Guido Pezzarossi

Degree

Ph.D. Stanford University, 2014

Specialties

Archaeology of colonialism, historical anthropology, postcolonial theory, new materialism, and archaeology of food

Courses

ANT 131 Intro to Biological Anthropology

ANT 300/600 The Maya: Ancient and Early Modern

ANT 400/600 Archaeology of Colonialism

Biography

My research is centered on using archaeology to better understand the entanglements between colonialism and capitalism and more thoroughly reconstruct the diverse assemblage of human and nonhuman actors that comprised early modern colonial contexts in the New World. The regional focus of my research spans Spanish colonial contexts in Guatemala and English colonial contexts in Massachusetts, providing a global comparative perspective on the diverse processes of colonization and their effects on colonial populations, both native and settler. I draw on a variety of theoretical approaches in my work, including postcolonial, practice and new materialist theories. I am particularly interested in exploring the intersection of seemingly incompatible approaches, namely postcolonial and new materialist/posthuman theoretical perspectives, as part of crafting a more inclusive, holistic theoretical framework that is positioned to better account for the wide variety of influences, motivations and causes (both human and nonhuman) driving the unfolding of colonial encounters.

See article in ICT December 2014 Newsletter

Publications

Pezzarossi, Guido (Forthcoming) “A Spectral Haunting of Society: Longue Duree Archaeologies of Capitalism and Antimarkets in Colonial Guatemala” in Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism, edited by M. Leone and J. Knauf, Springer, New York

Pezzarossi, Guido (Forthcoming) “Tribute, Antimarkets and Consumption: An Archaeology of Capitalist  Effects in Colonial Guatemala” in Archaeology of Culture Contact and Colonialism in Spanish and Portuguese America, edited by P. Funari and M. Senatore, Springer, New York
 

Pezzarossi, Guido (2014) “Camouflaging Consumption and Colonial Mimicry: The Materiality of a Colonial Nipmuc Household.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 18(1):146-174

Pezzarossi, Guido, Ryan Kennedy and Heather Law (2012) “’Hoe Cakes and Pickerel’: Cooking Traditions and Community at a Nineteenth Century Nipmuc Farmstead”. In The Menial Art of Cooking: Archaeological Studies of Cooking and Food Preparation, pp.201-230, edited by S. Graff and E. Rodriguez-Alegria, University of Colorado Press, Boulder.

Robinson, Eugenia and Guido Pezzarossi (2012) “Los Mayas del Clásico Tardío en la Región del Valle de Antigua: Defensa y Agricultura en las Tierras Altas de Guatemala”, in XXV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala 2011, pp.531-538, edited by B. Arroyo, L. Paiz y H. Mejia Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, Guatemala.

Research Projects

2010-Present Highland Maya Colonial Archaeology Project

Research Grants and Awards

National Science Foundation DDIG, 2013

National Geographic Society Waitt Grant, 2010

2013 National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant

2011 Stanford University Diversity Dissertation Research Opportunity Grant

2011 Stanford University Graduate Research Opportunity Grant

2011 Stanford University Community Engagement Grant

2010 National Geographic Society Waitt Grant for Highland Maya Colonial Archaeology Project

2010 GeoEye Foundation Imagery Donation Grant 

2008 Barbara E. Luedtke Book Award for Excellence in Historical Archaeology University of Massachusetts-Boston for thesis entitled: “Consumption as Social Camouflage: “Mimicry” and Nipmuc Survival Strategies in the Colonial World.”

Dissertation

A new materialist archaeology of antimarkets, power and capitalist effects in colonial Guatemala, 2014