New Books Network Samuel Holley-Kline, "In the Shadow of El Tajín: The Political Economy of Archaeology in Modern Mexico" (U Nebraska Press, 2025)
Feb 3, 2026
Samuel Holley-Kline, an academic who studies the political economy and labor histories of archaeology in Mexico. He traces how El Tajín became an archaeological site through local industries, labor, and land changes. Topics include ties between oil and archaeology, vanilla’s violent labor history, custodios and administrativos, and what modern infrastructure reveals about the past.
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Offering At The Pyramid Sparked The Project
- Samuel Holley-Kline recounts seeing a man making an offering at El Tajín which sparked his research curiosity.
- That encounter led him from undergraduate travel to a Fulbright and long-term fieldwork in Papantla.
Archaeology As Political Economy
- Holley-Kline frames archaeology as political economy tied to production, exchange, and redistribution.
- He argues archaeology reallocates resources and shapes livelihoods unevenly across groups.
Land Tenure Defined Site Boundaries
- Changes in land tenure shaped how site boundaries and claims emerged at El Tajín.
- Archaeologists and landowners often accepted private property frameworks while contesting land use.
