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Working Borders: The Contexts of Copán Archaeology

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Abstract

The work of archaeologists and the knowledge they produce both help create, and are conditioned by, a variety of kinds of borders, including political, academic, and cultural. In this article I review a series of borders that shape and determine the social conditions in which archaeology at the well-known site of Copán in western Honduras takes place and takes on meaning. I argue that the histories of these borders, their construction, and their crossings reveal structural tensions in the overlapping registers of academia, public history and popular discourse, in which archaeological knowledge circulates. These histories must be consciously interrogated in order to be negotiated. I suggest that by becoming fluent in the cultural conversations ongoing in a place, archaeologists are best able to begin productive collaborations and make informed choices about how they participate in the border-making processes of their work.

Resumen

Fronteras sin delimitar: los contextos de la arqueología Copan: El trabajo de los arqueólogos y el conocimiento que ellos/ellas producen puede ayudar a crear y al mismo tiempo estar condicionado por una variedad de límites que incluyen lo político, lo académico y lo cultural. En este artículo reviso una serie de fronteras que forman y determinan las condiciones sociales en las cuales la arqueología tiene lugar y significado en un sitio conocido de Copan en Honduras occidental. Yo argumento que las historias de estas fronteras, su construcción y sus intersecciones revelan tensiones estructurales en los saberes que coexisten en la academia, historia pública y discurso popular por los cuales el conocimiento de la arqueología circula. Estas historias deben ser cuestionadas conscientemente de manera que puedan ser negociadas. Yo sugiero que los arqueólogos deben estar al tanto de los conocimientos culturales sobre un sitio para tener la capacidad de producir en cooperación y tomar decisiones informadas en el trabajo del proceso de la construcción de las fronteras.

Résumé

Le travail des archéologues et les connaissances qu’ils produisent aident à créer et conditionne une variété de frontières, dont des frontières économiques, académiques et culturelles. Dans cet article, une série de frontières qui façonnent et déterminent les conditions sociales dans lesquelles les fouilles archéologiques se déroulent dans la fameuse cité de Copán dans l’ouest du Honduras et la signification que cela acquiert. Je propose que les histoires de frontières, leur construction et leur traversée, révèlent des tensions dans la superposition des registres d’académie, d’histoire publique et de discours populaires dans lesquelles circulent les connaissances archéologiques. Afin de les aborder, ces histoires doivent être consciencieusement questionnées. Je suggère qu’en se familiarisant avec le discourt culturel d’un endroit particulier, les archéologues sont plus facilement aptes à développer des collaborations et faire des choix éclairés sur le comment de leur participation à la création de frontière concernant leur travail.

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  1. Department of Social Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, ON, Canada, M1C 1A4

    Lena Mortensen

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Correspondence to Lena Mortensen.

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Mortensen, L. Working Borders: The Contexts of Copán Archaeology. Arch 3, 132–152 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-007-9009-9

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