Prufer wins outstanding dissertation award

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- An anthropologist who studied the shamans and everyday rituals of preHispanic Maya who once lived in Southern Belize's remote, rugged mountains has won Southern Illinois University Carbondale's Outstanding Dissertation award.

Keith M. Prufer will receive a $1,000 cash prize during SIUC commencement ceremonies May 10 for work illuminating the use and importance of caves in the shamanic religious practices of these Maya. Prufer is now a visiting faculty instructor in the anthropology department at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala.

Lars-Erik Magnusson, a doctoral graduate in chemistry, was runner-up with a dissertation titled "Fundamental Advances and Applications of Condensation Nucleation Light Scattering Detection for Capillary Electrophoresis." He works as a research scientist for Pfizer in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Prufer focused on 53 caves in the Ek Xux Valley and Muklebal Tzul region of the Maya Mountains, relatively unknown sites that are hard to get to and even more difficult to equip as research camps. Almost without exception, colleagues who supported Prufer's nomination for the dissertation prize described the sheer effort involved in his five seasons of fieldwork as "arduous," "time-consuming" and "risky."

"Many of the cave sites Keith included in his dissertation were ones which he was the first to explore and map, requiring long backpacking treks away from creature comforts, and mapping and excavating by lamplight," wrote SIUC anthropologist Prudence M. Rice, internationally known for her own work in Maya archaeology.

Caves have enormous significance in Maya myth and worldview, Rice said, yet they remain largely unexplored.

"Clearly, 'surface archaeology' -- the spectacular pyramids and temples of Classic Maya civilization -- has had more appeal and greater ease of excavation, as compared to the dangers of exploring dark, narrow passages descending tens or hundreds of feet into the earth's darkness," she wrote.

Perhaps because of that interest in pyramids and palaces, temples and shrines, archaeologists have tended to focus more on the Maya's kings and high priests and less on their sorcerers and medicine men. Yet it is the shaman and his homey rituals that play a major role in the daily lives of pre-industrial farmers and their communities.

"Rituals and ritual leaders are implicated in the perpetuation of group identity, maintenance of governmental and social structures and the adaptations of human groups to their local natural and social environments," wrote SIUC anthropologist Don S. Rice, a Maya expert who supervised Prufer's dissertation.

"Unlike researchers who preceded him, Dr. Prufer recognized the particular cosmological importance of caves to the Maya and systematically documented ritual contexts and materials in these ideologically charged sites, seeking to identify in general terms the roles and activities of non-elite religious practitioners."

Both Rices noted that Prufer's research is already finding its way into archaeological circles. He has published a book, seven peer-reviewed articles and presented 14 papers at national conferences.

"Keith Prufer's dissertation is a masterpiece of truly original and comprehensive research," Prudence Rice concluded. "Its rich detail will be of use to Maya scholars for years."

Prufer earned his bachelor's degree in 1994 from Cleveland State University and his master's degree in 1996 from SIUC.

The University's dissertation competition has been held annually since 1988 and is sponsored by retired professors Richard E. and Donna T. Falvo.