Jacob Welch

Jacob A. Welch is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of anthropology. He conducts archaeological research in Yucatán, México, along an ancient causeway system connecting the ruins and modern towns of Ucí and Cansahcab. His dissertation project studies the construction two monumental residences (I.e., palaces) at Ucí and Ucanha, and how their building histories relate to changing (1) building practices, (2) labor organization, and (3) socio-political organization. His project specifically studies how the construction of the two elite residences, as a product of non-elite laboring bodies, offers one approach to study the relationships between elites, non-elites, and the personal ties that bind them.