Gender, Households, and Society: Unraveling the Threads of the Past and the Present

Cynthia Robin is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University.  She undertakes archaeological research at small Maya sites in Belize.  Her research focuses on the everyday lives of ordinary people to illustrate how ordinary people made a difference in their societies and were note the mere pawns of history.

Elizabeth M. Brumfiel is Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University and a past president of the American Anthropological Association.  She undertakes archaeological research at the hinterland Aztec site of Xaltocan, Mexico.  Her research focuses on the dynamics of gender, class, and factional politics in ancient Mexico and changes that accompanied Aztec expansion.