RESEARCH ARTICLES
Staged Discovery and the Politics of Maya Hieroglyphic Things
Matthew C. Watson,
Matthew C. Watson
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 [email protected] ; http://www.matthewcwatson.org .
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Matthew C. Watson,
Matthew C. Watson
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 [email protected] ; http://www.matthewcwatson.org .
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
ABSTRACT Anthropologists of science conventionally examine the cultural politics of natural sciences. However, historical and social sciences also have cultural contexts and consequences. This article extends science studies to public engagement with Maya hieroglyphic decipherment. In the 1970s several scholars claimed to discover Maya hieroglyphs’ grammatical structure. Linda Schele popularized decipherment through sites including the Maya Meetings, public workshops at the University of Texas–Austin. As archaeologists and competing camps of hieroglyph experts challenged Schele and her colleagues’ interpretations, the Maya Meetings established a public of witnesses committed to these experts’ claims. The Maya Meetings cultivated assent through highly regulated practices enabling participants to imagine that they independently confirmed decipherments. Public engagement bolstered experts’ problematic claims to have imparted “voice” and “history” to the ancient Maya by transforming this complex medium into writing. I show how such public engagement did not simply democratize knowledge production and intensified hierarchies within Maya studies. [public science, Maya hieroglyphs, witnessing, anthropology of science]
RESUMEN Los antropólogos de la ciencia examinan la política cultural de las ciencias naturales. Sin embargo, las ciencias históricas y sociales también tienen contextos culturales. Este ensayo amplia los estudios culturales de la ciencia a la participación del público en el desciframiento de los jeroglíficos mayas. Durante la década de 1970, unos expertos pretendieron haber descubierto la estructura gramatical de los jeroglíficos. Linda Schele popularizó las técnicas de desciframiento a través de talleres públicos en la Universidad de Texas–Austin. Mientras unos arqueólogos y campos de epigrafistas dasafiaron el desciframiento, los talleres establecieron un público de testigos comprometidos con estos expertos. Los talleres permitieron a los participantes que imaginaran que habían confirmado los desciframientos. La participación pública reforzó los reclamos problemáticos de expertos que habian impartado “voz” e “historia” a los antiguos mayas. Muestro cómo la participación pública no democratizó la producción de conocimiento y intensificó jerarquías en los estudios mayas.
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FOR FURTHER READING
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(These selections were made by the American Anthropologist editorial interns as examples of research related in some way to this article. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the author.)
