About

Patricia A. McAnany is an Eminent Professor and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include critical cultural heritage and descendant communities, with a specialization in Maya archaeology and participatory (engaged) research. She holds a PhD and MS from the University of New Mexico, earned in 1986 and 1980 respectively. McAnany is actively involved in teaching courses such as Ancestral Maya Civilization and Issues in Cultural Heritage, contributing to the academic community through her expertise in archaeology and cultural heritage issues.

Research topics

• Ecology
• Archaeology
• Geography
• Environmental science
• Political Science
• Sociology
• Biology
• Environmental planning
• Agroforestry
• History
• Anthropology
• Law
• Environmental resource management

Selected publications

• Armstrong‐Fumero, Fernando & BenFallaw (eds). The transnational construction of Mayanness: reading modern Mesoamerica through US archives. 242 pp., bibliogr. Denver: University Press of Colorado, 2023. $30.95 (paper)

  Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute · 2026-04-19

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Afterlife of Colonialism in Narratives of Civilizational Collapse

  2025-04-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  The afterlife of European colonialism impinges upon deep-time archaeological narratives, most spectacularly in reference to what typically is called “the Late Classic Maya collapse,” a profound transition that occurred during the ninth to tenth century CE. As archaeological, epigraphic, and environmental evidence from this period attests, the collapse story projects eurocentric civilizational assumptions onto a complex political and demographic transformation. After unpacking tropes of mystery and timelessness—considered here as afterlife codifications—I propose pathways of decolonization that move archaeological studies of political cycling away from morally laden tales of failure. One such pathway involves serious consideration of Indigenous scholarship and relational ontologies, which re-casts Indigenous civilizations of the Americas as dynamic entities with cycles of political experimentation.

  PublisherDOI

• Imagining a Maya Archaeology That Is Anthropological and Attuned to Indigenous Cultural Heritage

  UNC Libraries · 2025-07-16

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Taking an aspirational approach, this article imagines what Maya Archaeology would be like if it were truly anthropological and attuned to Indigenous heritage issues. In order to imagine such a future, the past of archaeology and anthropology is critically examined, including the emphasis on processual theory within archaeology and the Indigenous critique of socio-cultural anthropology. Archaeological field work comes under scrutiny, particularly the emphasis on the product of field research over the collaborative process of engaging local and descendant communities. Particular significance is given to the role of settler colonialism in maintaining unequal access to and authority over landscapes filled with remains of the past. Interrogation of the distinction between archaeology and heritage results in the recommendation that the two approaches to the past be recognized as distinct and in tension with each other. Past heritage programs imagined and implemented in the Maya region by the author and colleagues are examined reflexively.

  PublisherDOI

• Dynamic heritage as a path to collaborative knowledge production in Tahcabo, Yucatán, Mexico

  International Journal of Heritage Studies · 2025-03-10 · 1 citations

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  PublisherDOI

• Sinkhole Microcosms: Understanding Persistence of Place Through Variable Cultivation Strategies in Northeastern Yucatán, Mexico

  Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · 2025-11-19

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Sinkholes contributed to persistent human inhabitation of the northern Yucatán peninsula of Mexico for more than two millennia. Building on previous work on the use of sinkholes central to the town of Tahcabo and elsewhere in the Maya area, this study presents pollen, soil carbon isotope, radiocarbon, and artifactual evidence from four geomorphic features. They include the perennially wet cenote situated in the town center and three dry sinkholes ( rejolladas ) located in the commonly held lands ( ejido ) of the town. These features demonstrate striking variability in multispecies engagements with and within sinkholes, especially over the past 500 years, amid colonialism and more recent political contexts. Climate and political dynamics are implicated in the observed variability in agricultural practices. Community-engaged research often embraces a focus on persistent places, which can inspire contemporary people to reconnect with the past and with ancestors in ways that promote action to address challenges, such as adaptation to climate and other environmental change. Our research addresses long histories of sinkhole use to demonstrate the outcomes of variable cultivation strategies, such as increased biodiversity within towns and places of refuge, or conversely, production intensity and accelerated soil erosion into and mixing of sinkhole sediments.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Yucatec Maya Biocultural Heritage/History Embodied in <i>Ts’ono’oto’ob</i>

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2025-02-20

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract In Yucatán, México, large limestone sinkholes number in the thousands, bear Yucatec Mayan or Spanish names, and contain water year-round. These geomorphic features—commonly called “cenotes”—play(ed) an integral role in sustaining life in the distinctive tropical environment of northern Yucatán that largely is devoid of surface water. Within archaeology, cenotes have long been recognized as places of offering (e.g., the Sacred Cenote of Chichén Itzá) where the rain deity could be encountered. Yucatec Mayan mythic histories plus pre-sixteenth-century codices provide deeper insights into relationality with deities, spirits, and guardians that reside in/near cenotes. This biocultural heritage posed dangers to human frailties that are vividly encoded through accounts of cenotes as home to formidable, feathered serpents (La Tzucán) as well as femme fatales (X’tabay). Conceptions about the interconnectivity of cenotes braid well with current scientific understanding of the Yucatec groundwater aquifer and its vulnerability to pollution. The authors found that middle-school students residing in small communities in eastern Yucatán embrace this biocultural heritage and express deep concerns about cenote pollution.

  PublisherDOI

• Influential landscapes: Temporal trends in the agricultural use of rejolladas at Tahcabo, Yucatán, Mexico

  UNC Libraries · 2024-08-14

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Lived Experience and Monumental Time in the Classic Maya Lowlands

  University Press of Florida eBooks · 2024-01-09

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Differing temporalities are invoked by monumental time—specifically, the Long Count—and temporal framing that is coincident with lived experience—as exemplified by the Calendar Round). Authority structures buttressed by monumental time and inherited rulership are more frequent at southern lowland royal courts as opposed to northern courts. At the former, the Long Count was used to create deep-time narratives for patron deities in addition to and perhaps prior to its use in promoting royal distinction. Southern rulers projected themselves as master cultivators of monumental time. In contrast, northern rulers emphasized large-scale construction projects over hieroglyphic monuments with the important exception of Ek’ Balam. The fragility of authority based upon monumental time and an impulse toward dynastic succession is explored for the southern lowlands.

  PublisherDOI

• Tracing the structural consequences of colonialism in rural Yucatán, Mexico

  UNC Libraries · 2024-08-14

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Archaeologists from the United States working in what is referred to as the Maya area have paid insufficient attention to the structural violence of colonial rule and how their own narratives may perpetuate it. This article addresses the pervasive effects of colonial violence on farming communities in Yucatán, Mexico, which resulted in the undercutting of sustainable livelihoods and the imposition of hierarchies leading to systemic racism. The interpretation of archaeological and historical evidence can reveal the challenges that colonialism and its consequences posed for Indigenous peoples in their daily lives and also distinguish tactics that they used to achieve well-being. Following an account of colonial policies and their outcomes, we demonstrate how closely linked archaeological practice has been with colonial and imperial interests in Yucatán and suggest how archaeologists can reckon with the violence of colonialism and its resonances in archaeology today.

  PublisherDOI

• Lived Experience and Monumental Time in the Classic Maya Lowlands

  University Press of Florida eBooks · 2023-12-21

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Doctoral Dissertation Research: Livelihood Strategies at Classic and Colonial Period Tahcabo, Yucatan, Mexico

  NSF · $20k · 2017–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Jeremy A. Sabloff

  16 shared

• Maia Dedrick

  Cornell University

  14 shared

• Christopher A. Pool

  10 shared

• Gabriela Uruñuela

  10 shared

• Adolfo Iván Batún Alpuche

  10 shared

• Maria Teresa Salom n Salazar

  Loyola University Chicago

  9 shared

• Allan-Hermann Pool

  The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

  9 shared

• Keith M. Prufer

  9 shared