Jason Yaeger

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 2000
Associate Professor of Anthropology
At UW-Madison since 2000

Archaeology

Affiliations: Latin American, Caribbean, & Iberian Studies Program; Global Studies Program

Research

I study how past social and political institutions were constituted through everyday practices and interpersonal interactions.   I have pursued this problem in several different research contexts.   Since 1991, I have been studying Classic Maya farming communities in the Belize River and their place in larger-scale political and economic dynamics and processes of social change.   I have also studied Belize's colonial period, examining how everyday practices became established as ethnic markers of Maya identity in the 19th and 20th centuries.   Finally, I have examined how the Inka modified preexisting sacred spaces at the ancient city of Tiwanaku, Bolivia, to evoke a creation narrative that legitimized Inka imperialism.   Taken together, these three projects provide complementary perspectives on the complex processes through which social and political institutions and constructs are constituted. These processes involved elite and non-elite actors and were intimately structured by enduring aspects of material culture and the built environment.

Teaching

Anth 100: Introduction to Anthropology
Anth 102: Archaeology and the Prehistoric World
Anth 112: Principles of Archaeology
Anth 120: Freshman Seminar
• Topic: Deciphering Maya Hieroglyphic Writing

Anth 322: Origins of Civilization
Anth 331: Archaeology of Middle America
Anth 335: The Ancient Maya
Anth 490: Undergraduate Seminar
• Topic: Ancient States and Civilizations

Anth 942: Graduate Seminar
• Topic: States and Empires of the New World
• Topic: Landscapes, Past and Present

Freshman Interest Group: Indigenous American Language,
Writing, and Literature

Select Publications

• Yaeger, Jason & David Hodell (Forthcoming)  
  The Collapse of Maya Civilization: Assessing the Interaction of Culture, Climate, and Environment. In El Niño, Catastrophism, and Culture Change in Ancient America, edited by Daniel H. Sandweiss & Jeffrey Quilter. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.
• Yaeger, Jason & Greg Borgstede (2004)
  Professional Archaeology and the Modern Maya: A Historical Sketch. In Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology: Perspectives at the Millennium, edited by Charles W. Golden & Greg Borgstede, pp. 259-286. Routledge Press, New York and London.
• Yaeger, Jason & José María López Bejarano (2004)
  La reconfiguración de un espacio sagrado: Los Inkas y la pirámide Pumapunku en Tiwanaku. Chungara, Revista de Antropología Chilena 36(2):335-348.
• Yaeger, Jason (2003)
  Untangling the Ties That Bind: The City, the Countryside, and the Nature of Maya Urbanism at Xunantunich, Belize. In The Social Construction of Ancient Cities, edited by Monica L. Smith, pp. 121-155. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
• Canuto, Marcello Andrea & Jason Yaeger (editors). (2000)
  The Archaeology of Communities: A New World Perspective. Routledge Press, London.

Curriculum Vitae

Jason Yaeger CV

Contact

Office: 5440 Sewell Social Science Hall
Office phone: (608) 262-7391
Email address: jyaeger@wisc.edu