Tulane University

Contact Info
mcanuto@tulane.edu

Department Affiliation
Anthropology

Degrees

• A.B., Harvard University, Anthropology, 1991
• Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Anthropology, 2002

Academic Experience

• Associate Professor, Tulane University, 2009-
• Assistant Professor, Yale University, 2002-2009
• Lecturer, Yale University, 2001-2002
• Lecturer, University of Massachusetts, 2000-2001
• Field Instructor, Harvard Archaeological Field School, Honduras, 1997-2000

Research & Teaching Specializations: Archaeological theory, Mesoamerican prehistory, Development of Socio-political complexity, Remote sensing analysis

Related Experience

• Director, Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, 2009-
• Consultant, United Nations Development Programme, Guatemala, 2008-
• Editorial Board, Arqueología Guatemalteca, 2008-
• Director, La Corona Regional Archaeological Project, La Corona, Petén, Guatemala, 2007-
• Advisory Board, Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia, 2006-2009
• Assistant Curator, Pre-Columbian Collections, Peabody Museum, 2003-2009
• Director, Yale Archaeological Project at the Henry Whitfield House Museum, 2003-2007

Distinctions

• Research Grant, The Development of the Regional Political System among the Maya. Alphawood Foundation, 2016-2019
• General Preservation Assessment of Ancient Egyptian Collection. National Endowment for the Humanities, Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions, 2016
• Certificate of Recognition, Office of the Mayor, City of New Orleans, 2016
• Research and Development Grant, Political Centralizaiton in Classic Maya Society, Louisiana Board of Regents, 2015-2018
• Traditional Enhancement Grant, Louisiana Board of Regents, 2015
• Research Grant, Selz Foundation, 2015
• National Geographic Society Grant, 2005, 2009, 2014
• Selz Foundation Grant, 2012-2013
• Honorary Citizen of Guatemala City, Office of the Mayor of Guatemala City, Guatemala, 2012
• The Seaver Institute Grant, 2008-2010
• Reed Foundation Research Grant, 2007
• National Science Foundation Grant, 2004
• Heinz Foundation Grant, 2004

Languages:

• Spanish
• Italian
• French
• Portuguese

Overseas Experience

• Honduras
• Mexico
• Guatemala
• Bolivia
• India

Selected Publications

• 2016. “Impacts of Climate Change on the Collapse of Lowland Maya Civilization.” With Tomás Barrientos Q. Manuscript accepted by Annual Reviews in Earth and Planetary Sciences.
• 2015. “Drought, agricultural adaptation and sociopolitical collapse in the Maya Lowlands.” With Douglas, Peter, Arthur A. Demarest, Mark Brenner. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(18):5607:5612
• 2015. “Preliminary Notes on Two Recently Discovered Inscriptions from La Corona, Guatemala.” Maya Decipherment.
• 2014 “Epitaph for a Maya Lord.” With Stuart, David, Tomás Barrientos Q. and Maxime Lamoureux St-Hillaire. Arts Quarterly, (Fall):8-9.
• 2013. “Archaeological Investigations in the El Paraíso valley: the Role of Secondary Centers in the Multiethnic Landscape of Classic Period Copan” With Douglas, Peter, Mark Pagani, Mark Brenner, David A. Hodell, Timothy I. Eglinton, and Jason H. Curtis. Ancient Mesoamerica, 24(1):1-24.
• 2012. “Community.” With Jason Yaeger. In Oxford Handbook on Mesoamerican Archaeology. D.L. Nichols and C.A. Pool, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• 2011. “Before the Classic in the Southeastern Area: Issues of Organizational and Ethnic Diversity in the Copan Region, western Honduras.” With R. J. Sharer and E. E. Bell. In The Southern Maya in the Late Preclassic. N Kaplan and M Love, eds. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
• 2009. “Proyecto Regional Arqueológico La Corona: Objetivos generales y resultados preliminares de las investigaciones en el “Sitio Q”. “ With Tomas Barrientos Q. In XXII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala. Juan P. Laporte, et al., eds. Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropología e Historia, Asociación Tikal, Fundación Arqueológica del Nuevo Mundo, Guatemala.
• 2009. “Middle Preclassic Maya Society: Quixotic Tilting at Windmills or Giants of Civilization?” In Early Maya States. Robert J. Sharer and Loa P. Traxler, eds. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• 2008. “The Ties that Bind: Administrative Strategies in the El Paraíso Valley, Department of Copan, Honduras.” With Ellen E. Bell. Mexicon. 30 (1): 10-20.
• 2004. Understanding Early Classic Copan. Editor, with Ellen E. Bell and Robert J. Sharer. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Recently-Taught Latin American-Related Courses Olmec & Maya Civilizations; Prehistory of Eastern Mesoamerica; Great Hoaxes and Fantasies in Archaeology; Preclassic Maya

Number of Dissertations or Theses Supervised in the Past 5 Years: 19

Full CV or Website
Departmental Biography