COOPRENA R.L

During 2000 and also during 2001 and 2004, archaeological (and, in the latter case ethno- graphic) fieldwork was conducted in several parts of Tilantongo, with the largest time period spent at Monte Negro on one of the ridgelines of the Cerro Negro. The families living near the site are few, and do not constitute the status of agencia regarding Tilantongo, as such there also are no official representatives at the municipality. An unofficial representative had been appointed though. At the onset of the fieldwork in 2000, the municipal authorities clearly demarcated the social boundaries of who got to decide what. The initial impression that the (unofficial) representative for Monte Negro later mentioned to us came down to the fact that he was ‘informed’ of the archaeology-related plans, but had no part in the decision-making process. By providing an insight into the web of power relations in which we had been inserted, this was one of the first instances at which it became unclear how the community-approach would crystallize upon actually being in the community itself.

Community authorization and cooperation was clearly different from enthusiasm or col- laboration. On more than one occasion, we were challenged in the community by mentioning that we were attempting to make a profit by doing this research. Whether warranted or not, archaeology’s dubious reputation as a business of treasure seekers has a long-standing tradition

in many communities, and it did not take long to get absorbed in this discourse.5 _{Given the}

tense nature that characterized the relationship between municipal authorities and residents at Tilantongo, it was not surprising that through our initial association with the authorities we were often met with suspicion.

Our project team, in addition to a total of six students provided food for debate in Tilan- tongo. Numerous occasions provided examples of the shifting identifications in which the group or individuals within the group were viewed by parts of the Tilantongo community. For example, whilst the collaboration with persons who lived near Monte Negro developed well, the representation of me by residents in the municipal centre was based on the identities constructed during the presentation and planning meetings in the municipal building. This further complicated the goals set out by the concept of community archaeology.

During the first stay in the community, the location of our residence was at Monte Negro itself, an hour’s walk uphill from the urban centre of town. We chose to remain there, close to the archaeological site, because of the considerable distance to the municipal centre and the fact that we used relatively heavy equipment for our mapping activities. In addition, the municipal authorities had initially proposed this location. In general, choosing to stay on Cerro Negro left a very positive impression on all of the fieldwork participants, apart from the bleak weather conditions we had to endure whilst there.

In the first three weeks of the fieldwork at Monte Negro we stayed mostly near the site itself, only infrequently doing the one hour hike downhill to the centre of Tilantongo. We were oc- cupied with the mapping process and thus spent as many hours as possible on the site, using the Total Station to map all features visible on the surface. The process entailed lots of walking about the site, which in turn included traversing many personal properties as well as unused terrain or simply uncultivated meadows or sections of the forest which surround the central area of Monte Negro. Here is where it became most obvious that municipal initiatives in this regard are not at all a free-pass for conducting investigations. Even though hardly any objections were expressed in our direction while we were walking the fields, perhaps due to the fact that many residences were not occupied at the time, the act of crossing into private property did not seem to be warranted solely by having discussed a project of collaboration with the authorities or having local participants in the field with us. In a way, it seemed necessary to somehow involve all those people affected by our activities in the project. At times this even extended to those affected by merely our presence. The problematic nature of local participation in archaeology started to appear in ‘the field’, where at the outset this was presumed to be the most productive location.

5 Perhaps the most infamous example of this contentious relationship between archaeology and local community members is the excavation project undertaken at Zaachila in the Oaxaca Valley during the early 1960s. Archaeologist Roberto Gallegos was forced to ‘recurrir a la protección federal’ during his field activities. In Gallegos’ writing this is contrasted to the fact that inhabitanta of Mexico City, native to Zaachila, had originally apllied for the project with INAH (Gallegos Ruiz 1978:7).

One person, who also held unofficial responsibilities as a municipal custodian for Monte Negro, was of structural importance for the development and subsequent execution of this research. Not only did he integrate his extensive knowledge of the Cerro Negro localities, he also actively participated in involving other, more hesitant, individuals in this research. Instead of the frequently encountered hesitant responses by community-members, he used the project initiative to express his convictions of a need for more research in Monte Negro in general and in particular with regard to the oral history. He effectively had already been the main collabora- tive partner in the earlier archaeological activities at Monte Negro and continued to be central to the workings of the project during 2004. The significant amount of time that he invested in the project seemed partly grounded in prolonged stays away from Tilantongo. He told us re- peatedly how impressed and interested he was with the ‘modern’ world, as he referred to it. For example all types of long-distance communication had his interest; particularly the Internet and e-mail had caught his attention whilst away on contract work in either Oaxaca City, Veracruz or Mexico City. He also managed the satellite telephone that had been installed recently on Cerro Negro. Despite the fact that it broke down after only a couple of years, which he analyzed as a lack of proper maintenance by the company that came to install it, he viewed it as a glimpse of things to come in the near future. He profiled himself as a Tilantongo inhabitant who was not satisfied with being only that. As such, he was the clearest profile of a reduced number of com- munity-members in Tilantongo as well as Apoala who viewed collaborating in an archaeological project, partly characterized by outside initiatives, as an opportunity to discuss what may seem to be the opposite of local community matters, namely 21st century global developments. In the municipal center of Santiago Tilantongo, the common perception of Monte Negro is one of an ancient and timeless ruin located on a hill on which otherwise only a handful of fami- lies reside, for reasons which are beyond the comprehension of many. Contact of our group with those living in the immediate surroundings of the site was established quite quickly and this was most noticeable on the Sunday market, for which we would descend from the mountain; meet up with or return with several members of the families living on Cerro Negro. A particu- lar characteristic of these trips was that we would meet up with some of them occasionally on the market, but they made a habit of it not to be seen with us for longer periods of time. We never recorded any negative comments that anyone of them might have received concerning their public association with us, but one of them did acknowledge that people would generate more gossip, when she would be seen together with us, and that it would be preferable to avoid that from happening too many times. Upon addressing this topic much later and on separate occasions, another Monte Negro resident strongly denied ever having noticed anything of the sort, waving away the idea of it with a smile on his face. Upon commenting this to the maker of the initial comment, he indicated that it very much had been the case, without going into further detail, whilst immediately discarding it by saying that people will always gossip and that this would be just one more of those occasions. While it is not to be anticipated that many of

the ones who observed us on the market had a firm idea of what we really had were doing ‘up there’ on the mountain, certainly many centered their suspicions on topics ranging from some type of financial profit to a covert Protestant conversion campaign.6

The ongoing registering activities at the site provided a second occasion for interaction with persons from Tilantongo. The site is not a secluded area, but an accessible location where people can access freely and have done so in the past. The persons accessing the site area would mostly be residents of Monte Negro itself, considering the hike uphill from any other part of Tilantongo. Occasionally however, people from Socorro, the settlement located at the foot of Monte Negro, would make their way up the hill to either do some gathering of pinecones or with no other purpose than to just ‘hang out’. It is probably fair to say that our presence was for many an interesting diversion from daily practice. Since the archaeological activities included lots of walking about the site area, including the peripheral segments where most houses would typically be built, we alerted dogs by our presence and the dogs alerted their owners, who in turn were alerted by the uncommon strangers approaching their residence. If not already obvi- ous, at that point it became clear that neither the Tilantongo initiative to do research at Monte Negro, nor the meetings with the political office-holders had proceeded with the involvement of the dozen or so households dispersed on the site’s periphery.

In response to these developments in our presence, I realized that the contact through the municipal authorities did not sufficiently trickle down to the greater community. Complemen- tary to the dialogue with the authorities, an additional mechanism was needed to highlight the goals of the participation. Even though the political office-holders were in principle supposed to represent a nuanced reflection of the opinions and interests of the Tilantongo community, and also ensure that that community would be adequately informed of the archaeological par- ticipation, both moments of feedback seemed poorly developed. The opportunities for dialogue elaborated were two-fold: (1) individual dialogue, and (2) group dialogue. The former is the most straightforward and also the most effective method. Effectiveness is comparatively high, despite the greater amount of energy and time needed for each dialogue, because dialogue par- ticipants were more inclined to speak up and voice contrasting opinions and preferences with regard to the project; in contrast to the group meetings during which people mostly limited their contributions to observations ‘fit’ for all social actors present in the group. Group dialogue took predominantly the form of presentations for primary or secondary schools, for general assemblies, and for delegations of agencies.

A particular opportunity was created by organizing explicatory tours of the Monte Negro site. These meetings were held halfway through and near the end of the campaign. Invitations were extended to all of the community’s political and civil office-holders, the Tilantongo public in general (by radio announcements), and in particular to students in Tilantongo’s secondary 6 Protestantism is often viewed as the intrusive religion among the predominantly Catholic people of

school. The meetings consisted of presentations focused on the nature of our presence in the secondary school; an explanation of our specific activities, and an exposition on the history of Monte Negro. The atmosphere during these meetings can be described as informal and formal at the same time. The relatively large amount of schoolchildren and some of their parents made for a laid-back and cheerful audience, whilst the presence of the municipal authorities provided a more formal element to the event (Figure 5.5). Dialogue at that occasion was fragmentary, due to the nature of the meeting but not in the least because the municipal president also attended the tour. The fact that we mentioned that one of our lecturers at Leiden University had been born and raised in the Mixteca Alta also created visible surprise and even astonishment. Finally, an interest was expressed in the links between the stories about Monte Negro and our findings. The meeting in the school building was followed by an excursion to the site where explanations were given to some of the structures; the nature and value of surface materials; and the overall architectural meaning to the site (Figure 5.6). During these explanations people listened either attentively or politely or would wander around a bit to familiarize with the environment. On a few occasions participants would pose for a picture to serve as a memento to the meeting. These meetings did not so much serve to educate residents on the history of their local land- scape; they rather proved to be a means to answer questions regarding who we were and what we were doing at Monte Negro. The perceived geographical as well as cultural distance perceived

between us and them was made clear when the Mixtec lecturer was mentioned. Some present were clearly amazed that a Mixtec person could actually live where we were from. This mo- ment provided for some laughs, but in a way also was somewhat disconcerting. It was decided that the exposition on the history of the site was to be handled in a delicate manner, to avoid filling a top-down role in the meeting. In order to achieve this, the archaeological terminology was found to be highly unpractical and rather abstract. This may seem an obvious point to make, since even people who have enjoyed an extensive Western education are still likely to get confused upon having to digest something as opaque a term as ‘Middle Late Formative’ or to accept the procedure of analyzing potsherds in order to write a history.

An additional day was spent at the already mentioned secondary school in the urban centre of Tilantongo. This was a distinctly different setting since more students would be present, less adults, and the students would be coming from all Tilantongo´s agencias. The idea to prepare some presentations at the school was developed with the school director, and student turn-out was high. Students were mostly interested again in learning about the age of Monte Negro as well as that of surrounding contemporary communities.

A final dimension for communicating elements of the participation were interviews with our team members on the regional radio channel ‘La Voz de la Mixteca’, which served as a catalyst in making the participation known in numerous other Mixteca Alta communities.