Religious Studies: Miguel Aguilera

Professor of Religious Studies
Ph.D., University at Albany / SUNY
Arrived at ASU :2004

Office: ECA 320
Phone: (480) 965-0359 or 965-7145
E-mail: Miguel.Aguilera@asu.edu
CV: PDF

Research Interests

Miguel Astor Aguilera conducts ethnographic research on the religious life among the traditional Maya in contemporary Mexico and Central America. Miguel specializes in Mesoamerican cosmologies and their historical traditions, pre-Columbian, colonial, and contemporary, including vestigial ideology as practiced in the U.S./Mexico border zone. Being both an ethnographer and archaeologist, his research is interdisciplinary and involves ethnography, archaeology, and iconography. Currently he is conducting an archaeological and ethnographic reconnaissance of Maya cenote-caves in and around the Postclassic site of Mayapán, Yucatán, México.

Biography

Bachelor of Science in Anthropology and Latin American Studies from the University of California at Riverside. Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from the University at Albany, State University of New York. Has taught anthropology and presidential undergraduate courses at the University at Albany. Currently teaches courses on Mesoamerican, Latino, and American religions.

Courses Taught

REL 205 Living & Dying: Archaeology of Religion. (HU)
REL/ASB 294 Intro to Mesoamerican Religions.
REL 305 Rituals, Symbols, & Myth. (L/HU)

REL 321 Religion in America. (HU, C, H)

REL 326 U.S. Latino Religion & Culture. (HU, C)
REL/ASB 394 Maya, Mixtec, & Aztec Codices.
REL/ASB/CSH 494 Mesoamerican Cosmologies.

REL 591/691 Ethnographic Theory & Methods of World Religions
REL 591/691 Anthropology of Religion

Selected Publications

In Press. Forthcoming 2007. "Mesoamerican Communicating Objects: Their Influence on Maya Worldview Before, During, and After Spanish Contact." In Maya Worldviews at Conquest. Editors: Timothy W. Pugh and Leslie Cecil. University Press of Colorado.

Under Review. "Comparing Indigenous Pilgrimages: Devotion, Identity and Resistance in Mesoamerica and North America." Co-Authored with Robert Jarvenpa, Ph.D., Anthropology, SUNY/Albany. Submitted to Current Anthropology.

N.D. Maya Ancestors & Quadripartite Crosses: Mesoamerican Cosmologies and Communicating Objects . Monograph to be submitted to the University of New Mexico Press.

N.D. " 'Kruces Parlantes' Mayas: Una Reexaminación de Su Historia, Distribución, e Significado." Submitted to the journal Mesoamérica: Plumsock Mesoamerican Studies.

Unshrouding the Communicating Cross: The Iconology of a Maya Quadripartite Symbol. Doctoral Dissertation. The University at Albany, SUNY.

“Survey of Talking Cross Shrines in Yucatán and Quintana Roo.” Online at the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. website:
http://www.famsi.org/reports/99034/index.html.

“Off-Mound Feature Investigations at Suboperation 13 & 22, Caye Coco, Belize.” In Belize Postclassic Project 1998: Investigations at Progresso Lagoon. Editors:
Marilyn A. Masson and Robert M. Rosenswig. Pp. 7-25. Institute of Mesoamerican Studies. Albany: New York.

“Domestic Feature Investigations at Subop 17, Laguna de On Island”, In Belize Postclassic Project 1998: Laguna de On, Progresso Lagoon, Laguna Seca. Editors: Marilyn A. Masson and Robert M. Rosenswig. Pp. 11-20. Institute of Mesoamerican Studies. Albany: New York.

“Text Excavations North of Structure I (Subop 8), Laguna de On Island”, In Belize Postclassic Project 1997: Laguna de On, Progresso Lagoon, Laguna Seca. Editors: Marilyn A. Masson and Robert M. Rosenswig. Pp. 21-24. Institute of Mesoamerican Studies. Albany: New York.