My
research focuses upon reconstructing the political geography of 15th to
17th century central Petén, Guatemala. My interests include the Maya,
architecture, spatial analysis, ritual, social memory, and cultural
contact. My dissertation examined how the Kowoj of 15th to 18th century
Petén, Guatemala utilized ritual architecture and performances as
foundations of ethnic identity. The Kowoj were a powerful group when
the Spaniards conquered Petén in AD 1697. They claimed to have migrated
from Mayapán, a capital in Yucatán, Mexico that incorporated numerous
ethnic groups into a single polity, but collapsed around AD 1441. The
Kowoj were the enemies of the Itza, the politically dominant group in
16th and 17th century Petén, who claimed ancestry from Chich’en Itza,
an earlier Maya capital in Yucatán. The origin myths of the Kowoj and
Itza were part of their collective memories and symbolic foundations of
their social differentiation. I conducted excavations at Zacpetén, a
site resting in the former Kowoj region, and found that in the mid-15th
century, the ceremonial architecture of Zacpetén was reconstructed to
resemble that of Mayapán. I compared the architecture and activity
areas of Zacpetén with those of sites both inside and outside Petén to
understand how ritual practices and architecture helped to
differentiate the Kowoj from other ethnic groups in Petén. This project
is significant beyond the clarification of historical facts as it adds
to the understanding of how rituals contribute to the construction of
ethnic boundaries; how history is used as a foundation of social
identity; and the processes of ethnogenesis that follow the collapse of
complex societies.
Peten, Guatemala
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Pugh, Timothy W. 2009. Residential and Domestic Contexts at
Zacpetén. In The Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Politics in Late
Postclassic Petén, Guatemala, edited by Prudence M. Rice and Don S.
Rice. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Pugh, Timothy W. 2009. The Kowoj and the Lacandon:
Migrations and Identities. In The Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and
Politics in Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala, edited by Prudence M.
Rice and Don S. Rice. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Pugh, Timothy W. 2006. Cacao, Gender, and the
Northern Lacandon God House. In The Origins of Chocolate in
Mesoamerica: a Cultural History of Cacao, edited by Cameron L. McNeil,
pp.367-383. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Pugh, Timothy W. and Prudence M. Rice. 2009.
Zacpetén and the Kowoj: Field Methods and Chronologies. In The Kowoj:
Identity, Migration, and Politics in Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala,
edited by Prudence M. Rice and Don S. Rice. University Press of
Colorado, Boulder.
Pugh, Timothy W. and Prudence M. Rice. 2009. Kowoj
Ritual Performance and Societal Representation at Zacpetén. In The
Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Politics in Late Postclassic Petén,
Guatemala, edited by Prudence M. Rice and Don S. Rice. University Press
of Colorado, Boulder.
Pugh, Timothy W., Prudence M. Rice, and Leslie G.
Cecil. 2009. Zacpetén Structure 719: the Last Noble Residence. In The
Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Politics in Late Postclassic Petén,
Guatemala, edited by Prudence M. Rice and Don S. Rice. University Press
of Colorado, Boulder.
Rice, Prudence M., Don S. Rice, Timothy W. Pugh, and
Rómulo Sánchez Polo. 2009. Defensive Architecture and the Context of
Warfare at Zacpetén. In The Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Politics in
Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala, edited by Prudence M. Rice and Don
S. Rice. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
Pugh, Timothy W. 2005. Caves and Artificial
Caves in Late Postclassic Maya Ceremonial Groups. In Stone Houses
and Earth Lords: Maya Religion in the Cave Context, edited by Keith M.
Prufer and James E. Brady, pp. 47-69. University Press of Colorado,
Denver.
Pugh, Timothy W. 2004. Activity Areas, Form, and Social Inequality in Late Postclassic Domestic Groups at
Zacpetén, Petén, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology 29: 351-367.
Pugh, Timothy W. 2004. Book Review of The Postclassic Mesoamerican World. Latin American Antiquity 15
(2): 244-246.
Pugh, Timothy W. 2003b. The Exemplary Center of the Late Postclassic Kowoj Maya. Latin American Antiquity
14(4): 408-430.
Pugh, Timothy W. 2003. Comments on Lisa Lucero’s “The Politics of Ritual: The Emergence of Classic Maya Rulers.”
Current Anthropology 44(4): 548-549.
Pugh, Timothy W. 2003a. A Cluster and Spatial Analysis of Ceremonial Architecture at Late Postclassic Mayapán.
Journal of Archaeological Science 30(8): 941-953.
Pugh, Timothy W. 2002. Remembering Mayapán: Petén Kowoj Architecture as Social Metaphor and Power. In
The Dynamics of Power, edited by Maria O'Donovan, pp. 301-323. Center for
Archaeological Investigations, Carbondale, Illinois.
Pugh, Timothy W. 2001. Flood Reptiles, Serpent Temples, and the Quadripartite Universe: The Imago Mundi of
Late Postclassic Mayapán. Ancient Mesoamerica 12(2): 247-258.
Pugh, Timothy and Charles H. McNutt.
1992. Julius Augustus Davies, M.D., an Early Contributor to Mississippi Archaeology.
Mississippi Archaeology 26(2): 1-6.
Pugh, Timothy W. and Prudence M. Rice. 1997.
Arquitectura estilo Mayapán y evidencias de organización dual en el
sitio Postclásico de Zacpetén, Petén, Guatemala. In: X simposio de
arqueología Guatemalteca, edited by Juan Pedro Laporte and Hector
Escobeda, pp. 521-528. Instituto de Antropología e Historia, Ministerio
de Cultura y Deportes, y la Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.
1998. Zacpetén, Petén, Guatemala. In X simposio de arqueología Guatemalteca, edited by Juan
Pedro Laporte and Hector Escobeda, pp. 521-528. Instituto de Antropología e Historia,
Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, y la Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.
Pugh, Timothy W., Rómulo Sánchez Polo, Leslie G. Cecil, Don S. Rice, and Prudence M. Rice.
1999. Investigaciones postclásicas e históricas en Peten, Guatemala: La excavaciones del
Proyecto Maya-Colonial en Zacpetén. In XI simposio de arqueología Guatemalteca,
edited by Juan Pedro Laporte and Hector Escobeda, pp. 779-789. Instituto de
Antropología e Historia, Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, y la Asociación Tikal,
Guatemala City.
McNair, Anna; Don S. Rice, Hugh Drake, Timothy Pugh, Rómulo Sánchez Polo, and Prudence M. Rice.
1997. Investigaciones del Proyecto Maya-Colonial en el sitio arqueológico Nixtun-Ch'ich', Petén,
Guatemala. In IX simposio de arqueología Guatemalteca, edited by Juan Pedro Laporte
and Hector Escobeda, pp. 513-519. Instituto de Antropología e Historia, Ministerio de
Cultura y Deportes, y la Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.
Rice, Don S., Prudence M. Rice, and Timothy W. Pugh.
1998. Settlement Continuity and Change in the Central Peten Lakes Region: The Case
for Zacpetén. In Anatomía de Una Civilazación: Approximaciones Interdisciplines a
la Cultura Maya, edited by A. Ciudad Riuz, Y. Fernández Marquínez, J. García Campillo,
J. Ponce de León, A. García-Gallo, and L. Sanz Castro, pp. 207-252. Sociedad Española de
Estudios Mayas, Madrid.
Rice, Don S.; Prudence M. Rice, Grant D. Jones, Rómulo Sánchez Polo, Timothy Pugh, Anna McNair,
Leslie Cecil, and Hugh Drake. 1997. La segunda temporada de campo del Proyecto Maya-Colonial: nuevas evidencias. In X
simposio de arqueología Guatemalteca, edited by Juan Pedro Laporte and Hector
Escobeda, pp 499-511. Instituto de Antropología e Historia, Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes,
y la Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.
Sanchez-Polo, Romulo; Don S. Rice, Prudence M. Rice, Anna McNair, Timothy Pugh, and Grant Jones.
1994. La investigación de la geografía politíca del siglo XVII en El Petén central: la primera
temporada. In VIII simposio de arqueología Guatemalteca, Vol. 2, edited by Juan Pedro
Laporte and Hector Escobeda, pp 707-720. Instituto de Antropología e Historia, Ministerio de
Cultura y Deportes, y la Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.
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