Veronica Perez Rodriguez, PhD  

 

Ph.D. Ecological and Environmental Anthropology, University of Georgia
BA, University of Texas El Paso
Personal website 

Specialty areas

• Ecological and environmental anthropology
• Mesoamerican archaeology
• Complex societies and urbanism
• Landscape and regional studies
• Agriculture and terracing
• Applied anthropology

Biography

Dr. Pérez Rodríguez is an associate professor of anthropology and the director of the Cerro Jazmín Archaeological Project. Her research investigates social complexity, urbanism, and its environmental impact in Mesoamerica. Her work integrates archaeological, ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and geomorphological methods to study urban landscapes and urban entities at a regional scale. Her research primarily takes place in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. 

In her fieldwork Dr. Pérez Rodríguez investigates traditional forms of terrace agriculture and works with modern communities interested in revitalizing these ancient forms of food production. Her research is academic and also applied in that it integrates community concerns for developing culturally appropriate methods to conserve soil and grow food in a manner that is both sustainable and socially just. She works in multi-disciplinary research teams where geomorphological, soil science, ethnohistorical, ethnobotanical, and ethnographic research can come together to investigate how large urban centers flourished for nearly 2000 years in the Mixtec highlands of Mesoamerica. It is hoped that these lessons of the past can help modern Mixtec communities who are fighting against erosion, migration, and lack of economic opportunities. 

Current research and applied projects

Dr. Pérez Rodríguez is currently the director of the Cerro Jazmín Archaeological Project.

Project website 

Publications

Pérez Rodríguez, V., K. C. Anderson and M. K. Neff

2011  The Cerro Jazmín Archaeological Project: investigating prehispanic urbanism and its environmental impact in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 36(2):83-99.

Pérez Rodríguez, Verónica 

2011    Investigaciones en Cerro Jazmín: el urbanismo tridimensional en el Oaxaca antiguo. In Memorias de la Quinta Mesa Redonda de Monte Albán, edited by Iván Rivera Guzmán.

2009    Unidades domésticas en el Oaxaca antiguo y su contribución a la complejidad social. In Bases de la Complejidad Social en Oaxaca: Memoria de la Cuarta Mesa Redonda de Monte Albán, edited by Nelly M. Robles, pp. 91-105. CONACULTA INAH, México D.F.

2008   Household Labor and Landscape Transformation in Ancient Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico. In Economies and the Transformation of Landscape, edited by L. Cliggett and C. A. Pool, pp. 77-102. Society for Economic Anthropology (SEA) Monographs. vol. 25, D. Koenig, general editor. Altamira Press, New York.

2006   States and Households: The Social Organization of Terrace Agriculture in Postclassic Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 17(1):3-22.

2006   Sociedades Complejas y Paisajes Agrícolas: Un Estudio Regional de Asentamientos y Terrazas en la Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, México. In La Aplicación de los SIG en la Arqueologia del Paisaje, edited by I. G. Mira, pp. 247-254. Universidad de Alicante, Alicante.