The past as a constituent of the present: Social waters and posthumanism at Cara Blanca, Belize

Larmon, Jean T.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/106233 Copy

Description

Title

The past as a constituent of the present: Social waters and posthumanism at Cara Blanca, Belize

Author(s)

Larmon, Jean T.

Issue Date

2019-12-04

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Lucero, Lisa J.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Lucero, Lisa J.

Committee Member(s)

• Pauketat, Timothy
• Ambrose, Stanley
• Carter, Alison

Department of Study

Anthropology

Discipline

Anthropology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Belize, Maya, Archaeology, Conservation, Posthumanism, New Materialism

Abstract

Cara Blanca is a system of natural pools in central Belize accessed by bodies (human and non-) for millennia, both for physical and spiritual sustenance. Most prominently, the pools are home to ancient Maya ceremonial architecture and ritual remains that emerged and were accessed by Maya during a period of prolonged and severe droughts in the Terminal Classic period (800-900 CE). Almost 27,000 years earlier, the pools were visited by extinct giant ground sloths also in search of reprieve from drought. I examine archaeological and paleoecological materials from Cara Blanca in the Terminal Classic period (800-900 CE) and paleontological material from 27,000 years ago to show that water was essential in the formation of human and non-human relations at the Cara Blanca pools. This dissertation examines, through a framework of posthumanism, the ways in which the shifting climate has impacted the context of Cara Blanca throughout millennia. I focus on the role of water in maintaining an integrated landscape through these climate shifts and show that water was the integrating force in the construction of the Cara Blanca space during the Terminal Classic period of Maya occupation, as well as pre- and post- Maya occupation. The repositioning of water as a primary force in this analysis situates water as active and energetic, allowing for an expanded notion of who or what warrants justice. This reconceptualization of past landscapes as still unfolding in the present has the potential to influence the development of today’s conservation policy.

Graduation Semester

2019-12

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106233

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2019 Jean Larmon

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