معرفی
John M. Watanabe is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College, where he has taught since 1989. His work focuses on Maya ethnic identity, state formation in 19th-century Guatemala, ritual economies, and cultural evolution. He holds a B.A. from UC Santa Cruz (1975), and M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University (1978, 1984).
Research interests include the intersection of religion, cosmology, and political power among Maya communities, as well as broader questions about ritual’s role in human evolution. His major publications explore Maya religious practices, cross-cultural comparison methodologies, and the historical dynamics of ethnic-state relations. Recent work examines how commercial coffee production influenced Guatemalan state-Maya interactions in the late 19th century.
Dr. Watanabe has received prestigious awards including the Karen E. Wetterhahn Memorial Award and fellowships from the Michigan Society of Fellows and National Humanities Center. His teaching philosophy emphasizes rigorous scholarship and the symbiotic relationship between research and pedagogy.
He co-directed an advanced seminar at the School of American Research comparing Maya communities across Mexico and Guatemala. Current projects include a historical ethnography of Mam Maya-state relations and studies on ritual’s evolutionary roots in primate social behaviors.
