Mary Katherine Scott
Research Student
2008 M.A. in Art History, Northern Illinois University (USA)
2005 M.A. in Spanish, University of Wyoming (USA)
2003 B.F.A. in Studio Art & Spanish, University of Wyoming (USA)
Research interests
Mesoamerican (particularly Maya) art and archaeology, tourist art, woodcarving, globalization, art market systems, visual culture studies, and cultural identity among the Maya of Yucatán
PhD Thesis
Tourism has steadily increased in Yucatán, Mexico for the past three decades due to the construction of luxurious beach resorts and greater accessibility to numerous restored Maya archaeological sites. The rise in tourism has given birth to a vibrant industry of art and handicraft production, which has restructured the economies of many communities whose residents depend on visitors to nearby tourist destinations as a major source of income. Many handicrafts (artesanías) that are created by local artists display fine craftsmanship, mastery of technical skill, and complex subject matter that elevate them above the quality of many touristic keepsakes. These characteristics permit them to be viewed outside the realm of traditional handicrafts and be contemplated along with other modern sculptural works.
During my Ph.D. fieldwork and research I will continue to develop my M.A. thesis investigation where I explored the shortcomings of the traditional Western categories of “high art” and “low art” through a detailed study of contemporary Maya woodcarvings from the Puuc region in Yucatán, Mexico. In addition to arguing that such “tourist arts” were worthy of art historical investigation, this project also considered issues of Maya cultural identity, globalization and tourism, mass production and authenticity, and the effects of international tourism on the commoditization of both handicrafts and local culture.
Given the narrow scope of this research project, however, I plan to broaden the range of my informants to include not only woodcarvers operating outside of the Puuc region but also artists working in other mediums, such as ceramics, stone carving, and textiles. I intend to use this survey of handicrafts of the northern Yucatán region (currently lacking in scholarly literature) to investigate the nature of contemporary Maya identity and culture through the creation of visual objects. In some cases, such as woodcarving, the objects are almost always intended for a consumer audience composed of international tourist buyers but with other objects, such as embroidered textiles, they are both sold to cultural outsiders and used within the local community. It follows that interesting tensions exist within the market system regarding the intended meaning of the object (on the part of the maker) and the perceived meaning (on the part of the buyer). By talking with buyers of tourist arts, I hope to discover the cultural messages that these objects communicate to their target buying audience, how they are received and interpreted by this audience, how the objects’ meaning (intended or perceived) influences the buyer’s perception of contemporary Maya culture, and why Yucatecan tourist arts appeal to foreign travelers at all.
Mary Katherine Scott making tortillas with Maya women in the village of Xocen in eastern Yucatan
Carved wood reproduction by Miguel Uc Delgado of Ixchel, the Maya goddess of childbirth and weaving as she was depicted in one of the pages from the Postclassic Maya manuscript, the Dresden codex
Carved wood reproduction by Jesús Delgado Kú of Hanab Pakal's 7th c. sarcophagus lid from Palenque, Chiapas