Nicholas Carter
Areas of Interest:
"I am a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology. I work with the El Zotz Archaeological Project, which has been excavating at the ancient Maya site of El Zotz in central Petén, Guatemala, since 2006. My research interests include anthropological archaeology; the origins, nature, and disintegration of complex polities; linguistic and semiotic anthropology; writing systems; ancient economies; and ceramic analysis. My theoretical orientation towards archaeology could best be described as postprocessualist, informed by practice theory and American pragmatist philosophy.
I hold an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas and an A.M. in Anthropology from Brown University. My U.T. thesis argued that the non-calendrical component of the Zapotec hieroglyphic writing system remains undeciphered, despite widely-accepted claims to the contrary. My Brown A.M. paper found that paleographic and linguistic trends in Classic Maya inscriptions are better explained by networks of cultural and political influence than as direct, "real-time" reflections of change in spoken Classic Ch'olti'an. My dissertation examines the practice and representation of social inequality in Lowland Maya polities during the Terminal Classic period (~A.D. 800-1000)."
Status: Post field
Previous Degrees:
BA, Our Lady of the Lake University
MA, University Texas, Austin
MA, Brown University
Contact Information: Nicholas_P_Carter@brown.edu