Guido Pezzarossi
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
Contact Information
gpezzaro@maxwell.syr.edu
206A Maxwell Hall / Lab 414A Lyman Hall
(315) 443-1359 / (315) 443-0178
Office Hours:
Tuesday, 12:00 - 2:00 pm
Degree
Ph.D. Stanford University, 2014
Specialties
Archaeology of colonialism, historical anthropology, postcolonial theory, new materialism, and archaeology of food
Courses
ANT 131 Intro to Biological
Anthropology
ANT 300/600 The Maya: Ancient and
Early Modern
ANT 400/600 Archaeology of
Colonialism
Biography
My research is centered on using archaeology to better understand the entanglements between colonialism and capitalism and more thoroughly reconstruct the diverse assemblage of human and nonhuman actors that comprised early modern colonial contexts in the New World. The regional focus of my research spans Spanish colonial contexts in Guatemala and English colonial contexts in Massachusetts, providing a global comparative perspective on the diverse processes of colonization and their effects on colonial populations, both native and settler. I draw on a variety of theoretical approaches in my work, including postcolonial, practice and new materialist theories. I am particularly interested in exploring the intersection of seemingly incompatible approaches, namely postcolonial and new materialist/posthuman theoretical perspectives, as part of crafting a more inclusive, holistic theoretical framework that is positioned to better account for the wide variety of influences, motivations and causes (both human and nonhuman) driving the unfolding of colonial encounters.
See article in
ICT December 2014 Newsletter
Publications
Pezzarossi, Guido
(Forthcoming) “A Spectral Haunting of Society: Longue Duree Archaeologies of
Capitalism and Antimarkets in Colonial Guatemala” in Historical
Archaeologies of Capitalism, edited by M. Leone and J. Knauf, Springer, New
York
Pezzarossi, Guido (Forthcoming) “Tribute, Antimarkets
and Consumption: An Archaeology of Capitalist Effects in Colonial Guatemala” in Archaeology of Culture Contact and Colonialism in Spanish and Portuguese
America, edited by P. Funari and M. Senatore, Springer,
New York
Pezzarossi, Guido (2014)
“Camouflaging Consumption and Colonial Mimicry: The Materiality of a Colonial
Nipmuc Household.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology,
18(1):146-174
Pezzarossi, Guido, Ryan
Kennedy and Heather Law (2012) “’Hoe Cakes and Pickerel’: Cooking Traditions
and Community at a Nineteenth Century Nipmuc Farmstead”. In The Menial Art
of Cooking: Archaeological Studies of Cooking and Food Preparation, pp.201-230,
edited by S. Graff and E. Rodriguez-Alegria, University of Colorado Press,
Boulder.
Robinson, Eugenia and Guido Pezzarossi (2012)
“Los Mayas del Clásico Tardío en la Región del Valle de Antigua: Defensa y Agricultura en las Tierras
Altas de Guatemala”, in XXV Simposio de
Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala 2011, pp.531-538, edited by B.
Arroyo, L. Paiz y H. Mejia Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, Guatemala.
Research Projects
2010-Present Highland Maya Colonial Archaeology Project
Research Grants and Awards
National Science Foundation DDIG,
2013
National Geographic Society Waitt Grant, 2010
2013
National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant
2011
Stanford University Diversity Dissertation Research Opportunity Grant
2011
Stanford University Graduate Research Opportunity Grant
2011
Stanford University Community Engagement Grant
2010
National Geographic Society Waitt Grant for Highland Maya Colonial Archaeology
Project
2010
GeoEye Foundation Imagery Donation Grant
2008
Barbara E. Luedtke Book Award for Excellence in Historical Archaeology University
of Massachusetts-Boston for thesis entitled: “Consumption as Social Camouflage:
“Mimicry” and Nipmuc Survival Strategies in the Colonial World.”
Dissertation
A new materialist archaeology of antimarkets, power and capitalist effects in colonial Guatemala, 2014