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For the second year running, archaeological research on ancient Maya groups in Central America has netted SIUC's Outstanding Dissertation award. The prize for 2002 went to Keith Prufer, an anthropologist who illuminated the importance of caves to the religious practices of pre-Hispanic Maya who once lived in southern Belize's remote, rugged mountains. In 1997 he won a graduate research fellowship from the National Science Foundation to support his investigations. "Unlike researchers who preceded him, Dr. Prufer recognized the cosmological importance of caves to the Maya," wrote SIUC anthropologist Don Rice, a Maya expert who supervised Prufer's dissertation. By documenting ritual materials and their placement in the caves, Prufer gained an understanding of the roles and activities of Maya shamans. In a previous Perspectives article, Prufer explained that in the Maya religion, "caves were seen as entrances to the underworld where extremely important gods lived and...where dead souls go. The ancient Maya ventured deep into subterranean chambers to construct altars, burn incense, and inter their dead." Artifacts that he found in the dark depths included incense burners, rosewood stools, jade beads, and prayer benches. Prufer focused on 53 caves in the Ek Xux Valley and Muklebal Tzul region of the Maya Mountains, little-known sites that are hard to get to and even more difficult to equip as research camps. Colleagues who supported Prufer's nomination for the dissertation prize described his five seasons of fieldwork as arduous and risky. "Many of the cave sites Keith [studied] were ones which he was the first to explore and map, requiring long backpacking treks away from creature comforts, and mapping and excavating by lamplight," wrote SIUC anthropologist Prudence M. Rice, internationally known for her own work in Maya archaeology. "Clearly, 'surface archaeology'—the spectacular pyramids and temples of Classic Maya civilization—has had more appeal and greater ease of excavation," as compared to the dangers of cave exploration. Perhaps because of that interest in pyramids and temples, archaeologists have focused more on the Maya's kings and high priests and less on their medicine men. Yet it was the shaman and his rituals that played a major role in the daily lives of pre-industrial farmers and their communities. As Don Rice notes, rituals and ritual leaders are important to maintaining group cohesion and to helping people adapt to their natural and social environments. Prufer has already published a book and several scholarly articles and has presented numerous papers at national conferences. He is now a visiting instructor at Auburn University. —K. C. Jaehnig
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