Key research themes
1. How do ritual practices and religious beliefs shape water management and ecological interactions in ancient Mesoamerican civilizations?
This theme investigates the dynamic interplay between ritualized behavior, religious cosmology, and practical water management technologies in the formation and sustenance of Zapotec, Mixtec, and other Mesoamerican civilizations. Understanding how ritual acts mediated human-environment relations provides insights into the socio-ecological adaptations crucial for complex societies relying on limited water resources in semi-arid landscapes.
2. What archaeological and technological methods are advancing understanding of Mesoamerican urbanism, cultural interaction, and chronology?
Recent archaeological research in Mesoamerica employs innovative technologies such as remote sensing, lidar, ground-penetrating radar, and microscale stratigraphic analysis to revisit classic sites like Teotihuacan, Monte Albán, Tenochtitlan, and Izapa. These methods are reshaping models of urban planning, social organization, and interregional interactions across temporal scales. They also integrate material culture studies — artisanship, ceramics, obsidian, and mortuary practices — with nuanced cultural histories and refined absolute chronologies through statistical modeling.
3. How do contemporary cultural forms and social dynamics engage with Mesoamerican indigenous identities and histories?
This theme explores the negotiation and expression of indigenous heritage in modern Mexico, including the use of Mesoamerican symbolism in artistic practices, processes of cultural boundary-making among migrant populations, and identity formation in contentious socio-political contexts. It reveals how indigenous pasts are dynamically reinterpreted in both grassroots and institutional domains, informing socio-cultural resilience and influencing emergent diasporic and transnational identities.