This section of Mesolore is entitled "debates," but could just as easily be called "reflections." The participants have all verbally responded to various questions, which is to say that these are not academic articles or monographs, but rather the spoken reflections of academics, journalists, critics, writers, and others about what they do and how and why they do it. The responses are grouped in four categories: (1) History or Propaganda?, (2) Analyzing Gender: Politically Correct?, (3) Indigenous Rights: Where Do We Go From Here?, (4) From Bones to Knowledge: Whose Property? These four organizing categories serve as a launching point for the participants to express ideas pertaining to the central issues that have concerned, perturbed, and sometimes obsessed all who have looked closely at Mesoamerica from antiquity to the present day. As such, they are more to be taken as commentaries than as writings--and this distinction is reflected in the fact that the participants speak from a very personal perspective about the historical, archaeological, visual, and anecdotal record.
The "how," then, is methodology (how they do what they do), and epistemology (how they know what they know). The "what" is their choice of discipline, field, location, audience, and time frame. The "why" is somewhat more elusive, but emerges in the various presentations as motivation, engagement, affect or emotion, and purpose. What motivates someone to devote a life to or build a career towards a particular pursuit? How do they imagine or figure themselves into the process? The point, then, is to listen to these comments with one ear towards the process and the other towards the conclusions. These four "debates" constitute some of the most important and abiding issues that Mesoamericanists deal with in their day-to-day work, whether as academics, writers, journalists, lawyers, or activists. We pose these reflections as a way to understand what's on these people's minds, and maybe how or why they got there.
