This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, under the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences program (CFDA 47.075), provides $295,743 to The Research Foundation For The State University Of New York (RF-SUNY) to investigate the long-term cultural impacts of colonization on indigenous Maya communities in the Yucatan region.
The research project compares how ordinary Maya households and communities responded to the drastic social upheaval of the early colonial period, examining strategies like resistance, negotiation, incorporation, cooperation, and flight. It utilizes archaeological evidence, including household material assemblages, spatial organization, diet, and other data, to reconstruct how indigenous populations confronted and adapted to colonial pressures over the first century. The award supports an international and interdisciplinary collaboration that provides research training and publication opportunities for students and professionals, including those of Yucatec Maya descent, and contributes to the education and preservation of local cultural heritage. This multi-year project runs from September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2027.