Northern Arizona University

 

 

Veronica Perez Rodriguez, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

 

 

Personal Website

(Ph.D., University of Georgia 2003)

Archaeology, agriculture and environment, complex societies; Mesoamerica

Dr. Pérez Rodríguez is an archaeologist whose research primarily focuses on the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca, México. Her work investigates the role of terracing and landscape transformation in the emergence of socio-political complexity in the seemingly marginal highland environment of the Mixteca. She is currently developing a program of research that integrates archaeology, ethnography, and soil studies to investigate the history of terrace farming, its productivity, longevity, and viability for present day farming communities. As part of this line of research she is interested in learning about associated traditional practices and traditional ecological knowledge systems. In addition, Pérez Rodríguez is currently involved in the Pueblo Viejo de Teposcolula Yucudáa project, which investigates a late Prehispanic urban capital and its transition into the Colonial period. As part of her participation in the Yucudáa project Pérez Rodríguez acts as an academic advisor and her work focuses in understanding the role of agricultural terracing in Mixtec urbanism.

Contact Information:

Dr. Veronica Perez Rodriguez, PhD
Office: Bldg 98D, Rm 101H
Phone: (928) 523-0966
Email: Vero.Perez[at]nau.edu

 

Current Research and Applied Projects

Oaxacan Prehispanic Agriculture

Dr. Veronica Perez Rodriguez project focuses on a broad regional study of terrace farming, its importance to the emergence of Mixtec civilization, and its relevance in addressing current environmental and socio-economic challenges facing Oaxaqueños and campesinos today. Archaeological data suggest that agricultural terraces (known as lama-bordos) were in use early in the Prehispanic sequence and that Mixtec societies owed much of their survival to this mode of production. Terracing was well-suited for the Mixtec environment because it kept erosion in check while creating highly productive lands that fed thousands of people for over a thousand years. Since European contact these agricultural terraces have been abandoned. And yet, we still find that many abandoned terraces have survived and that a few families are farming them.

This program of research will integrate multiple disciplines and graduate student researchers in all stages of the project. It includes collaboration with socio-cultural anthropologists interested in agrarian and environmental issues, archaeologists interested in agriculture and landscape approaches, agronomy and soil science students focused on geomorphology and erosion, and ethnohistorians working on Mesoamerica and its Colonial transformation. The project will also have an applied component of public outreach and education that will make research finds accessible to the greater public, in particular Mixtec farmers in Mexico and the US. This line of research aims to preserve an ancient agricultural technique and the traditional knowledge and practices associated with it. It is hoped that this research and the knowledge it unveils provides alternative models for sustainable and culturally appropriate food production in the Mixteca Alta.

In addition, Dr. Perez Rodriguez is an academic advisor for the Pueblo Viejo de Teposcolula Project, which is an INAH-run project funded by the Sicarú foundation and the National Geographic Society. The project studies the late Prehispanic urban capital of Teposcolula, which consists of hundreds of residential and agricultural terraces, a central monumental core comprised of several mound groups, a ball court, plazas, access-ways, surrounding walls and cave-like features. As part of the Pueblo Viejo project my work focuses on the excavation of lama-bordo (agricultural) terraces and nearby areas to learn about their construction and the nature of associated occupations and architecture. Excavation efforts are ongoing and should continue for the next two years.