Dwelling, Identity, and the Maya

Scott R. Hutson is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Kentucky. He has been co-director of the Chunchucmil project since 2004 and is currently directing the Ucí-Cansahcab Sacbe project.

• Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Conceptual Frameworks for Relational Subjects Chapter 3. Background on Chunchucmil Chapter 4. Personal Interactions: Gender, Age, Status, and Food Chapter 5. Materiality: Knowledge, Biography and the Social Life of Things Chapter 6. Moving Encounters: Circulation, Monumentality and Embodiment Chapter 7. Being and Mayaness: The Past in the Production of Contemporary Identity Chapter 8. Conclusion

To achieve a deeper understanding of the processes of identity-formation among the Maya of Chunchucmil, Scott Hutson articulates a relational approach to subjectivity through a focus on dwelling and daily life. He adeptly synthesizes recent theory in the social sciences and humanities dealing with subjectivity, agency, materiality, power, and practice to explore the ways in which subjectivity was produced and transformed at Chunchucmil—in the shared work of food preparation, in the intertwined biographies of people and houses, and in varied encounters with pyramids, patios, and causeways. This book exemplifies the promise of social archaeology to understand human lives in the past as well as to contribute to social theory in the present.