The Southern California Mesoamerica Network returns to Cal State San Bernardino for its 2023 Spring Meeting on Saturday, March 4, with a focus on crafting, featuring presentations from current and former faculty, students, visiting scholars and indigenous craftspeople.

“Crafting in Mesoamerica,” which is free and open to the public, will take place from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. in the university’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences building, room SB-128. Parking at the university is $3; face coverings are optional but recommended.

Those unable to attend in person may register for a livestream link at the 2023 SoCal Mesoamerica Network meeting Zoom page.

With the focus on crafting in Mesoamerica, the meeting’s presentations will display a diverse assortment of material culture and the social practices behind it. One focus of the event will be to encourage student participation. To that end, undergraduate and/or graduate students will present short talks outlining their research on any aspect of Mesoamerican studies.

CSUSB last hosted the network’s annual meeting in 2018.

Scheduled presenters include:

  • Frances Berdan, CSUSB professor of anthropology, emerita, “Postclassic Mesoamerican Turquoise Mosaics: Materials, Sources, and Techniques”
  • Nawa Sugiyama, UC Riverside assistant professor of anthropology, “The Matter of Corporal Animal Forms in Imperial Formations at Teotihuacan”
  • Travis Stanton, UCR professor of anthropology, “Recrafting Identity at Chichen Itza: Reimagining Teotihuacan at Chichen Itza in the Early Postclassic”
  • Kenichiro Tsukamoto, UCR assistant professor of anthropology, “Crafting Social Affiliations and Distinctions among Standard-Bearers at El Palmar, Mexico”
  • Guy David Hepp, CSUSB associate professor of anthropology, and Marc N. Levine, University of Oklahoma associate professor of anthropology, “Late Postclassic Period Figurine Production at Tututepec, Oaxaca, Mexico”
  • Jeremy Coltman, UCR lecturer in anthropology, “Drumming Up Paradise: The Symbolism and Function of Teponaztli Drums in Ancient Mexican Art and Culture”
  • Xóchilt Chávez, UCR assistant professor of music, “‘A Community without a Band is a Community without a Soul:’ Indigenous Placemaking and Sustainability of Oaxacan Brass Bands in Los Angeles, CA”
  • Claudia García-Des Lauriers, Cal Poly Pomona professor of geography and anthropology, “Art, Agency, and Production: Interaction and the Marketplace of Ideas”
  • Rachael Wedemeyer, UCR anthropology Ph.D. candidate, “Crafting Belonging: Results of Test Excavations in the López Plaza, a Classic Period Plazuela Group at El Palmar, Campeche”
  • Johanna Najera, UCR anthropology Ph.D. candidate, “The Well-being of the Home: Caregiving Practices in the Maya Northern Lowlands”

For information on the Southern California Mesoamerica Network 2023 Spring Meeting, contact Guy Hepp, CSUSB assistant professor of anthropology at guy.hepp@csusb.edu. 

Follow the Southern California Mesoamerica Network on its Facebook page, @SoCalMesoamericaNetwork.

SoCal Mesoamerica Network 2023 Spring Meeting flyer