Maxine started following the work of 2 people.
Maxine started following the work of Johan Normark, University of Gothenburg, Dept of historical studies.
Maxine started following the work of Carolyn Freiwald, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Anthropology.
Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology, Anthropology
Amherst College, Anthropology
Northwestern University, Anthropology
SUNY Albany, Anthropology
About
I am an archaeologist specializing in the late pre-contact and colonial periods in the Maya area of Mesoamerica. My research is grounded in historical political economy and household archaeology, and has been focused on the ways that pre-colonial Indigenous histories affect colonial period interactions. I recently co-edited a book (Maxine Oland, Siobhan M. Hart, and Liam Frink) due out in Fall 2012 from the University of Arizona Press, titled Decolonizing Indigenous Histories: Exploring Prehistoric/ Colonial Transitions in Archaeology. This book reconsiders the processes by which Indigenous societies transition to colonial rule, and stresses the importance of these studies for contemporary Indigenous peoples and the construction of revised colonial histories.
I received my Ph.D. in Anthropology and a Certificate in Gender Studies from Northwestern University in 2009. Since completing my dissertation I have taught anthropology at Keene State College in New Hampshire, and at Amherst College, Smith College, and Williams College in Massachusetts.
I completed my dissertation research at the Maya site of Chanlacan, on the west shore of Progresso Lagoon, in northern Belize. This site was occupied during the 15th-17th centuries, before and after the Spanish attempted to conquer the region. My work documented significant changes at the community in the century before the Spanish conquest, which force us to reconsider colonial narratives constructed from Spanish accounts. In the next phase of my research I will continue to document the long-term history of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in northern Belize, and will examine ways in which contemporary non-Indigenous local populations engage with the ancient and historical past.
In addition to my work in Belize, I have also done archaeological survey work in Oaxaca, Mexico, and artifact analysis in Yucatan, Mexico. I have methodological specialties in faunal, lithic, and ceramic analysis.
