Johnson County Community College
Press Release

College Information and Publications
913-469-8500
Julie Haas, Associate Vice President, Marketing Communications, ext. 3120
Peggy Graham, Writer, ext. 3425
Tyler Cundith, Sports Information Director, ext. 3122

9/14/09
Story by Peggy Graham

Archaeologist finds insights to present from past

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- William McFarlane, associate professor, anthropology, Johnson County Community College, has two classroom settings – one in manicured suburbia, the other at a pre-Columbian excavation site in western Honduras.

McFarlane is the first JCCC College Scholar to present in the 2009-2010 academic year giving two presentations:

1. Archaeology of communities, by communities and for communities: New research into the past, present and future of the Jesús Otoro valley of Honduras at 11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 12, in the Craig Community Auditorium.

2. Picking up the pieces: Understanding post-collapse societies on the edge of Mesoamerica at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, in the Hudson Auditorium, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. A reception precedes the lecture at 6:30 p.m.

The daytime presentation focuses on archeologists’ new emphasis on community-based archaeology, specifically the goals of research in the Jesús de Otoro valley.

For two summers, McFarlane and Miranda Stockett, adjunct professor, anthropology, JCCC, have led students in archaeological field studies as part of community-based research in Jesús de Otoro valley. Unearthed artifacts are left with the Casa de Cultura, a civic center and tourist attraction in the valley, and McFarlane and Stockett file reports with the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History. McFarlane’s daytime lecture will look at the new socially-constituted community model of archaeology.

The reasons for the ninth-century collapse of Mesoamerica, long a source of mystery and inquiry, will be the topic of McFarlane’s evening lecture. He suggests that archaeologists are only now beginning to understand the complex web of environmental, socio-political and economic facts that caused the civilization’s demise. Based on a decade of research in northwestern Honduras, McFarlane will describe a fascinating pattern of resiliency and renewal to the devastating trends of political collapse and abandonment of political centers.

McFarlane has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Central Florida and a master’s and doctorate in anthropology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has conducted archaeological research for more than 10 years including the region of Niagara Falls in New York, the Bay Area of California and southeastern Mesoamerica. His primary research interests include the pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica, stone tool analysis, political economy and the formation of corporate and cooperative groups. He is the co-director of the Proyecto Arqueológico de Otoro in western Honduras.

The JCCC Scholars program was initiated the 2008-2009 academic year to showcase faculty research. For more information about the JCCC College Scholars program, contact Karen Martley, director, Staff and Organizational Development, 913-469-8500, ext 3467.

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