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Cows, cowboys, and legacies of colonial ranching in the Yucatec Maya landscape: Insights from archaeology at Hacienda Cetelac

Cattle ranching occupies a complicated place in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. Ranching is at once an empowering subsistence strategy for Indigenous Maya farmers, as well as a major driver of deforestation and land dispossession. In this presentation, I trace these complex dynamics back to their origins in the colonial period, when the development of cattle estates first accelerated across the Yucatán Peninsula. Drawing on recent archaeological investigations at the 18th-19th century ranching estate of Hacienda Cetelac, I will talk about the people and animals involved in the early transformative stages of colonial ranching, and examine how the legacies of colonial ranching continue to shape environmental justice conflicts in Yucatán today.