Academics Carol Hendrickson - Anthropology

When she is not teaching popular classes like Ethnobiology and Senses of Place, Carol Hendrickson conducts field research on Maya identity issues in the central highlands of Guatemala as she has for more than 30 years. An expert on traje (Maya dress), her research focuses on the ways in which material culture non-verbally relates cultural meanings and provides insight into local understandings of ethnicity, gender, class, politics, national identity and global flows of information. In addition to using conventional field methods such as interviews, participant observation and photography, Carol advocates taking “visual field notes” as an important means for seeing—in the double sense of observing and understanding—in the field.

Teaching Philosophy

According to Carol, the study of anthropology is important "because it pushes us to see beyond ourselves.” In the classroom she wants students to "learn to question our assumptions about our own world and come to understand people’s lives that initially might seem very different from ours." She also encourages her students to study abroad because “learning is a total experience, engaging a person’s mind, body, emotions and social relations on and away from campus.”

Student Plans and Collaborations

A cross-cultural exploration of pregnancy and childbirth with a focus on flows of obstetrical knowledge, ethnographic writing and inter-subjectivity, based on research in Nepal. Cailin Marsden ’12, anthropology.
An interdisciplinary examination of the origins of violence in contemporary Mexican governance and public life. Scott Weaver ’12, Latin American studies.
An exploration of the effects and interpretation of history in modern West and North Africa, including field work in Chinguetti, Mauritania. Jeff Bristol ’09, anthropology and history.
A cross-cultural study of natural disasters drawing on the visual arts and social sciences, including an internship in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala. Kaitlin Harding ’09, development studies and visual arts.

Scholarly Activities

Carol's book, Weaving Identities: Construction of Dress and Self in a Highland Guatemala Town (University of Texas Press), was selected by Choice as one of the best new books in anthropology in 1995. With Edward Fischer she co-wrote Tecpán Guatemala: A Modern Maya Town in Global and Local Context (Westview, 2002), which is currently being translated for publication in Spanish. In 1999 Carol was awarded a coveted Fulbright-Hays faculty research grant for her work in Guatemala. In addition to her own research trips, she has participated in several Marlboro faculty-student field study trips, including one to Vietnam in 2005 and one to South India in 2007, both sponsored by a grant from the Freeman Foundation. In 2006, 2002 and 2000, Carol was a faculty member for the NEH Summer Institute on the Maya, and in 2009 she was a faculty member on a field study trip to China sponsored by the East-West Center and the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Selected Publications

"The Maya of Tecpan Guatemala." In Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. London: Berg Publishers, 2010.
"Ethno-graphics: Keeping visual field notes in Vietnam." Expedition magazine, 52 (1) (2010): 31-39.
"Visual fieldnotes: Drawing insights in the Yucatan." Visual Anthropology Review 24(2) (2008): 117-132.

Community Service

Carol has served on the board of the Maya Educational Foundation since 2005

B.S., Bates College, 1971; M.A., University of Chicago, 1979, 1983; Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1986; Marlboro, 1989 -