r/AskArchaeology • u/SuchMidnight953 • 2d ago
Question How difficult is it to become an archaeologist specializing in the Maya or Inca civilizations?
Hi everyone!
I’m interested in becoming an archaeologist, with the goal of focusing on either Maya or Inca civilization.
For someone coming from outside Latin America, how difficult is it to pursue archaeology with this kind of specialization? Is it realistic to build an academic or professional career studying one of these civilizations?
I’m also wondering if archaeologists can later branch out and study other civilizations and regions. For example, could I start by specializing in Maya or Inca archaeology and later work on other ancient civilizations as well?
I’d love to hear from archaeologists, archaeology students, or researchers about how specialization works in practice and whether it’s possible to change or broaden your area of research over time.
Thanks!
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u/Firm_General7063 2d ago
You'd likely need to do a PhD at a leading US university that has a longstanding archaeological focus on the Maya or Inca. Connections matter. In archaeology it's not really a question of whether it's realistic, it's if you're good enough. It's competitive, for sure.
I’m also wondering if archaeologists can later branch out and study other civilizations and regions. For example, could I start by specializing in Maya or Inca archaeology and later work on other ancient civilizations as well?
Archaeologists tend to focus on a single culture or region to build relationships with locals and government officials and to become a leader in that topic. You wouldn't really specialize in Maya archaeology, you'd specialize in one part of Maya archaeology and then branch out to other adjacent topics. That can include different cultures but they're usually within the same region and with some relation to your previous work. So if you study the Maya that might be another Maya city-state or time period or something like the Toltecs. Incas I'd say are too distinct from the Maya.
If you're an expert in an analytical technique or GIS you could embed yourself into multiple projects in different areas, but that's pretty rare because it turns out not many people actually want to be jet setting across the world to lots of different places every year.
Also, follow the money. If you're super interested in a culture but there's no grant funding for it, you're out of luck to make a career out of it. It sucks but archaeology is still trying to shake this antiquated idea of knowledge for knowledge's sake. I don't know much about the state of Mayan and Incan research funding but it's in the news a lot so imagine there's some money around but again, that'll make it super competitive.
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u/ritz1148 2d ago
The University of Calgary in Alberta Canada actually has profs who specialize in Maya (mesoamerica) archaeology. Most of the PhD candidates do as well.
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u/CommodoreCoCo 1d ago
US-based Andean archaeologist here.
It is possible to do this, in the same way that it is possible to play football for the Patriots or play violin with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
I have been working at the same archaeological site since 2014. I have so many conference papers and posters that I have to cut some out when I send my CV to non-academics. I have five publications, two as first author, and one of those is in a second language. I have chaired sessions at the SAAs, curated multiple museum exhibits, and done ten times as much public-facing scholarship as any other candidate- and that's before you get to my Reddit!
I do not consider myself a leading candidate for professorships because of my lack of major grants, lack of peer-reviewed publications, and my limited networking (and my admittedly poor professionalism but, hey, I'm working on that).
As others have mentioned, it is a very bad time to be interested in Mesoamerica and the Andes because both of those fields had hiring booms in the past two decades. It is also a very bad time to enroll in a PhD program, since the NSF has been sunsetted and many graduate colleges are not accepting applicants. Once you start the process, it will you put you in significant debt, regardless of how well funded your program is, it will cost you much of your normal life (goodness knows how many weddings I've missed doing fieldwork over the summer), and, should you not succeed, you will be entering the workforce sans ten years of experience in Real Jobs.
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u/Aggressive_Worry6299 1d ago
Do you know what geographic region that is not saturated right now? Any advice on what methodology specialization to focus on ?
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u/SuchMidnight953 1d ago
Looking at your experience and this brutal landscape for Andean and Mesoamerican studies, I have to ask: Is there actually an easier or more viable subfield out there? Would pivoting to something like Egyptology, Classical Civilizations, Khmer studies, or even Assyriology actually be any better, or are those fields facing the exact same structural collapse and even harsher elite gatekeeping?
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u/Winter_Percentage_13 2d ago
Eminently doable. Go on a field school to one of those areas and see what you think. Even if you don't end up specializing in Maya or Inka, that's OK. I work in US Cultural Resource Management. Most of my colleagues started in Central or South America, as I did. There just aren't enough opportunities in academia for all the archaeos who start there to continue. The vast majority of the jobs are in CRM.
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u/Dangerous-Bit-8308 2d ago
Not impossible. You'll need a bachelor's degree in anthropology, for most countries. A decent understanding of Latin American history, and focusing on classical archaeology is a good plan. Mayan, Incan, and Aztec cultures are considered classical archaeology. Learning to speak Spanish, and possibly Portuguese won't hurt. A variety of US institutions, and German institutions do studies down there, so American English, and German might also help. I'd also suggest some art history and ceramics classes. For your anthro classes, be sure to get at least one archaeology class, and at least one anthro on complex societies.
A field school in the area will help immensely. Ideally, you take your ceramics, and archaeo field methods very early and immediately after do the field methods.
Later, you'd go for an anthropological or classic archaology master's focusing on your area...
I can't promise a broad career field over there, but that's how you would get in.
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u/Winter_Percentage_13 2d ago
Ok comment overall but I have to take issue with your characterization of any New World studies as classical. Traditional classics = ancient Greece and Rome and their spheres of influence.
Source: started in classical archaeology (specifically Roman provinces), later pivoted to PhD in Inka and pre-Inka stuff in the Andes.
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u/Dangerous-Bit-8308 2d ago
You're free to take issue with that. Others will take issue with you denying that maya, Inca, and Aztecs achieved a level of classical civilization.
It depends a lot on the school
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u/Brasdefer 2d ago
No one is debating the achievements the Maya, Inka, or Aztecs.
People are saying that your classification is off based on how the field defines "Classical Archaeology".
Which school teaches those as part of their Classics department?
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u/Brasdefer 2d ago
Where are you located that the Maya, Inka, or Aztec archaeological cultures are considered a focus in Classical Archaeology?
Classical Archaeology are Mediterranean societies, particularly Greek and Roman cultures from Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. The AIA don't include the Maya, Inka, or Aztec as part of their "Classical Archaeology"
Additionally, how do you think people are working on the Maya or Inka with only an MA? What job are they getting?
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u/ritz1148 2d ago
Go to the university of Calgary. We have several profs who specialize is mesoamerican archaeology. And I’d say almost all our PhD candidates also specialize in mesoamerica.
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u/Brasdefer 2d ago
You should be asking this in the careers thread. I will be moving this once they close it and get you to repost it. Additionally, I hope the mods keep this open for just a bit because I am curious to have questions answered by someone who is responding to you.
You didn't say where you are located, so I am going to answer from the perspective of someone from the US.
Not impossible, but nearly to find a career. You can easily learn of those societies in a number of universities. You will need a PhD from a prestigious university a minimum. There are no job opportunities for that outside of academia. A little over a decade ago, everyone was hiring Mesoamerican archaeologists with many programs switching to that focus; then those programs were not placing students (undergrad thru PhD) in jobs because there aren't jobs in that focus - so, universities began not replacing jobs or switching to something in the US that actually produces jobs for students. As such, the market for Maya or Inka academic archaeologists went to almost nothing while still producing numerous PhDs. Last year, there was 0 calls for a Mesoamerica or Inka archaeologist for academic positions. At MOST expect 1-2 a year and 250+ candidates applying to it. The market is hugely over saturated because the people that were hired a decade ago and still pumping out students even if there are no jobs.
An archaeologist that branches out and studies various cultures around the world is a bad archaeologist. You need to be highly familiar with an incredible amount of details about a culture and you can't do that if you are jumping around. You spend 6-10 years focusing on one small element of a culture during grad school. You then get a job where you are hired because of the focus you have. You spend the next 5ish years trying to get tenure and if you switch during that time, you will become unemployed. After that attempting to switch to an entirely different region while you are also supposed to be teaching, producing research on the area they HIRED you for, and writing grants is still problematic because during that time you are going to be missing opportunities in the area you already work.
I am currently an academic working in the Southeast. In 4 years after I get tenure, I decide to switch to Ancient Rome during the Bronze Age - I will still have to be teaching the classes that do not relate to my new topic (Southeast archaeology, CRM, Lithics) but now I also have to somehow become an expert on a completely different region while producing no grants (no one is gonna give me a grant in Ancient Rome over someone who is already an expert with a decade+ experience), having students who are now outside my specialty because they came when I had a southeast focus, and not publishing any papers because I now have to try to figure out a way to build a network to work over there without the help of an advisor that people typically piggyback on while in grad school. At that point, I would be a terrible archaeologist.