The Ancient Maya and the Political Present
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3033652 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R Wilk (0000-0001-8623-7874, corresponding author), Richard R Wilk |
| Year | 1985 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 307-326 |
| Publication date | 1985-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Anthropological Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0091-7710 • E-ISSN: 2153-3806 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/jar.41.3.3630596 |
| OpenAlex | W2325464540 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 61 |
| References cited | 41 |
Can archaelogists depict the past with any accuracy, and is that their goal? Where do archaeologists' ideas come from in the first place? This paper suggests that archaeological discourse has a dual nature: at the same time that it pursues objective, verifiable knowledge about the past, it also conducts an informal and often hidden political and philosophical debate about the major issues of contemporary life. This paper investigates this second, hidden dialogue within a single subfield of archaeology, Maya prehistory. What gives power to the past, and to archaeology, is the way it is used to political and philosophical ends. The task is to recognize the nature of the dialogue and to take responsibility for it
Archaeology · Art · Dual (grammatical number · Epistemology · Literature · Maya · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Prehistory · Sociology · Task (project management · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Law · Philosophy
Archaeology Under Fire
Introduction
Embodied archaeology
Interpreting the Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization
Seeking an Ethical Balance in Archaeological Practice in Ecuador
Making an honest man of Oxford
Reading the Past
European Archaeology and Two Brazilian Offspring
Like WHAT? A practical question of analogical inference and archaeological meaningfulness
Consuming the Maya
To be or not to be? Public archaeology as a tool of public opinion and the dilemma of intellectuality
Can an archaeologist be a public intellectual
Exerting influence? Responsibility and the public role of archaeology in divided societies
"Open Veins" of the Past
Forum
Archaeology, Eurocentrism, and the British Historical Worldview
Towards a Critical Archaeology
On Recent Trends in the Anthropology of Foragers
Climate and the Ancient World
Inicios de la relación entre Arqueología y divulgación
Teaching Maya art history
Working Borders
British Perspectives on Eurocentric Archaeologies
Preservation as ‘Disaster Capitalism’
Working through theoretical tensions in contemporary archaeology
What Maya Collapse? Terminal Classic Variation in the Maya Lowlands
Nothing Lasts Forever
Using in‐field phosphate testing to rapidly identify middens at Piedras Negras, Guatemala
Socio-Political Values and Archaeological Research
Listening in the Pakal controversy
TAG and ‘post-modernism’
Ancient art in modern context
An Ethos for Archaeological Practice
Archaeology, History, and Historical Archaeology in South America
Ideology, Archaeology and Polity
Teaching Anti-Colonial Archaeology
Uses of the Past
Marxism, Tribal Society, and the Dual Nature of Archaeology
Evaluating Multiple Narratives
Maya archaeology and the political and cultural identity of contemporary Maya in Guatemala
Native Americans and the Practice of Archaeology
Post‐processual developments in Anglo‐American archaeology
Famine Foods and Food Security in the Northern Maya Lowlands
Social Memory and Sacred Sites in the Western Maya Highlands
The Evolution of Ancient Maya Exchange Systems
Alienating Ancient Maya Commoners
Concepts of community in the pursuit of an inclusive archaeology
Beyond crusades
Interpersonal Violence at Playa Venado, Panama (550-850 Ad)
The rise and fall of Bronze Age studies in England 1840-1960
Sustainable archaeology
Understanding the archaeological record
The 1990s
Post-modernism, rhetoric and scholasticism at TAG
Power, Labor, and the Dynamics of Change in Chacoan Political Economy
The Structure of Archaeological Theory
The Influences of Government Policies and Academic Theories on the Practice of Applied Anthropology in the United States
Scholarly Surrealism
Social Complexity and Social Inequality in the Prehistoric Mediterranean
The need and potential for an archaeology orientated towards the present
Doomsday confessions
Pre-Hispanic Maya agriculture
Philosophy and archaeology
Mesoamerican Archaeology
A history of American archaeology
Explanation in Archaeology
Prehistoric Intensive Agriculture in the Mayan Lowlands
Lowland Maya settlement patterns
Maya history and religion
Origins of Maya Civilization
The Classic Maya collapse
Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory
A Theory of the Origin of the State
Teotihuacan, Internal Militaristic Competition, and the Fall of the Classic Maya
Portraits of Women in Maya Art
The End of Classic Maya Culture
Some Comments on Historical versus Processual Archaeology
The Influence of Psychotropic Flora and Fauna on Maya Religion [and Comments and Reply]
The Limits to Growth
Attainments and problems of Soviet archaeology
Archaeology and religion
Anglo-American archaeology
Archaeology and Chinese historiography
Archaeology south of the Rio Grande
Paradigms, Systematics, and Archaeology
Culture and Practical Reason
Lowland Maya Archaeology at the Crossroads
Population-Resource Balances in Period I of Oaxaca, Mexico
Cultural Ecology Reconsidered
Warfare and the Evolution of the State
The Classic Maya Collapse
The Nature of Archaeological Explanation
Flesh of the Gods
Aztec State Making
The Golden Marshalltown
On Causes and Consequences of Ancient and Modern Population Changes1
An Agricultural Study of the Southern Maya Lowlands
Environmental Limitation on the Development of Culture1
The Collapse of Maya Civilization in the Southern Lowlands
Analogy in Archaeological Interpretation
| Unique citing works | 61 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,52 |
| Citation span | 1986 - 2025 (40) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 60 |