A01=Samuel Holley-Kline
Anthropology
archaeological sites
archaeology
Author_Samuel Holley-Kline
Category=JHMC
Category=KCP
Category=NHK
Category=NK
cultural anthropology
cultural heritage studies
El Tajin
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnohistory
globalarchaeology
History
Indigenous history
Indigenous Totonac region
labor activism
Latin American history
Latin American studies
Mexico
Mexico history
modern Mexican history
Native American and Indigenous studies
politics and history of archaeology
science and technology studies
Totonac
tourism
UNESCO World Heritage site
Veracruz
Product details
- ISBN 9781496244420
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Nov 2025
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Located in the Papantla municipality of the Mexican state of Veracruz, El TajÍn is a UNESCO World Heritage site but a lesser-known tourist destination and national symbol. The Indigenous Totonac residents of the region know well that the site’s relative absence from discussions of global archaeology and heritage belies a century of wide-ranging labor, extractive industries, and commodity exchange.
Drawing on ethnographic interviews and rarely consulted administrative archives, In the Shadow of El TajÍn tells the story of how a landscape of ancient mounds and ruins became an archaeological site, brings to light the network of actors who made it happen, and reveals the Indigenous histories silenced in the process. By drawing on the insights of Indigenous Totonac peoples who have lived and worked in El TajÍn for more than a century, Sam Holley-Kline explores historical processes that made both the archaeological site and regional historical memory. In the Shadow of El TajÍn decenters discussions of the state and tourism industry by focusing on the industries and workers who are integral to the functioning of the site but who have historically been overlooked by studies of the ancient past. Holley-Kline recovers local Indigenous histories in dialogue with broader trends in scholarship to demonstrates the rich recent past of El TajÍn, a place better known for its ancient history.
Drawing on ethnographic interviews and rarely consulted administrative archives, In the Shadow of El TajÍn tells the story of how a landscape of ancient mounds and ruins became an archaeological site, brings to light the network of actors who made it happen, and reveals the Indigenous histories silenced in the process. By drawing on the insights of Indigenous Totonac peoples who have lived and worked in El TajÍn for more than a century, Sam Holley-Kline explores historical processes that made both the archaeological site and regional historical memory. In the Shadow of El TajÍn decenters discussions of the state and tourism industry by focusing on the industries and workers who are integral to the functioning of the site but who have historically been overlooked by studies of the ancient past. Holley-Kline recovers local Indigenous histories in dialogue with broader trends in scholarship to demonstrates the rich recent past of El TajÍn, a place better known for its ancient history.
Sam Holley-Kline is an assistant clinical professor in the Honors College at the University of Maryland, College Park, and was named a 2023–24 American Council of Learned Societies Fellow.
