Keitlyn Alcantara

KEITLYN ALCANTARA, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, was awarded a Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship in May 2023 to aid research and writing on “Recipes of Resistance: An Archaeology of the Past and Present.” Development of the book manuscript was accompanied by articles that mirror themes in the book chapters as follows. Ch. 1: “Meet the Milpa”, introduces the milpa as a social and agricultural model that creates resilience to change among small-scale producers (Alcántara 2023. “Milpa Ecologies: Transgenerational Foodways in Tlaxcala, Mexico). In Ch. 2: “From the Soil to the Sky”, contemporary paleodietary science is put in dialogue with food in Mesoamerican belief systems and origin stories, situating campesinos as scientists who understand sustainability on a molecular level. Ch.3: “Eating Weeds” explores “weeds” in ancient and contemporary campesino diets as environmental support system for weathering crises (Alcántara et al. “A Milpa Isotopic Foodweb in Tlaxcallan: More Than Just Maize”. Submitted to Journal of Archaeological Science)”. In Ch. 4: “Seed Economies” looks at “biodiverse economies” among campesinos that adapt quickly and creatively to change. Ch. 5: “Places of Gathering” explores communal meals that create spaces of celebration and group cohesion. Ch. 6: “Transplanted Seeds”, explores the pedagogy of indigenous sustainability, and the process of unlearning colonial thought (Alcántara et al. 2024. “Visual Storytelling and Community Based Research” SAA Archaeological Record).