Email: smithmmm@email.unc.edu
Phone: N/A
Areas of Interest:
Yucatan, Mexico; Colonialism, historical archaeology; oral history; archival research; land tenure; landowner-laborer dynamics; household archaeology; abandonment contexts; network analysis
Education:
Entered UNC-CH in 2008
BA in Sociology-Anthropology, Millsaps College, Jackson, MS 2007
Research:
My dissertation research focuses on the site of Rancho Kiuic, a privately owned agropastoral community in the Puuc Region of Yucatan, Mexico occupied from the Late Colonial period through the 1950’s. Specifically, I am interested in the socioeconomic relationships between Maya-speaking landowners (caciques) and laborers, and the impact of those relationships on community abandonment. I am currently working with the descendent population of Rancho Kiuic’s laborers to explore their connections with the community and its owners through archival documents, oral history, and household-level excavation.