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Eleanor Harrison-Buck

Professor
Phone: (603) 862-4742
Office: Huddleston Hall, Room 311, Durham, NH 03824
Websites:
Eleanor Harrison-Buck is a professor of anthropology at the University of New Hampshire. She received her Ph.D. from Boston University in 2007 and has directed the Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) project in Belize since 2011, examining the deep history of the lower Belize River Watershed from Preclassic to Colonial times. Her research focuses on the Classic Maya “collapse” period and subsequent Spanish and British colonial periods in Belize, Central America. Her work examines shifting social identity, power and religious ideology through technical and stylistic studies of architecture and material culture. Her research interests incorporate anthropological theory, which include studies of relational and neomaterialist archaeology, other-than-human agency, personhood, and the self. She engages critically with these topics in numerous peer-reviewed chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as Current Anthropology (2021), the International Journal of Historical Archaeology (2018), and Ancient Mesoamerica (2020), as well as her recent co-edited volume (with Julia Hendon), entitled "Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology" (University Press of Colorado, 2018).

Courses Taught

  • ANTH 412: Adventures in Archaeology
  • ANTH 501: World Archaeological Cultures
  • ANTH 620: Ritual & Religion Ancient Meso
  • ANTH 645: Cultu Sustain & Public Archaeo
  • ANTH 674: Arch Survey and Mapping Belize
  • ANTH 675: Archaeo Field School Belize
  • ANTH 699H: Honors Senior Thesis
  • ANTH 797: Adv Top/Arch of Power&Identity

Education

  • Ph.D., Archaeology, Boston University
  • M.A., Archaeology, Boston University
  • B.S., Anthro/Studio Arts, Skidmore College

Research Interests

  • Archaeology: Mesoamerica/Maya archaeology
  • Divine kinship
  • Personhood
  • Political collapse
  • Religious ideology
  • Sacred landscapes
  • Social identity

Selected Publications

  • Harrison-Buck, E. (2022). Archaeological Theory in Dialogue: Situating Relationality, Ontology, Posthumanism, and Indigenous Paradigms. AMERICAN ANTIQUITY, 87(1), 193-194. doi:10.1017/aaq.2021.86

  • Brouwer Burg, M., Tibbits, T. L. B., & Harrison-Buck, E. (2021). Advances in Geochemical Sourcing of Granite Ground Stone Ancient Maya Artifacts from the Middle Belize Valley. ADVANCES IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRACTICE, 9(4), 338-353. doi:10.1017/aap.2021.26

  • Harrison-Buck, E. (2021). Relational Economies of Reciprocal Gifting. Current Anthropology, 62(5), 569-601. doi:10.1086/716726

  • Harrison-Buck, E., & Freidel, D. A. (2021). Reassessing Shamanism and Animism in the Art and Archaeology of Ancient Mesoamerica. RELIGIONS, 12(6). doi:10.3390/rel12060394

  • Harrison-Buck, E. (2020). Maya Relations with the Material World. In S. Hutson, & T. Ardren (Eds.), The Maya World (pp. 424-442). Routledge.

  • Harrison-Buck, E. (2016). Killing the "Kings of Stone" The Defacement of Classic Maya Monuments. In RITUAL, VIOLENCE, AND THE FALL OF THE CLASSIC MAYA KINGS (pp. 61-88). Retrieved from https://www.webofscience.com/

  • Harrison-Buck, E. (2014). Anthropological Archaeology in 2013: The Search for Truth(s). AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, 116(2), 338-351. doi:10.1111/aman.12101

  • Harrison-Buck, E., & McAnany, P. A. (2013). TERMINAL CLASSIC CIRCULAR ARCHITECTURE IN THE SIBUN VALLEY, BELIZE. ANCIENT MESOAMERICA, 24(2), 295-306. doi:10.1017/S0956536113000199

  • Harrison-Buck, E. (2012). Architecture as Animate Landscape: Circular Shrines in the Ancient Maya Lowlands. AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, 114(1), 64-80. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01397.x

  • Harrison-Buck, E., McAnany, P. A., Storey, R., & Cucina, A. (2007). Empowered and Disempowered During the Late to Terminal Classic Transition: Maya Burial and Termination Rituals in the Sibun Valley, Belize. In NEW PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN SACRIFICE AND RITUAL BODY TREATMENTS IN ANCIENT MAYA SOCIETY (pp. 74-101). doi:10.1007/978-0-387-48871-4_4

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