UK Anthropology professor Scott R Hutson was recently awarded two grants to continue his research in the state of Yucatan in Mexico: the Maya Area Cultural Heritage Initiative (MACHI) Grant and a National Science Fund (NSF) Grant, both supporting his work with the Ucí-Cansahcab Regional Integration Project.

“This project has broader impact than what can be learned about the ancient Maya,” Hutson said. His collaborative work with professors from George Mason University and Brigham Young University is focused on both archaeological discovery and promoting the preservation of cultural heritage.

The MACHI funding – the result of the Initiative’s first ever grant competition – is aimed at supporting knowledge exchanges between projects working in the Maya area.

“The Maya Area Cultural Heritage Initiative seeks to strengthen the connection between the Maya people and ancient Maya heritage in order to develop an ethic of preservation,” Hutson explained.

To that end, Hutson’s MACHI Grant will be used to fund initiatives ranging from cultural demonstration workshops to archaeological presentations to migrant outreach programs. These plans are all motivated by the MACHI’s support of “bi-directional” initiatives.

“Initiatives that foster dialogue about cultural heritage and highlight local ruins as valuable cultural resources. Bi-directional means that there should be communication not just from archaeologists to locals, but also from locals to archaeologists.”

With the NSF Grant, Hutson and his collaborators will investigate the cultural impact of a ten-mile road that connected previously independent towns in rural Yucatan.

“We are less interested in the road itself and more interested in the lives of the people who were connected by it. We are also trying to understand why the people of these towns and villages decided to link up with each other,” he explained.

Their goal is to look at the remains of towns and villages along the road to determine the roles different played in its development and how they were impacted by becoming more integrated with other towns.

By looking at how lives changed after the regional integration, Huston hopes that researchers will be able to determine what kind of integration took place and how it may have been motivated by economic, political or religious factors.

“Students will have opportunities to research and complete theses and dissertations. The educational opportunities and student involvement will be great,” Huston said. “The project is not only about research, but it is also about training future archaeologists.”