with chronic environmental contamination cope with the social, political, and economic impacts of the contamination? This research employs a community-engaged oral history approach with participant observation and archival research to address this question. We focus on the case of Tallevast, Florida, where the local groundwater has been contaminated with chlorinated solvents for over 60 years and where cleanup is estimat…
Ethics and ambiguity in wastewater development on the Placencia Peninsula, Belize
Development projects present ambiguous ethical terrain for anthropologists to navigate. Particularly in relation to WaSH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) infrastructures which mediate human and environmental health. Our interdisciplinary team of anthropologists and engineers initially set out to design context-sensitive on-site wastewater treatment infrastructures for homes along Belize's Placencia Peninsula. The project's beginning coincided with th…
Geochemical soil analysis of sequential ritual and residential floors from the Maya site of Holtun
That'S What We Call 'Aesthetics,' Not A Public Health Issue
In the United States, underbounded communities—urban disadvantaged unincorporated neighborhoods characterized by high-poverty and high residential density lying just outside the border of an incorporated municipality—often lack consistent access to clean and safe water. Poor water quality and inadequate infrastructure shape residents’ risk perceptions, often leading to tap water mistrust, but little is known about the broader social, political, a…
Water Infrastructures
Water infrastructures have been central to anthropological theory and practice for many decades. Early research tended to focus on infrastructures related to agriculture, such as irrigation systems, and often emphasized their consequences for social and political organization. While these and other studies (e.g., on hydroelectric dams) continue, work since the early 2000s considers household and community plumbing networks for both potable water …
Environmental Justice Ethnography in the Classroom
In this era of industry deregulation, gutting of environmental protections, and science denial, environmental justice applied anthropology is more important than ever. There is growing ethnographic research into the ways people organize themselves and take action to protect their families and communities from toxins while demanding accountability from polluting industries and the state. When students encounter this literature in university curric…
Mundo Maya
Wells, E. Christian
Archaeometry
Culture, Power, History
This chapter outlines innovative research directions for an archaeology of global environmental change. It is argued that by triangulating environmental challenges along the axes of culture, power, and history, archaeologists can contribute key evidence about socioecological dynamics that is required for understanding where human societies stand relative to larger cycles. By surveying recent articles in the Proceedings of the National Academy of …
Social and Environmental Impacts of British Colonial Rum Production at Betty’s Hope Plantation, Antigua
Ancillary economic activities in a Classic Maya regal palace
This paper presents the results of a multiproxy approach to the ancillary activities which supported the ancient Maya royal court of the center of La Corona (750–900 CE). This approach sampled both the plaster floors and their overlaying soil matrix from areas of the palace of La Corona, resulting in a data set comprised of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry geochemical, soil‐flotation derived microartifactual, and macrobotanical data. …
Wastewater technopolitics on the southern coast of Belize
After a massive hurricane devastated Belize's south coast in 2001, "sustainable tourism" was the national government's answer to spurring economic redevelopment. Since then, the communities of the Placencia Peninsula, in particular, have engaged in rapid tourism development as an economic strategy for securing local livelihoods, culminating in the arrival of mass cruise tourism in 2016. In a region where environmental resources and services shape…
Wells, E. Christian
Mundo Maya
Archaeometry
Archaeological Chemistry
Biomolecular Archaeology
Rapid assessment framework for modeling stakeholder involvement in infrastructure development
The Environmental Legacies of Colonialism in the Northern Neotropics
The arrival and settlement of Europeans throughout the Americas led to unprecedented demographic and environmental transformations (Crosby 2003). The voluntary and forced migration of peoples from
Plantation Soilscapes
This paper examines physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils and sediments from landforms in eastern Antigua, West Indies, to better understand the long-term consequences of colonial plantation agriculture for soil health. Plantation farming played a central role in the history of Caribbean societies, economies, and environments since the seventeenth century. In Antigua, the entire island was variably dedicated to agricultural pursu…
Chemical Analyses of Ancient Anthrosols in Residential Areas at Piedras Negras, Guatemala
Recent Trends in Theorizing Prehispanic Mesoamerican Economies
Sampling Design and Inferential Bias in Archaeological Soil Chemistry
Investigating Activity Patterns In Prehispanic Plazas
Weak acid‐extraction ICP–AES analysis was performed to obtain multi‐elemental characterizations of anthropogenic sediments from plaza spaces that no longer contain artefacts and adjacent trash deposits at the prehispanic site of El Coyote in northwestern Honduras. Multivariate quantitative assessments of the anthrosol chemical data, along with associated inventories of midden materials, are examined to derive signatures for activity areas and ref…
Ritual or residential? An integrated approach to geochemical prospection for understanding the use of plaza spaces at Palmarejo, Honduras
Pottery Production and Microcosmic Organization
Incised-engraved pottery and clays from the Malpaso Valley region of northwest Mexico are chemically characterized to investigate the nature of residential organization of the capital settlement, La Quemada, during the Epiclassic period, ca. A.D. 600-900. Scanning-electron microprobe analysis of 115 pottery and 10 clay samples from settlements in the valley, and from middens associated with the civic-ceremonial core of La Quemada and flanking res…
Analysis of the Context and Contents of an Ulua-Style Marble Vase from the Palmarejo Valley, Honduras
Ulúa-style marble vases played important social, political, economic, and religious roles in southern Mesoamerica during the seventh through eleventh centuries A.D. However, most such vessels known to archaeologists are part of looted collections or else were unearthed before the advent of modern archaeological practices. As a result, little is known about the context, use, and chronology of these objects. Recent investigations at the site of Pal…
Local Religion in Colonial Mexico
Ancillary economic activities in a Classic Maya regal palace
This paper presents the results of a multiproxy approach to the ancillary activities which supported the ancient Maya royal court of the center of La Corona (750–900 CE). This approach sampled both the plaster floors and their overlaying soil matrix from areas of the palace of La Corona, resulting in a data set comprised of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry geochemical, soil‐flotation derived microartifactual, and macrobotanical data. …
Peopling Landscapes between Villages in the Middle Gila River Valley of Central Arizona
The prehistoric Hohokam conducted a great variety of activities in the spaces between their villages, including social gatherings and ceremonial observances as well as economic and subsistence practices. Recent full-coverage pedestrian survey along the middle Gila River in central Arizona indicates that nonresidential sites are more numerous and cover considerably greater area than residential settlements. Unfortunately, in the Hohokam region res…
Plantation Soilscapes
This paper examines physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils and sediments from landforms in eastern Antigua, West Indies, to better understand the long-term consequences of colonial plantation agriculture for soil health. Plantation farming played a central role in the history of Caribbean societies, economies, and environments since the seventeenth century. In Antigua, the entire island was variably dedicated to agricultural pursu…
Wastewater technopolitics on the southern coast of Belize
After a massive hurricane devastated Belize's south coast in 2001, "sustainable tourism" was the national government's answer to spurring economic redevelopment. Since then, the communities of the Placencia Peninsula, in particular, have engaged in rapid tourism development as an economic strategy for securing local livelihoods, culminating in the arrival of mass cruise tourism in 2016. In a region where environmental resources and services shape…
Diversity Dilemmas and Opportunities
Geochemical characterization of inorganic residues on plaster floors from a Maya palace complex at Actuncan, Belize
Balancing Archaeological Responsibilities and Community Commitments
Exploring the implications of a recent discovery in NW Honduras, this paper considers the ethical dilemma that arises when an archaeologist's responsibility to disseminate information conflicts with her/his commitment to protect cultural resources. We suggest that applied archaeology that benefits local communities among which investigations are conducted is a first step toward developing long-term solutions to conservation and stewardship challe…
Geoarchaeology of ritual behavior and sacred places
Agroindustrial Soilscapes in the Caribbean
This research examines the chemical impacts to soils caused by the industrialisation (mechanisation and mass production) of sugar and rum manufacturing in the Caribbean during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Soils and sediments excavated from Betty’s Hope sugar plantation (1674−1944) are chemically characterised by mild acid extraction and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy. These data are integrated with analyses of soil prope…
Scale as a Key Factor for Sustainable Water Management in Northwest Honduras
In northwest Honduras, community-based interventions by outside development agencies seeking to assist communities with the treatment and delivery of potable water have been largely ineffective. This article examines the social, economic, ecological, and engineered contexts of gravity-fed water systems in the Palmarejo Valley of this region, identifying key barriers to long-term sustainability. Drawing from the results of our mixed-methods resear…
The Environmental Legacies of Colonialism in the Northern Neotropics
The arrival and settlement of Europeans throughout the Americas led to unprecedented demographic and environmental transformations (Crosby 2003). The voluntary and forced migration of peoples from
Chemical signatures of ancient activities at Chan b'i - A submerged Maya salt works, Belize
Miskitu Labor and English Royalization at Augusta, Roatán Island, Honduras
Chemical Analyses of Ancient Anthrosols in Residential Areas at Piedras Negras, Guatemala
Pottery Production and Microcosmic Organization
Incised-engraved pottery and clays from the Malpaso Valley region of northwest Mexico are chemically characterized to investigate the nature of residential organization of the capital settlement, La Quemada, during the Epiclassic period, ca. A.D. 600-900. Scanning-electron microprobe analysis of 115 pottery and 10 clay samples from settlements in the valley, and from middens associated with the civic-ceremonial core of La Quemada and flanking res…
Salado archaeology of the Upper Gila, New Mexico
Investigating Activity Patterns In Prehispanic Plazas
Weak acid‐extraction ICP–AES analysis was performed to obtain multi‐elemental characterizations of anthropogenic sediments from plaza spaces that no longer contain artefacts and adjacent trash deposits at the prehispanic site of El Coyote in northwestern Honduras. Multivariate quantitative assessments of the anthrosol chemical data, along with associated inventories of midden materials, are examined to derive signatures for activity areas and ref…
Peopling Landscapes between Villages in the Middle Gila River Valley of Central Arizona
The prehistoric Hohokam conducted a great variety of activities in the spaces between their villages, including social gatherings and ceremonial observances as well as economic and subsistence practices. Recent full-coverage pedestrian survey along the middle Gila River in central Arizona indicates that nonresidential sites are more numerous and cover considerably greater area than residential settlements. Unfortunately, in the Hohokam region res…
Recent Trends in Theorizing Prehispanic Mesoamerican Economies
Balancing Archaeological Responsibilities and Community Commitments
Exploring the implications of a recent discovery in NW Honduras, this paper considers the ethical dilemma that arises when an archaeologist's responsibility to disseminate information conflicts with her/his commitment to protect cultural resources. We suggest that applied archaeology that benefits local communities among which investigations are conducted is a first step toward developing long-term solutions to conservation and stewardship challe…
Local Religion in Colonial Mexico
Toward a theory of ritual economy
Ritual economy is a theoretical approach for understanding and explaining the ways in which worldview, economy, power, and human agency interlink in society and social change. Defined as the "process of provisioning and consuming that materializes and substantiates worldview for managing meaning and shaping interpretation," this approach forefronts the study of human engagement with social, material, and cognitive realms of human experience. This…
Dimensions of Ritual Economy
Increasingly, economists have acknowledged that a major limitation to economic theory has been its failure to incorporate human values and beliefs as motivational factors. Conversely, the economic underpinnings of ritual practice are under-theorized and therefore not accessible to economists working on synthetic theories of human choice. This book addresses the problem by bringing together anthropologists with diverse backgrounds in the study of …
Sampling Design and Inferential Bias in Archaeological Soil Chemistry
Cultural Heritage and Economic Encounters in the Age of Global Tourism
Keywords: tourism, economics, heritage, globalization, Society for Economic Anthropology annual meeting
Citizenship and Sustainability
sustainability, curriculum development, global citizenship, global sustainability, education, University of South Florida
Crafting and Manufacturing in Mesoamerica
Production systems have long been an important subject of archaeological research in Mesoamerica. Studying how and why people formed particular groups and how those groups allocated labor and resources helps us to identify the social, economic, cultural, political, and even cosmological constraints and pressures that motivate people to make things. Driven, in part, by object-hungry museum directors in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,…
Miskitu Labor and English Royalization at Augusta, Roatán Island, Honduras
Cultivated Landscapes as Inalienable Wealth in Southeastern Mesoamerica
Annette Weiner's theory of inalienable possessions, while bridging important gaps between meaning and materiality in archaeological studies of labor, gives short shrift to the potential role of landed property in constituting regimes of value. This chapter responds by exploring how archaeologists can study the social, political, and economic consequences of the inheritance of cultivated landscapes from estate ancestors. Drawing on Weiner's framew…
Analysis of the Context and Contents of an Ulua-Style Marble Vase from the Palmarejo Valley, Honduras
Ulúa-style marble vases played important social, political, economic, and religious roles in southern Mesoamerica during the seventh through eleventh centuries A.D. However, most such vessels known to archaeologists are part of looted collections or else were unearthed before the advent of modern archaeological practices. As a result, little is known about the context, use, and chronology of these objects. Recent investigations at the site of Pal…
Scale as a Key Factor for Sustainable Water Management in Northwest Honduras
In northwest Honduras, community-based interventions by outside development agencies seeking to assist communities with the treatment and delivery of potable water have been largely ineffective. This article examines the social, economic, ecological, and engineered contexts of gravity-fed water systems in the Palmarejo Valley of this region, identifying key barriers to long-term sustainability. Drawing from the results of our mixed-methods resear…
Diversity Dilemmas and Opportunities
Geochemical characterization of inorganic residues on plaster floors from a Maya palace complex at Actuncan, Belize
Chemical signatures of ancient activities at Chan b'i - A submerged Maya salt works, Belize
Agroindustrial Soilscapes in the Caribbean
This research examines the chemical impacts to soils caused by the industrialisation (mechanisation and mass production) of sugar and rum manufacturing in the Caribbean during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Soils and sediments excavated from Betty’s Hope sugar plantation (1674−1944) are chemically characterised by mild acid extraction and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy. These data are integrated with analyses of soil prope…
Rapid assessment framework for modeling stakeholder involvement in infrastructure development
The Environmental Legacies of Colonialism in the Northern Neotropics
The arrival and settlement of Europeans throughout the Americas led to unprecedented demographic and environmental transformations (Crosby 2003). The voluntary and forced migration of peoples from
Plantation Soilscapes
This paper examines physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils and sediments from landforms in eastern Antigua, West Indies, to better understand the long-term consequences of colonial plantation agriculture for soil health. Plantation farming played a central role in the history of Caribbean societies, economies, and environments since the seventeenth century. In Antigua, the entire island was variably dedicated to agricultural pursu…
Geography (31 works) · Archaeology (30 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (25 works) · Political science (15 works) · History (14 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Politics (10 works) · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis (9 works) · Economics (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works)