Community Development and Collaboration at Salinas de los Nueve Cerros Guatemala: Accomplishments,...

105Advances in Archaeological Practice: A Journal of the Society for American Archaeology © 2013

Community Development and Collaboration at Salinas de Los Nueve Cerros, GuatemalaAccomplishments, Failures, and Lessons Learned Conducting Publically-Engaged ArchaeologyBrent Kerry Skoy Woodfill

ABSTRACT

Since its founding in 2009 at the behest of local leaders, Proyecto Salinas de los Nueve Cerros has had the dual goals of scientific research and community development. Due to the regional political landscape, the initial goal of community-run ecotourism had to be abandoned. In its stead, the project has been seeking high-impact, low-cost development initiatives in collaboration with local villagers. The initiatives have had mixed levels of success, with best results in providing resources for multi-family wells and in organizing an ongoing lecture and workshop series detailing the results of the archaeological project. Through trial and error, project members have learned multiple lessons that can help other similar projects in the future. (1) Community investment in the project is essential, (2) as is the presence of a development specialist who can lead the efforts, leaving archaeologists to do archaeology. (3) Both the project and the local residents must have realistic expectations regarding the time the initiatives take and how ambitious they can be. (4) All of the initiatives must be informed by problems the locals themselves identify, and (5) it is possible to positively impact the region.

Desde su formulación en 2009, a petición de líderes locales, el Proyecto Salinas de los Nueve Cerros ha tenido dos metas duales, tanto de investigación, como de desarrollo comunitario. Ante el paisaje político regional existente, se tuvo que abandonar la iniciativa de impulsar un proyecto comunitario de ecoturismo. En su lugar, el proyecto ha estado buscando iniciativas de desarrollo de alto impacto, a bajo costo, en colaboración con los residentes locales. Las iniciativas han tenido relativo éxito, siendo las mejores aquellas que han provisto de pozos de agua a las familias, así como, las que comprenden pláticas y talleres relativos a los resultados del proyecto arqueológico. A través de la práctica de ensayo y error, los miembros del proyecto han aprendido múltiples lecciones que les podrán ayudar en un futuro. (1) La inversión comunitaria en el proyecto es indispensable, (2) como lo es la presencia de un especialista en desarrollo que pueda guiar los esfuerzos, dejando a los arqueólogos continuar son su práctica disciplinar. (3) Tanto el proyecto y los residentes locales tienen que tener expectativas realistas sobre el tiempo que toman las iniciativas y sobre que tan amiciosas puedan ser. (4) Todas las iniciativas deben ser guiadas por problemas identificados por los propios residentes locales y (5) por su posibilidad de impactar a la región de manera positiva.

Proyecto Salinas de los Nueve Cerros is an

archaeological project focused on a Precolumbian

city in west-central Guatemala (Figure 1, Woodfill

et al. 2012). Between the Early Middle Preclassic

(1000–800 B.C.) and the Early Postclassic (A.D.

900–1200), residents of Salinas de los Nueve Cerros

produced up to 22,000 mt of salt per year for

residents of the southern Maya lowlands, boiling

the water from a brine stream flowing through the

site core and scraping the salt flats surrounding it

(Dillon et al. 1988, Schwab et al. 2012, Woodfill et

al. 2012).

While the salt source has not been used consistently since the latter part of the twentieth century (Dillon 1977, 1979; Schwab et al. 2012), it continues to be an important part of the lives of the local population, most recently becoming the focus of an ecotourism project organized by local leaders and Peace Corps volunteer Edward Joseph. The project intended to take advan-tage of the old-growth forest and unique geological features within the site core. These features include the brine stream and

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106 Advances in Archaeological Practice: A Journal of the Society for American Archaeology • November 2013

Community Development and Collaboration at Salinas de Los Nueve Cerros, Guatemala (cont.)

salt flats (Figure 2), caves (Figure 3), and multiple ponds atop the dome that change colors (green, purple, pink, and brown) depending on the season (Figure 4). In order to provide another potential source of interest for tourists, Joseph and the local leaders were interested in inviting an archaeological project into the region and archaeologists Jon Spenard, Brent Woodfill, and Mirza Monterroso visited the site in August, 2009 at their behest.

The archaeological project was founded soon after the site visit with two intertwined goals: archaeological research and com-munity development. Project members have worked with the

local population to be a force for long-term positive change and local empowerment in the region as part of a growing “ethical archaeology” movement in the Maya world (Ardren 2002; del Cid and Demarest 2004; del Cid and García 2005; Ford 1998, 2006; Fruhsorge 2007; McAnany and Parks 2012; Mortensen 2009; Parks 2010; Parks et al. 2006; Pyburn and Wilk 1995) and beyond (e.g., Rowe and McAnany 2013; Scheiber et al. 2011). Of course, the real picture is much more complicated, fraught with unanticipated idiosyncrasies and conflicts, antagonistic and inefficient bureaucracies, and disjoints between local culture and larger economic systems.

FIGURE 1. Map of Guatemala showing the location of the sites discussed in this article. (drawing by Carlos Tox).

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107November 2013 • Advances in Archaeological Practice: A Journal of the Society for American Archaeology


FIGURE 2. Brine stream and salt flats in the heart of Salinas de los Nueve Cerros (photo by Blanca Mijangos).

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Archaeology does not occur in a vacuum. I believe that we as social scientists have an ethical obligation to more broadly engage descendant and neighboring communities and to use our presence, publicity, and connections to improve the lives of those affected by our research, especially when working in underdeveloped regions of the world. This assures not only that we are relevant outside of academia, but also that the archaeo-logical remains will be better protected after we leave and that future scientific endeavors will increasingly be welcomed. In this article, I attempt to summarize the development work undertaken by the project during its first four years of operation. The article outlines the larger political context of our research, our accomplishments and failures, the lessons learned, and our planned path forward, hopefully made the wiser through our experience and the sustained and earnest efforts made to posi-tively impact the region surrounding our archaeological site.

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF DEVELOPMENT THEORY IN ARCHAEOLOGYIn 1939, Graham Clark noted that “to be conducted adequately [archaeology] must be a social enterprise supported by the com-munity” (Clark 1939:211). But while the importance of preserving sites and artifacts (e.g., Smith 1974) has long been recognized,

archaeologists have only recently begun to take serious account of descendant communities and others affected by our research. Since few of us are trained in development theory and have little formal experience in its practice, however, there is no consensus about what development is or even what our role in it should be.

Most of the outreach efforts conducted by archaeologists consist of communicating our finds to people outside of aca-demia. This typically involves educating descendant groups and neighbors on the results of our research or sincerely engaging in dialogue with them about our interpretations and results and how they mesh with their interpretations and histories (Edwards-Ingram 1997; Ford 2006; Fruhsorge 2007; García 2007; Healy 1984; Marliac 1997; McAnany and Parks 2012; Moser et al. 2002; Pyburn 2011; Woodfill and Guerra 2004). Some archaeologists have been able to successfully create truly collaborative com-munity-based projects in which both scientific and Indigenous interests are addressed (Greer et al. 2002; Marshall 2002; Samu-els and Daugherty 1991; Spector 1993). Other archaeologists propose that we use our research to directly confront racism by changing national discourse, challenging embedded notions of cultural or racial inferiority, and modifying school curricula (Miller 1980; Sanchez 2012). These are all important and often-overlooked responsibilities and privileges of our discipline. All archaeologists should engage the public, particularly when marginalized groups are affected by our research. However, this is not development per se, and while any development project

FIGURE 3. Cave in the nearby Nueve Cerros ridge after a Maya harvesting ceremony (photo by the author).

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in which archaeologists participate should begin with dialogue and confronting prejudice, it should also include development.

For the purposes of this paper, development is understood as “a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy” (Sen 1999:3)—supporting and expanding local agency through increased access to resources and education as well as improved infrastructure and health. The most obvious way that archaeologists can engage in development projects is through transforming sites into tourist attractions that bring more money into the region. Even here, there is an incredible diversity in scale and in who receives the benefits. The traditional model involves the creation of large parks run by the state, which create a “trickle-down” effect on the local economy through the creation of jobs and tourist services (Breen 2007). Putting the past on display has profoundly impacted many countries in the developing world (e.g., García Canclini 1995) and allowed international money to flow in, which does have great potential to improve conditions for their citizens. However, the positive impact of tourism on local communities is often greatly exagger-ated (Castañeda 1996). In some cases, neighbors are overlooked and marginalized from the development process when outsiders

who speak the dominant language are brought in as workers and tour guides (Demarest 2006).

Developing archaeological sites for community-based tourism assures that much of the money stays in the region, but it is also fraught with difficulties (those encountered by the project are detailed below) and limited to a large degree by existing infrastructure. With the exception of small groups of adventure tourists who are willing to hike several days to sites like El Mira-dor in Guatemala and the multi-country Inka Trail, community-run sites can typically succeed only if they are located near main thoroughfares or well-known tourist areas. They are often also limited by tight budgetary constraints—since the majority of benefits will remain within the local region, it is harder to get access to enough capital to develop a site on scale with state-run parks. As a result, many community-run tourism projects (including those in the Nueve Cerros region) focus on cultural experiences and natural sites such as caves, waterfalls, lakes, and forests, and occasionally include archaeology as an addi-tional draw (Crosby 2002; del Cid and García 2005; García 2007; Stocks 2002; Woodfill 2004).

FIGURE 4. One of the multicolored ponds atop the salt dome, at the time showing a deep pink color (photo by Erin Sears).

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Large projects, like that at the nearby site of Cancuen (described in detail below), can consolidate multiple structures and create archaeological parks that can compete with many of the state-run attractions, but when projects have less access to capital or less impressive architecture, this is not an option. In these contexts, several projects have worked to build community museums in collaboration with the local population (e.g., Ardren 2002; Samuels and Daugherty 1991). When this is combined with natural attractions, marked paths, and trained tour guides who are able to explain the ruins, it can be a feasible and relatively inexpensive project that could provide local sustainable income, facilitate dialogue among diverse segments of society, showcase archaeological research, and increase pride in descendant com-munities’ heritage.

One final way that archaeologists can engage in local devel-opment is through using our presence and the interest we generate to support extant development work and bring other projects, medical missions, and improved infrastructure into the region (del Cid and Demarest 2004; del Cid and García 2005; Demarest 2006; García 2007; Moser et al. 2002). While discuss-ing the results and implications of our research, consolidating or reconstructing architecture, and creating museums and signs are all closely related to our professional formation, we are woefully underqualified to chase grant money for development and to support community initiatives. As a result, the most successful projects that are able to support parallel development efforts are those which have added an applied anthropologist or other development specialist to their team (Demarest 2006; Pyburn and Wilk 1995).

PREVIOUS DEVELOPMENT WORK IN CENTRAL GUATEMALABefore describing the development efforts conducted by members of Proyecto Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, it is neces-sary to describe the ongoing development efforts that have taken place nearby, as they have profoundly influenced our work. The archaeological site of Cancuen and two segments of the Candelaria Caves, the second largest cave system in Central America, were developed for locally-managed ecotourism in the early 2000s by members of the Cancuen Archaeological Project (CAP) (Demarest and Barrientos 2004; García et al. 2002). Q’eqchi’ Maya villagers at each location were trained in hotel management, sanitary cooking practices, and guiding tours. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) also sponsored the construction of tourist installations, including hostels, restaurants, and visitor centers.

Cancuen’s development directly impacted eight different villages. Together the villages formed a single community organization to rotate labor opportunities among communities; manage the tourism, reforestation, and sacred site projects; and interface with a non-governmental organization (NGO) created by the archaeological project (García 2002, 2003; del Cid and Demarest 2004; García et al. 2002). Most of the archaeological site is split between a park created by the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture and Sports and land purchased by Vanderbilt Univer-sity in 2002. The tourist industry in both parts is run by the com-munity association and includes a guide service, visitor center, and hostel, as well as religious and educational programs. The

village of La Unión, located upriver from Cancuen, provides boat transport to the site as well as parking facilities. A project is also currently underway to allow Q’eqchi’ Maya students to partici-pate in archaeological investigations and train to be tour guides (Arthur Demarest, personal communication 2013). Over the years, applied anthropologists Davíd García and Mario del Cid, project director Arthur Demarest, and others have worked with NGOs, multiple foreign governments, federal and international agencies, and local politicians in Guatemala to provide the surrounding villages with access to fresh water, new community buildings, tour guide training, access to education, and sustain-able sources of income.

The Candelaria Caves also involved multiple communities (del Cid and Demarest 2005; del Cid and García 2005, García 2007), since the system was split among landowners from two villages, Candelaria Campo Santo and Mucbilha, and unaffiliated parcels owned by multiple individuals. The work was undertaken by a variety of institutions. I worked with CAP and a team of Gua-temalan and American cavers to register the archaeological remains inside the caves (Woodfill et al. 2004), to recommend low-impact paths through several caves that were deemed appropriate for tourism (Ramirez and Woodfill 2004), and to develop a manual for tour guides with information about local archaeology and geology (Woodfill 2004). Archaeologists from the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture identified and registered the archaeological sites associated with the cave system, and Peace Corps volunteers Curan and Michelle Bonham organized reforestation efforts within the community land. Anthropologist Anthony Stocks (2002) and members of a local NGO served as point people organizing all of the efforts and coordinating directly with local leaders.

During the development process, the project members trained guides and built restaurants in both villages. Mucbilha is located several kilometers away from the highway, so USAID also built an access road that leads to the visitor center and a small hostel. The whole system was declared a national park in 2004, which has since been co-managed by the two local villages and the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture.

Additional projects were promoted by CAP and several devel-opment organizations under the umbrella of USAID. These included the construction of multiple wells and churches and the establishment of additional sources of sustainable income, including vanilla and cacao production. All of these activi-ties have resulted in local investment in the preservation of archaeological remains and the natural environment, along with increased access to capital. After seven years, the caves and site have become well-known and successful tourist destinations.

THE BEST-LAID PLANS: 2010 DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES AT SALINAS DE LOS NUEVE CERROSWork at Nueve Cerros was to continue in this vein, with archaeo-logical research and consolidation forming one facet of a large, multidisciplinary project that involved multiple agencies and vil-lages. Here, the coordinating body was the regional Committee for Community Development (COCODE, Second Level), a local

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governing body that was made up of one representative from each of the 34 villages in the region. This work had focused on training guides and setting up signs and tourist paths within the forested site core (Figure 5), which was located within a munici-pal finca (plantation) that was owned by a large city located several hours away and co-managed by the COCODE. Since this area contained the saltworks, part of the site epicenter, and several other groups with monumental architecture, we planned to focus our research there, excavating and consolidating structures for tourism and transforming an old oil camp (Figure 6) into a visitor center. The project hired an advanced Guatema-lan anthropology student to work as an applied anthropologist, serving as community liaison, coordinating efforts between the project and the COCODE, and looking for additional funding sources.

Once negotiations with the COCODE were solidified early in 2010, we reached out to the municipality to ensure that both co-managers of the finca were in agreement. After multiple meet-ings with one of the council members and the mayor, the project received preliminary permission to begin work on municipal land, with the promise of a formal letter that would arrive soon.

Since Joseph’s post with the Peace Corps was ending just as the archaeological field work was beginning, he connected the project with Ramiro Tox and his son, Carlos Efraín, both of whom had worked with multiple NGOs in the region. They served as on-the-ground planners, hiring workmen, resolving problems, and planning the logistics. While our initial desire was to use the old oil camp as the project base, due to its state of disrepair we set up camp in the Catholic church in the village of Santa Lucía. Santa Lucía is the local political center where the Tox family, auxiliary mayor’s office, regional police station, and COCODE meeting house were located. In addition, two Peace Corps vol-unteers were still living in the village, one of whom was Joseph’s replacement who had been specifically assigned to assist the archaeological project.

Work began on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, with 32 workmen from eight different villages, each of which were adjacent to the finca and located atop parts of the archaeological site. The project was focused exclusively on three zones within the finca, since it could directly relate to the development initiatives and could serve as neutral ground in order to acclimatize the landown-ers to the archaeological process before asking permission to work on their land in future seasons. Three hours into the work, several municipal workers appeared to inform the crew that they were not welcome within the finca and had to leave immediately. Calls to both the mayor and the city council member confirmed this, although they said that the proposal was still under con-sideration and that the initial permission that had been granted was simply premature.

Project members returned to Santa Lucía and met with mem-bers of the COCODE, who were frustrated but decided not to challenge the municipality, since the agreement allowing them to co-manage the finca was up for renewal the following year and they were afraid that pushing against the mayor might cost them the co-management. I subsequently tried to meet with municipal members in person, but was unable to make headway. At this point, the prospects for having a field season appeared bleak, although on Wednesday afternoon, the Tox family

informed me that they had secured permission for us to work in the land of two of the workmen from the village of Tortugas. After a site visit the following day, work began again on the morning of Friday, March 26, 2010.

Because of the Tox family’s negotiations and the generosity of multiple workmen, the project was able to continue for the entire field season, splitting its time between Tortugas and Pie de Cerro, where two more of our workers volunteered their land. The only hiccup came when one of the Tortugas landowners had a nightmare in which all of his corn died because of the work we were doing, so he retracted his permission during the second week of excavation. A third workman from the same village allowed us access to his land, however, so excavations contin-ued uninterrupted.

The End of EcotourismJust as the archaeological project within the municipal land failed, so did the ecotourism project. The COCODE abandoned efforts to develop the finca in order to gain favor with the mayor and attempt to secure the renewal of its co-management. Since the ecotourism project had become their raison d’etre, however, it was largely disbanded. The mayor did allow the co-manage-ment to lapse after all, after which the COCODE has effectively ceased to exist. Without local representation or a local orga-nization pushing for sustainable development within the finca, the signs were taken down, the paths became overgrown, and potential tourists were barred from entering municipal land. Without a meaningful local counterpart to the project, and given the abandonment of the ecotourism initiative, the applied anthropologist was reduced to serving as the project spokes-woman, participating in ceremonies and attending village meet-ings instead of furthering local development.

In early 2011, the project experienced one last blow. Martial law was declared in Alta Verapaz, where the site is located, in

FIGURE 5. Tourist sign at Salinas de los Nueve Cerros (photo by the author).

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an attempt to curb rampant drug trafficking. As a result, Peace Corps volunteers were moved out of the area and were reas-signed to other parts of Central America. Without the COCODE or the Peace Corps, we became the last organization stand-ing that was interested in developing the site and surrounding villages, and we were woefully unprepared to take the lead on such a large effort.

THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE OF SALINAS DE LOS NUEVE CERROSAlthough the project came into the region to support an exist-ing development initiative, it quickly fell apart due to politics within the urban core of the municipality, one of the largest cities in the country, located in the highlands five hours away by public transportation. Unlike the United States and Canada, municipal governments in Guatemala enjoy a high degree of autonomy from the departmental (the equivalent of a state) and federal governments. As a result, even though we had permission from the federal government and the local inhabitants, since the municipality owned the finca, they had the final say on whether or not we could work there. The only authority that we could appeal to was the federal court system, which would involve sev-eral years of court appointments, memorandums, and expensive legal fees. Even that was largely impossible, however, since the mayor and municipal council kept us in a state of limbo, refusing

to make a decision regarding our petition to work within their land, although they did deny access to the finca from a group of biologists from the national university.

As we spent more time in the region, we began to understand their reasons for ambivalence. Because of its distance, the perceived animosity of the local population by politicians from the urban core, and the state of disrepair of the abandoned oil camp inside the finca, one of the worst punishments that can befall a municipal worker is to be sent there to serve as admin-istrator. The Nueve Cerros finca is in fact nicknamed “Alca-traz,” and in 2011 a new administrator was posted there who was, according to the municipality, a particularly problematic employee who served as the secretary of the national union of municipal workers, and, as such, could not be fired.

Much of the antagonism present in 2010 was because the municipality was controlled by a military party in opposition to both the liberal federal government and the former guerrilla party that was popular in the Nueve Cerros region. According to multiple informants, the mayor received fewer than 70 votes from the region’s over 15,000 inhabitants, and they felt that the stamping out of the development project was retribution for their lack of support. Whether this was the case or not, this did indeed fit with the general treatment of the region under the present administration, which reversed many of the posi-tive advances that had been made by the previous mayor, who

FIGURE 6. Participants of a Q’eqchi’ ritual gather in front of the principal structure in an abandoned oil camp on the Tortugas salt dome (photo by the author).

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belonged to a party that was well-represented in the Nueve Cerros region.

While the ecotourism project itself was begun after the tenure of the previous mayor, he had used the finca as the centerpiece of his own development and reforestation project, declaring part of it a protected area, reforesting 150 ha, and naming the COCODE as co-managers of the finca. He planted 20 ha of cacao and 14 ha of Persian limes within the finca to provide sustainable income for local inhabitants and secured funding to build a high school—what was to be the first in the region. Under the new administration, however, the protected status of the finca was reversed and the cacao and limes were abandoned for four years before finally being chopped down and burnt so the land could be rented out as farmland. Construction of the school stopped soon after the new mayor took office and the half-finished building still stands, abandoned and crumbling, at the entrance to the finca (Figure 7). The co-management of the finca was allowed to expire in 2011, and in 2012, the region’s auxiliary mayor and all but one local municipal employee were fired and never replaced, leaving the finca at the mercy of loot-ers, poachers, and illegal loggers.

Probably the most important factor that has made development within the site difficult is a semantic one. Since the municipal land is officially designated as a finca instead of a park, it is viewed as a source of income for the politicians in charge of the municipality. This runs at odds with a locally-managed

ecotourism project. At the core of the finca (Figure 8) is the only non-coastal salt source in the Maya lowlands, and the municipal-ity sold salt rights to entrepreneurs from the nineteenth century well into the twentieth century (Dillon 1977, 1979; Schwab et al. 2012). By the 1950s, however, the construction of a railway and a road that connected the city to the Caribbean and Pacific Coasts allowed for access to cheaper sea salt. As a result, the municipality began to diversify, selling rights to the sulfur and oil located in the finca (Dillon 1977, 1979; Schwab et al. 2012).

While both sulfur and oil proved largely untenable due to the difficulty of extracting the products, a variety of oil companies have worked in the finca over the years, building a base camp and a road to the top of the salt dome, as well as leaving three wells atop it, one of which is currently leaking highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas (Schwab et al. 2012; Woodfill et al. 2011). Another oil company has been attempting to move into the finca since 2006, although they face fierce opposition from the local population and the same institutional indifference as the archaeological project.

The site sprawls beyond the borders of the finca, however, and the rest of Nueve Cerros is split among landowners from 10 dif-ferent villages. Although the villagers are mostly Q’eqchi’ Maya, they have differing backgrounds, widely varying political and religious affiliations, and took different sides during Guatemala’s nearly half-century-long civil war. These circumstances, coupled

FIGURE 7. The abandoned schoolhouse in the municipal finca (photo by the author).

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with the typical neighbor and village rivalries, make large-scale collaboration a potential minefield.

As a result of these factors, the reach of the archaeological project has been limited to places where we have been able to successfully negotiate permission. As a result, while we have access to the site’s epicenter, port area, and a variety of elite and non-elite residence groups (see Woodfill et al. 2012:Figure 1), we cannot directly address the history of salt production at the site. While the locals are still interested in developing the site for tourism, most of the privately owned land has been deforested and is used for growing corn (Figure 9), making it a hard sell for ecotourism initiatives for both tourists and landowners, who would worry about visitors trampling their crops. As such, our development strategy had to be completely reoriented to face the new reality.

ADAPTING TO THE NEW REALITY: DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS IN THE NUEVE CERROS REGION, 2011–2013Because of the complex political situation and highly frag-mented land ownership in the region, we have had to modify our goals throughout the years, in terms of both scientific research and community development. Our goals were simple enough in the beginning—to map and excavate inside the finca and to promote the nascent local ecotourism industry, which was already being advertised and receiving the occasional visitor. After the locals had become accustomed to the archaeologi-cal process and the ecotourism project was in place, we would expand our research and potentially extent the development project to village land. When access to the finca was denied and all projects within it were closed, the project began to look at other options to strengthen community ties and benefit the region’s inhabitants while continuing to conduct scientific research.

Community RelationsThe most successful part of our work with the local villages has been in education, collaboration, and participation in multiple facets of community life. At the end of each field season, project members give a bilingual (Spanish-Q’eqchi’) lecture to work-men, landowners, teachers, and leaders in the region, summa-rizing the year’s results and the impact of our research on our understanding of their ancestors. This is followed by an award ceremony and lunch for the locals who have let us work on their land. Since 2011, the activities have been preceded by a small ceremony run by local elders.

In 2011 and 2012, to begin the field season, the project also sponsored a ceremony (Figure 10) involving the sacrifice of a chicken; the burning of incense, herbs, sugar, chocolate, and other offerings; and a lunch. The first ceremony had nearly 1,000 people in attendance, with volunteers cleaning the ritual site and cooking soup made with 270 kg of chicken and enough vegetables to fill the bed of a pickup truck. In 2012, the cer-emony was scaled down to approximately 100 participants. In 2013, we worked primarily in land owned by evangelical families who belonged to churches that frown upon such ceremonies, so we decided to forgo them. However, these same families were surprisingly enthusiastic about a ceremony closing the field sea-son in August, so we will continue to run the opening ceremony in future years, regardless of where our research is focused.

We have also arranged multiple educational trips for local leaders, elders, and landowners to teach them about archaeol-ogy’s potentials and realities. The project has organized two guided trips to Cancuen and brought landowners and elders to Guatemala City, where we teach them about what happens after materials leave the field and we give tours of urban museums (Figure 11), archaeological sites, and government installations.

Because this is the first large-scale archaeological project in the region since the villages were founded in the 1980s, we were worried about obtaining permission to transport the artifacts to

FIGURE 8. Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, showing the different neighborhoods and approximate location of the contemporary property lines within the site core: (1) the municipal finca; (2) Tortugas; (3) Santa Lucía; (4) Santa Cruz; (5) Pie de Cerro; (6) Tierra Blanca Salinas; (7) Tierra Blanca Sebol; (8) Isla de Tortugas; (9) Santa Marta; (10) Las Brisas del Chixoy; (11) villages in the department of El Quiche (map by Marc Wolf, Antolín Velásquez, José Luis Garrido, and Brian Dillon, modified by the author).

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our laboratory in Guatemala City and about damaging rumors that we were selling the artifacts on the black market. As a result, we hired Efraín Tox, one of the few locals to have completed a high school education, to live in the project laboratory and to assist the staff there. He is currently studying at the national uni-versity, where he is in his third year of working towards a college degree in archaeology. After his father, he is the second person in a region of over 20,000 residents to begin higher education. His brother César, who had previously spent two years studying agricultural business management in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on a USAID scholarship, is currently living in the laboratory and study-ing agricultural and environmental science on the weekends at a private university outside of Guatemala City.

We also attempted to contribute to local society in smaller ways less related to archaeology and to the development efforts. After multiple requests from elders and other village leaders, the project teamed up with several American Catholic churches to help two of the villages acquire patron saints and provided assistance for an evangelical community to build a new school.

Community DevelopmentThis focus on a community-based approach allowed us to receive one of the first InHerit grants through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 2011–2012. The grant allowed us to bring Seleste Sanchez, an American applied anthropolo-

gist, onto the project for 12 months to focus on community rela-tions and collaborating with local leaders to bring other projects into the region. Initially, we tried connecting local farmers with urban and international markets through the USAID-based Aso-ciación Guatemalteca de Exportadores (AgExport, Guatemalan Association of Exporters), since even after the destruction of the orchards within the finca there were thousands of kilos of cacao, Persian lime, and okra in the region falling off the plants and rot-ting instead of being harvested and sold. While there was inter-est from buyers from Guatemala City and other markets, there was no local infrastructure in place to provide a central point for collecting the crops, no quality control, no formal system for caring for and harvesting them, and no ability to pack them for transport so they did not get bruised in transit. Since these would take multiple years to establish, Sanchez abandoned this as a viable project during her tenure in Guatemala.

Initially, another potential focus for Sanchez’s work in the region was the founding of women’s cooperatives to provide train-ing in the creation of specific handicrafts that could be sold to tourists in the region and at installations in more visited areas. This initiative had the same problem as did the agricultural one: there was no local market for such materials, few tourists passing through the region, and no infrastructure to allow the goods to be transported to areas where they could be sold.

FIGURE 9. View of the site epicenter (foreground), salt dome (background), and salt flats (left center) from the Nueve Cerros ridge. The forest marks the beginning of the municipal finca; the area covered with corn is community land (photo by the author).

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As a result, Sanchez looked for other projects during her time in the region. The individual village COCODEs had identified problems specific to the different communities, and the two which were most often repeated were access to education and clean water, a scarce resource in this wet but swampy region of Guatemala. To address the first problem, Sanchez worked with several students from the University of Louisiana who had traveled with me through Guatemala in 2011 to acquire over $13,000 worth of school supplies and $1,500 in donations to import them. For the second problem, the project purchased a mold to make cement tubes that could be used to line multi-family wells throughout the region. Sanchez also won a five-year commitment from the Iowa State University student chapter of Engineers without Borders to build potable water systems in the 10 villages surrounding the archaeological site.

These accomplishments, of course, had mixed results. Gua-temalan law requires that all goods imported into the coun-try—donations or not—be subject to a tariff of 20 percent of their total value, so the supplies have been sitting in the Port of New Orleans since late 2011. It appears that this will finally be resolved, however, having found one of the few NGOs with a special dispensation to import donations without paying duty. The NGO will be paid in a percentage of our supplies.

The Engineers without Borders’ potable water project quickly died on the vine. The site is located along a well-known drug trafficking corridor (Dudley 2011), and since 2011, martial law has

been declared here and in other parts of northern Guatemala. Because of this, the Peace Corps and other government workers have been pulled out of much of the country. Iowa State Univer-sity followed the government’s lead, canceling their students’ project two days before their flight to Guatemala was scheduled to leave, and after multiple delays, the program was officially canceled in April, 2013.

Of the three projects, only the mold project was an unqualified success. Over 180 men from all of the region’s villages were trained to use the mold (Figure 12) and through additional donations through the University of Louisiana and Weber State University (from which Sanchez had recently graduated), we acquired enough cement to build several multi-family wells. We were also able to repair local bridges in the region, which were collapsing due to institutional neglect, because the molded tubes could also be used as bridge supports. We are currently trying to work with different organizations and a Guatemalan congresswoman to acquire more cement to continue to build wells throughout the region.

The project did get a letter from the mayor in 2011 that allowed us to work within the municipal finca and live in the abandoned oil camp, so we spent the first three months of 2011 restoring it with the help of a carpenter, a mason, and local assistants with donations of palm fronds and several large trees by the municipality and two local leaders. We repaired floors and walls, replaced doors and shutters, built two additional thatch roofed buildings, restored and covered a large rain catchment unit, and acquired a solar energy system capable of producing over 700 W (Figure 13).

FIGURE 10. Candles, incense, rosemary, cacao, sugar, and alcohol burned at the heart of a Q’eqchi’ mayejak (dedicatory ceremony) to begin the 2011 field season (photo by the author).

FIGURE 11. Elders from the Nueve Cerros region visit the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 2011. They stand in front of a large salt storage vessel recovered from Nueve Cerros in the 1970s by archaeologist Brian Dillon. Nueve Cerros resident Carlos Efraín Tox Tiul, currently completing his third year studying archaeology at Guatemala’s national university, is also pictured (photo by the author).

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Unfortunately, the permission was revoked with the arrival of a second letter from the municipality on the day we were travel-ing to the camp to begin the field season, so the project was again unable to work within the finca. While we were initially told that we could stay in the camp through the end of the field season, we received word three weeks before the season’s end that municipal workers were on their way to forcibly remove us from our camp. Due to the quick actions of the Tox family, we were able to get a letter of support from local leaders, which was signed in front of several municipal workers who reported back to the mayor, so we were allowed to finish the season in the camp, although additional renovations were prohibited. Because of the amount of labor we were able to invest in the camp, however, it would be possible to convert the camp into a visitor center with minimum investment if the ecotourism project is ever re-initiated.

LESSONS LEARNEDLesson 1: Community investment in the project is essential. Because of strong ties with local leaders since its inception, the project has been able to survive even after work within the finca was shut down, moving immediately to land owned by villagers. Although the project has faced continued apathy and, at times, outright antagonism by municipal authorities, it has thrived and continued to expand into new areas, including several villages that were initially opposed to outside visitors. As of 2013, we have over 50 families who have allowed us work on their lands and are receiving more invitations to excavate than we can cur-rently accommodate.

Lesson 2: It is necessary to have an applied anthropologist or other development professional on-staff for community outreach. Hiring a trained specialist to serve as a liaison among locals, NGOs, government organizations, and the project is essential for long-term projects on communal land. Such trained specialists are far better able to synthesize the needs and desires of the population, and then achieve these ends via grants, outreach, and foreign aid, than the average archaeolo-

gist, who is (and should be) more interested in issues related directly to archaeological research.

Lesson 3: Patience. Even given the willingness of local inhabit-ants to work with the project, multiple local collaborators with over 40 years of combined experience in local development projects, and a staff member with applied experience devoted exclusively to managing the different organizations and people in play, we had to greatly curb our expectations of what could be accomplished and how long it would take. Some of this resulted from the larger political problems between the local population and higher authorities, but even when everyone has had the best of intentions, we have had to greatly reduce our ambitions in the region due to cultural and systematic incompat-ibilities that need time to be resolved.

Lesson 4: While this seems obvious and is a central tenet of development theory (e.g., Banerjee and Duflo 2011; Doyle and Gilbert 2010; Sen 1999), it is still important to stress that develop-ment work needs to be collaborative and based on problems that the locals identify themselves. The majority of development projects that have come through the region have been based on a “cookie-cutter” approach, training the local population to pro-duce a specific good (woven baskets, candles, okra, or Persian lime), although when the crops have been harvested or the hand-icrafts have been made, there is no one around to buy them, so the fields go fallow and the crafting supplies are allowed to rust. Other development projects involve giving away sheets of cor-rugated tin, mosquito nets, or plastic rainwater catchment units. While these are helpful in the short term, all rust or break without leaving behind the resources to replace them.

FIGURE 12. Ramiro Tox (far left) training locals to use the cement mold (photo by Seleste Sanchez).

FIGURE 13. Repairing the old oil camp and building the frame to install solar panels (photo by the author).

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Lesson 5: It is still possible to make a positive and lasting impact, albeit not necessarily in anticipated ways. In spite of all the problems encountered, we have had real successes with increased access to clean water, education, and information about the past. Even our failures have had potential benefits, since we have been able to identify some of the infrastructural problems that need to be addressed before larger development projects are able to make headway in the region. The presence of a project laboratory in Guatemala City has benefited multiple individuals from the region, who would otherwise have been unable to afford a place to stay while seeking medical treatment or accompanying family members who are seeking treatment.

In addition, local residents have become highly receptive to sci-entific endeavors as a result of their experiences with this project over the past four years. This might, in the long term, help with the preservation of natural and cultural resources and open new avenues for development. In the Candelaria Caves and Cancuen, the locals have united against looting and brought several legal cases against looters. This is particularly notable in Cancuen, where villagers reported the theft of an altar by a neighboring family that was exposed between field seasons by Hurricane Mitch. Those responsible were eventually convicted and sent to prison and this has further discouraged looters to move into the site.

THE WAY FORWARDAfter four years of experience with development in local com-munities, we have developed a new way forward based on lessons learned and the long-term goals of local leaders. A large part of this has been the founding of a local, non-partisan, apolitical, non-religious, region-wide organization: Asociación No Lucrativa de Desarrollo “Aj Waklesinel Franja Transversal del Norte” (Non-Profit Development Association “Development of the Northern Transversal Strip”). This NGO is run by lead-ers from multiple villages, many of whom have over a decade of experience working with foreign or national development projects in the region. The NGO became a legal entity in March 2013 through funds provided by the project. It is focused on supporting scientific research in the region and developing the infrastructure needed to successfully reach the long-term goals identified by the local villagers: ecotourism, education, access to clean water, and exportation of locally-grown crops. Ramiro Tox, the local “fixer” and translator for the archaeological team, is the current president of the NGO and serves as the point person between it and the project.

Finally, the project will be able to bring school supplies into the country in time for the 2014 academic year. All of the materi-als (backpacks, utensils, notebooks, etc.) will be combined into bundles for students from the region. As Banerjee and Duflo (2011) have shown, people place a higher value on goods that are purchased instead of donated, even if the cost is symbolic. As a result, these bundles will be sold to families for five quetzal (approximately US $.70). All of the proceeds will be invested in piñatas, food, and drink for a party for teachers, students, and their families at the beginning of the school year to strengthen the bonds among them. We also continue to actively seek dona-tions to purchase cement so that families can continue to build wells throughout the region.

CONCLUSIONSCommunity relations and community development should be part of the standard practice of archaeological projects, especially for those working in underdeveloped or marginalized regions of the world. As outsiders with access to politicians, foreign aid, and the press, we have an ethical obligation to try to improve the lives of the people directly affected by our research. At the same time, by ensuring that our research benefits the local population, we also benefit ourselves—with local support, archaeologists can gain access to parts of a site that would otherwise be unknown or off limits. When a project ends, the investment in the local infrastructure and economy will help to ensure that the sites are protected by their neighbors instead of becoming a focus of looting.

Proyecto Salinas de los Nueve Cerros has been envisioned since its inception as a ten-year project, and as long as research continues, it will be heavily invested in serving not only as a springboard for young scholars and a training program for Guatemalan and international students but also as an instiga-tor and supporter of a variety of local development goals in the region. With the end of municipal support, the retraction of Peace Corps employees, and the reduction of USAID’s budget, however, the project has become the primary development organization. In this role, we are working to maximize our effec-tiveness without sacrificing our primary goal, the scientific study of the ancient Maya.

Over the past four years, we have tried to use our presence and access to funding, politicians, and resources beyond the region to improve the lives of its inhabitants. The current project’s philosophy is to leave the region in a better state than when we entered and to make sure that locals continue to feel the benefits of the project after we leave. With the local NGO, the cement mold, and local villagers in college, we are actively fol-lowing through with this goal. Moving the power and initiative out of the project and directly into the hands of the locals is a necessary step in the right direction. Archaeologists and devel-opment projects come and go, while the local population will continue to struggle and thrive among the ruins of their ances-tors for generations to come.

AcknowledgmentsThe research, community outreach, and development projects at Salinas de los Nueve Cerros discussed in this article were financed by the Alphawood Foundation, the InHerit Founda-tion, and donations obtained through the Foundations of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Weber State Univer-sity. Additional support and donations were provided by the Anthropology, History, and Honors societies at the University of Louisiana, as well as by XA, KS, , , and KA. Previous work at the Candelaria Caves was financed by the Vanderbilt Institute of Mesoamerican Archaeology; the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Archaeology, Inc.; Chemonics, Inc.; APROBA-SANK; Fortalecimiento Institucional de Políticos Ambientales; and Vanderbilt University, with the institutional support of the Vanderbilt Cancuen Archaeological Project, directed by Arthur Demarest and Tomás Barrientos.

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I would like to thank applied anthropologists Seleste Sanchez, Anthony Stocks, and Davíd García, as well as colleagues and project members—past and present—who have worked directly on development initiatives, especially Jaime Awe, Mario del Cid, Emilia Gazzuolo, Cameron Griffith, Jenny Guerra, Mark Lentz, Nicolas Miller, Álvaro Ramírez, Erin Sears, Jon Spenard, Tara McLaughlin, and Judith Valle, as well as students and colleagues at the University of Louisiana, especially David Barry, Megan Bergeron, Julie Bolton Falgout, Donna Fontenot, Jordan Kell-man, Ruth Landry, and Mark Rees. Multiple Peace Corps volun-teers were also an essential part of these initiatives—Curan and Michelle Bonham, Ted Joseph, Kelly Kirschner, Andrew Patari, and Jason Pielmeyer, Without the help and support of develop-ment workers Anne Dix, Claudia Pastor, Brian Rudert, Don Bex Tut, and the residents of Mucbilha, Candelaria Camposanto, and the Nueve Cerros region, none of this work would have been possible.

Finally, I received helpful criticism during various stages of the writing process from Lee Rains Clauss, Arthur Demarest, Tom Dillehay, Kristin Landau, Megan Leight, Patricia McAnany, Sarah Rowe, Yuliya Shmidt, Janet Lawson, Tara McLaughlin, the anony-mous reviewers, and journal editor Christopher Dore.

Data Availability StatementAll data cited in this article are available by request to Dr. Brent Woodfill ([email protected]).

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2004 Manual arqueológico para guías turísticas en las Cuevas de Candelaria. United States Agency of International Development, Guatemala City.

Woodfill, Brent, Brian Dillon, Jeanette Castellanos, and Marc Wolf

2012 Evidence for Elite Control of Basic Resource Production at Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, Guatemala. Manuscript on file, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Child and Family Studies, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Woodfill, Brent, and Jenny Guerra

2004 El Intercambio ecoturístico Chisec-San Ignacio, Fase I. In Proyecto Arqueológico Cancuen Informe Final No. 5, edited by Arthur Demarest, Tomás Barriéntos, Brigitte Kovacevich, Michael Callaghan, Brent Woodfill, and Luis Luin, pp. 701–710. Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

Woodfill, Brent, Mirza Monterroso, Erin Sears, Donaldo Castillo, and José Luis Garrido López

2011 Proyecto Salinas de los Nueve Cerros: Resultados de la primera temporada de campo, 2010. In XXIV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicos en Guatemala, edited by Bárbara Arroyo, Lorena Paiz Aragón, Adriana Linares Palma, and Ana Lucía Arroyave, pp. 135–48. Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Guatemala City.

Woodfill, Brent, Álvaro Ramírez, Emilia Gazzuolo, Mirza Monterroso, Adriana Segura, Carlos Girón, Jose Hurtado, Nicolas Miller, and Paul Halacy

2004 Descripción y registro de cuevas, rasgos, y artefactos culturales en las cuevas de Candelaria. In Proyecto Arqueológico Cancuen Informe Final No. 5, edited by Arthur Demarest, Tomás Barriéntos, Brigitte Kovacevich, Michael Callaghan, Brent Woodfill, and Luis Luin, pp. 633–678. Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

AuthorBrent Kerry Skoy Woodfill n Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Child and Family Studies, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2716 Flag Ave N., New Hope, MN 55427 ([email protected])

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Community Development and Collaboration at Salinas de los Nueve Cerros Guatemala: Accomplishments,...

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