K. Anne Pyburn

Professor, Anthropology Department
Indiana University

Research key words: 
ethics, heritage management, ancient cities

K. Anne Pyburn is Professor of Anthropology and Professor of Gender Studies at Indiana University. She is the director of the Chau Hiix Project investigating the political economy of an ancient Maya community; her research has been invited and facilitated by the residents of Crooked Tree Village and the Institute of Archeology of Belize. At their behest, the Chau Hiix Project promotes respect for the past and present accomplishments of the Maya as an underpinning to education, public outreach, and economic development. Pyburn is also the director of the MATRIX Project (Making Archaeology Teaching Relevant in the XXI Century), the “Community Cultural Resource Management for the Silk Road” Project, and of Director the Center for Archaeology in the Public Interest at Indiana University. She co- edits Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress with Nick Shepherd of the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She writes about the archaeology of gender, settlement patterns, cities, social distinctions, and the ancient Maya; and about ethics, community involvement and public education in archaeological research.

Recent publications include: "Pomp and Circumstance: Cities in a Maya Landscape" In The Ancient City: Perspectives from the Old and New World, Joyce Marcus and Jeremy Sabloff, eds. National Academy of Sciences, Wash., DC & School of American Research, Santa Fe, NM, “Archaeology as Activism” In Cultural Heritage and Human Rights, H. Silverman, ed. Left coast Press, Walnut Creek CA, and “Past: Political: The Pageantry of Archaeology” In The Public Meanings of the Archaeological Past. C. Matthews and Q. Casteneda, eds. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, California.

Photo courtesy of Indiana University.