College of DuPage Library

1. Anthropology/Ethnography
2. Architecture
3. Art
4. History

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ARTICLE DATABASES

You must have a valid College of DuPage library card to access the electronic indexes and databases from off-campus.

General Databases
Academic OneFile (formerly Expanded Academic Index ASAP). An index to over 2500 magazines and journals covering a variety of topic areas including anthropology. This database provides references, abstracts, and many times the full-text of articles. A COD library card is required for off-campus use.

Academic Search Premier/Complete. [EBSCOhost]1984 to present; 1990 to present- full text). Abstracts from nearly 3000 journals and full text for 1250 journals including general reference, education, social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, library and information science. A COD library card is required for off-campus use.

JSTOR
Excellent source for credible scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. Articles in database were published between the early 1700s and between 1-5 years ago.

Project MUSE
Project MUSE offers full-text current and archival articles from 500+ scholarly journals from major university presses covering literature and criticism, history, performing arts, cultural studies, education, philosophy, political science, gender studies, and more. Updated continually.
List of COD Library Image databases

Use the menu below to find the other databases by broad subject areas.

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OTHER RESEARCH GUIDES

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Midwest Conference on Mesoamerican Archaeology and Ethnohistory

39th Annual Conference, Friday - Saturday, March 11 - 12, 2016
The Culinary and Hospitality Center, The College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois 60137
Contact:
David A. Ouellette
Instructor of Art History
College of Dupage
ouelletted@cod.edu
630-942-2586

PROGRAM
Friday March 11th
KEYNOTE ADDRESS (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.)
Culinary and Hospitality Center (CHC) Room 1020
“From ‘Decorative Art’ to ‘Indian Art of the Americas’: a History of the Mesoamerica Collection
at the Art Institute of Chicago”
Elizabeth I. Pope, Art Institute of Chicago

RECEPTION (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
MacAninch Arts Center (MAC) Room 117
Refreshments with access to Cleve Carney Art Gallery and cash bar.
For those looking for something else to do while in the area, the MAC is hosting Monterey Jazz Festival,
as well as a performance of Julius Caesar by the College of DuPage Theatre Friday evening.
More information and tickets can be found here: http://www.atthemac.org

Saturday March 12th
BREAKFAST (8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.)
Culinary and Hospitality Center (CHC) Room 1020
Light breakfast and Kaqchikel-Grown Conscious Bean Coffee provided.

RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (AND MISMANAGEMENT?) (9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.)
Culinary and Hospitality Center (CHC) Room 1020
“Smash-and-Trash” Deposits at Ka’Kabish, Belize: How Theoretical and Analytical
Approaches Can Affect Interpretation
Kerry L. Sagebiel, Northern Illinois University
Helen R. Haines, Trent University
Joshuah J. Lockett-Harris, Trent University
It is quite common for Maya archaeologists to discover “smash-and-trash” deposits consisting of large
quantities of broken sherds, lithics, faunal materials, and other remains in varying contexts on Maya sites.
The interpretation of these deposits has varied from simple trash or midden deposits, to remains of
feasting, to termination and other rituals. These interpretations are often strongly influenced by the
theoretical and analytical approaches taken. At Ka’Kabish, Belize, a series of “smash-and-trash”
problematical deposits, consisting primarily of sherds and reconstructible vessels, was encountered in
Plaza D South. This paper will explore how different analytical and theoretical approaches to these
deposits can influence how they are interpreted, and attempt to gain some insights into which approaches
are most reasonable for analyzing and explaining these kinds of deposits.

Lime Powder Production in the Puuc Maya Region (AD 600-950):
An Experimental Pit-Kiln
Ken Seligson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Tomás Gallareta Negrón, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia
Rossana May Ciau, Universidad Autónomo de Yucatán
Powdered lime was one of the most significant materials in the daily lives of the Prehispanic Maya, and
yet archaeologists have uncovered little evidence of production methods or locales prior to the Spanish
Conquest in the 16th century. The recent identification of a series of pit-kilns dating to the Terminal
Classic Period (ca. 650-950 AD) in and around the site of Kiuic in the Puuc region of the Northern
lowlands provides the opportunity to investigate a distinctive sub-regional Prehispanic lime production
technology. This article presents the preliminary excavation results of nine pit-kilns and then describes
the experimental reconstruction and firing of a lime pit-kiln modeled. The results indicate that the pitkilns
are more fuel-efficient than the aboveground pyres used during the Post-Conquest Period. This in
turn suggests that the local Prehispanic Maya managed their consumption of natural resources for
producing lime during a period of sociopolitical, demographic and environmental changes.

Cultivating Roots: An ethnographic documentary showcasing a Kaqchikel community
working to sustain their environment.
Hale Ekinci, North Central College
Rachel Pierson, North Central College
Cultivating Roots examines a community-based reforestation project in the Kaqchikel community of San
Lucas Toliman, Guatemala. This film endeavors to place highland Maya families and social organizations
in global context. The film is intended to raise environmental awareness and gain support from donors
and institutions. Ekinci and Pierson will screen the film and discuss the intergenerational,
interdisciplinary, intercultural, and transnational dialogues present in the films and in its production.

COFFEE BREAK (10:30 – 11:00 a.m.)
Featuring Kaqchikel-Grown Conscious Bean Coffee

MOVEMENTS WITHIN (11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.)
Culinary and Hospitality Center (CHC) Room 1020

A New Proposal for the Reading Order of the Yaxchilan Structure 23 Lintels
Claudia Brittenham, University of Chicago
The lintels of Yaxchilan Structure 23 are among the most famous of all Maya monuments. Dedicated by
Lady K’abal Xook in 726, while her husband Itzamnaaj Bahlam IV was the ruler of Yaxchilan, these
sculptures are both a tour-de-force of carving and a powerful demonstration of ancient women’s agency.
Yet substantial puzzles remain about the dates on the lintels, the order in which they should be read, and
the relationship between text and image in the lintel program. In this presentation, I offer a proposal for a
new reading order for the lintels, arguing that they structure a particular kind of movement through the
building.

Avian Actors: Transformation and Sorcery in Mesoamerica
Kerry Hull, Brigham Young University
Mark A. Wright, Brigham Young University
Shape-shifting and animal transformation has long been an ability characteristic of deities, sorcerers, and
ritual specialists in Mesoamerica. In this paper we investigate avian transformations—perhaps the most
common type of metamorphosis in Mesoamerican indigenous tradition due to the profound cultural and
mythological significance of birds. We look at the role of birds in supernatural journeys by religious
specialist and sorcerers. We draw upon archaeological evidence of human-bird transformations in the
iconographic, epigraphic, and ceramic record. We also discuss the use of bone whistles and bird-shaped
ceramic whistles with their imitative function and, using ethnographic data from our field research,
explore their possible ritual uses. Finally, based largely on our ethno-ornithological research data with
various Maya groups, we detail the specific mythologies associated with individual birds in the
Mesoamerican area to show how these connections are exploited in sorcery and other ritual activities.

Altars by the Lake: a documentary film in process
Matthew Krystal, North Central College
“Altars by the Lake” examines religious continuity and change in San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala.
Kaqchikel Maya practitioners and cultural activists discuss the history and meaning of two sacred spaces
in their community. One altar reflects Pre-Columbian cosmology in its configuration, but colonial and
neocolonial oppression in its placement in the forest outside of town. The second altar reflects Maya
cultural revitalization in context of globalization. It was constructed in a predominant public space in
anticipation of December 21, 2012. Krystal will screen an excerpt of the film that focuses on the new
altar. The ‘Imox annex’ altar is an intentional counter-appropriation, a wresting of a key symbol from illinformed
outsiders. It also is locus of appropriation of Classic era calendrics, a new and interesting
popular deployment of knowledge generated by Mayanist epigraphers and archaeologists.

LUNCH (12:30 – 2:00 p.m.)
Culinary and Hospitality Center (CHC) Room 2001
Taco Bar provided by Chicks n’ Salsa of Glen Ellyn.

MOVEMENTS ACROSS AND BEYOND (2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.)
Culinary and Hospitality Center (CHC) Room 1020

Pilgrimage Material Culture in Mesoamerica
Joel Palka, University of Illinois-Chicago
My presentation covers material signatures of pilgrimage ritual in Mesoamerica. Pilgrimage sites and
ceremonial contexts cross-culturally present similar artifacts and archaeological residues. Pilgrims
visiting shrines follow typical behaviors, such as piling objects at a place for penance or payments to
divine forces, leaving small objects as “blessings”, making pilgrim’s marks, and taking sacra from shrines
in the form of earth or water in diminutive containers. Specific iconography regarding pilgrimage visits to
ritual landscapes, such as people walking with offerings, in addition to hand and foot prints, is also
apparent. The evidence discussed here has implications for the interpretation of the material record in
Mesoamerica, including heaps of ceramic sherds and shells in Maya caves, graffiti on Maya temple walls,
“mutilated” Olmec stone monuments, miniature ceramic vessels in Jalisco and Oaxaca, rock art in
Veracruz, and footprints at Teotihuacan.

No Direction Home; refining the date of occupation at Tikal’s 19th century refugee village
James Meierhoff, University of Illinois-Chicago
In the latter half of the 19th Century, the ancient Maya ruined city Tikal was briefly reoccupied. The
village was established some time before 1876, and had a maximum population of 15 households
comprised of at least three distinct Maya speaking groups. However, the site was again abandoned when
archaeologists visited Tikal in 1881. Most of the inhabitants were reportedly said to be Yucatec refugees
fleeing the violence and upheavals of the Caste War of Yucatan (1847-1901) that raged for over 50 years.
However, similar conflicts with English woodcutters in British Honduras also caused displacements, as
many of the Yucatec refugees’ initial settlements were destroyed by British Troops. Was Tikal
reoccupied by Maya refugees fleeing British violence? Ongoing artifact analysis from the 2014 field
season, as well as previously excavated material and documentary evidence will attempt to refine the
occupation sequence at the historic Tikal village.

"The Chaco World" as a Mesoamerican Iyahqueh (Pochtecan) outpost
Theodore R. Frisbie, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
The notion that Chaco had direct input from Mesoamerican is neither new nor popular; however, recent
research has added considerable importance to this idea. The key factor relates to the fact that turquoise
replaced jade as the "God Stone" during the Epiclassic (Toltec Era) and the American Southwest has
numerous sources. Rather than trading this elite commodity to the south, direct involvement is suggested
by the Iyahqueh who established exploitative outposts in frontier areas. This paper addresses not only the
numerous Mesoamerican traits found in the Chaco phenomenon, but related behavioral correlates. The
amassed data strongly support the proposed thesis and clearly places the area within the sphere of
"Greater Mesoamerica."

Striking Evidence of Postclassic Contacts with Medieval Southeast Asia
Alice B. Kehoe
Careful critical evaluation of Postclassic similarities between Mesoamerica and Asia are warranted since
the excavation of South American sweet potatoes in a thirteenth century CE site on Mangaia in Central
Polynesia (reported by Jon Hather, paleobotanist, and Patrick Kirch, archaeologist, in Antiquity, 1991). A
suite of data from Cihuatán and Nocuchich are striking anomalies in American context, as is a temple in
central Java. The time is the height of the lucrative medieval spice trade in Asia, when well-capitalized
merchants had excellent seagoing vessels exploring eastward in the Pacific, seeking spices and other
exotic imports.

Co-sponsor: The Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Central College
COD Press Announcement