Academics Carol Hendrickson - Anthropology

When she is not teaching popular classes like Ethnobiology and Senses of Place, Carol Hendrickson conducts field research on weaving in the central highlands of Guatemala as she has for more than 25 years. An expert on woven traje (Maya dress), her research focuses on the ways clothing non-verbally relates cultural meanings and provides insight into local understandings of issues such as ethnicity, gender, class, politics and national identity. In addition to collecting material via interviews, participant observations 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 teaches us that, culturally speaking, we're not the only game in town." In the classroom she likes to teach her students how to "learn to question our assumptions about our own world and also come to understand the logic of worlds that initially might seem very strange." Carol believes that this permits her students to see other people’s lives, not to mention their own, with fresh eyes.

Student Plans and Collaborations

An exploration of the effects and interpretation of history in the culture and world of modern West and North Africa, including field work in Chinguetti, Mauritania. Jeff Bristol '09, anthropology and history.
A study of the intersection of the peak oil and global warming discourses with the politics of the local foods movement, including an internship in Senegal. Erin Cheever '09, anthropology.
A cross-cultural study of natural disasters drawing on the visual arts and social sciences, including an internship in Santiago Atitlan, 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, 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.
"Learning How to Weave: Cross-Cultural Assumptions and An Anthropologist's Challenge." In Ixchel's Thread, Richmond: Virginia Commonwealth University, 2007.
Review of "Fashioning Tradition: Maya Huipiles in the Field Museum Collections," by J. Claire Odland. Museum Anthropology Review, 1 (1) (2007): 43-44.

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 -