Ashley Kistler talks to J&P Voelkel - Jaguar Stones

Ashley Kistler talks to J&P Voelkel - Jaguar Stones - The Maya in the 21st Century

The Maya in the 21st Century

cultural anthropologist Ashley Kistler

Ashley Kistler is an ethnographer and linguist who has worked in numerous Maya communities in Mexico and Guatemala. After completing a sociolinguistic study of language contact in Ch’ol communities in Campeche and Chiapas, Mexico, Ashley spent eighteen months living with the Q’eqchi’ Maya in San Juan Chamelco, Guatemala. She earned her PhD in Anthropology from Florida State University in 2007, and her dissertation focused on how Q’eqchi’ market women use their participation in local market sales to generate kin ties and enact historical memory. Her other research interests include gender, value, economic systems, and discourse analysis in Maya communities. Her on-going research in Chamelco examines how the Q’eqchi’ re-write their history by performing narratives of their town’s sixteenth century founder. In this ethnohistoric project, Ashley and her Q’eqchi’ collaborators explore how the Q’eqchi’ use historical memory to re-define indigenous identity and legitimize their role in Guatemala’s historical and political landscape. Currently, Ashley is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Rollins College, where she teaches classes on Maya personhood, Latin American studies, cultural anthropology, and kinship and social organization.