ABSTRACT
For the past several years, we have worked together on ethnographic and oral history research in a series of Yucatec Maya–speaking communities in the eastern part of the Mexican state of Yucatán. Our respective backgrounds, as an anthropologist based in the United States (Armstrong-Fumero) and an archaeologist based in Mexico (Hoil Gutierrez, born and raised in the same communities where he conducts research), have brought together the methods and experiences of two national traditions of social science, as well as the distinct personal perspectives of each. Currently, we are conducting preliminary research on a project that explores new forms of partnership among state institutions, anthropologists, and local communities in preserving tangible and intangible forms of cultural heritage. The first phase of this project will be the creation of an ethnographic map of Xcalakdzonot, a community of close to a thousand people in the municipality of Chan Kom, just a 30-minute drive from the world-famous archaeological site of Chichén Itzá.
