Dr. Eriko Yamasaki
Research Fellow
Contact information
+49 6421 28-22072 eriko.yamasaki@ 1 Deutschhausstraße 335032 Marburg
F|04 Institutsgebäude (Room: A016 resp. 00/1160)
Organizational unit
Philipps-Universität Marburg Gesellschaftswissenschaften und Philosophie (Fb03) Institut für Sozialanthropologie und Religionswissenschaft (ISAR) Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie (SKA)Postdoctoral researcher of the project “Beyond ‘sustainability’: biocultural diversity and Indigenous alternatives in Latin America” funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation)
Spokesperson of the Mesoamerica regional group of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA) since 2022
Research and teaching interests
Regions: Latin America, especially Mexico and Costa Rica
Topics: environmental anthropology, anthropology of sustainability, anthropology of food, anthropology of the future, biocultural diversity, indigenous activism, indigenous languages in Latin America
Academia edu: https://uni-marburg1.academia.edu/ErikoYamasaki
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7224-6972
Vita
I am a social and cultural anthropologist specializing in biocultural diversity in Latin America. My research interests include human-environment relations, more than sustainability, food studies, resistance/refusal/activism and indigenous languages. I received my Ph.D (Dr. phil.) in Anthropology of the Americas from the University of Bonn. My dissertation focused on globalization and the language maintenance of Yucatec Maya in Mexico. Currently, I am conducting the research project “Beyond ‘sustainability’: biocultural diversity and Indigenous alternatives in Latin America” funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation) at the University of Marburg.
Projects
Since 2026. “Beyond ‘sustainability’: biocultural diversity and Indigenous alternatives in Latin America” (DFG Module Temporary Positions for Principal Investigators)
More information on the project: https://l1nq.com/rzop4rf2022 – 2024. “Global threats to biocultural diversity and decolonial alternatives: Indigenous engagements with agrobiodiversity and language maintenance in Yucatan, Mexico” (DFG Walter Benjamin Program)
Final report: https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/items/e6b1ec4e-0970-4cf9-afb9-ef674c5e0c0e2021. “Biocultural diversity conservation at the intersection of everyday practice and digital activism: environmental sustainability and language maintenance in the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico” (two-month fellowship by the Ibero-American Institute, IAI)
2019 – 2020. “Herausforderungen für den Erhalt der biokulturellen Diversität in der heutigen Welt – Zusammenhang zwischen der Sprachvermittlung und der Tradierung des lokalen Umweltwissens in der Maisanbauzone Yukatans (challenges for biocultrual diversity conservation in the contemporary world – interrelation between transmitting the indigenous language and local environmental knowledge in the maize-cultivating zone of Yucatan)” (Six-month fellowship by the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD)
Publication
Research publication
in press. “Revisión de interacciones con los sistemas de conocimientos Indígenas (CI) en América Latina. Necesidad de cogeneración de conocimiento sobre agrobiodiversidad” (with Gabriel Ricardo Nemogá-Soto, Martha-Isabel Gómez-Lee and Santiago Iván Gómez-Rueda). Indiana 43(1): 87-110.
2025. “Visions of sustainable future shaped through a dilemma: international tourism development and lagoon management in Bacalar” (with Laura Meneghello). Global Environment 18(1):107-137.
https://doi.org/10.3828/whpge.638376466225142024. “Threatened maize, threatened language: indigenous engagements with biocultural conservation in Yucatan, Mexico”. In Nurturing alternative futures: living with diversity in a more-than-human world. Muhammad A. Kavesh and Natasha Fijn, eds. Pp. 122-136. London: Routledge.
2022. “Pitfalls of US/Eurocentrism in the context of language maintenance: Individual agency versus Mayan socialization practices in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico” (with Melanie Uth). Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics, 6: 92-124.
2020. “Socialización lingüística y preservación de lenguas: Una mirada de fuera a la relación entre actitudes, agencia y transmisión intergeneracional de las lenguas en la península de Yucatán” (with Melanie Uth). Diario de Campo, 11: 54-76.
2020. “Yucatec Maya Language on the Move: Considerations on the Vitality of Indigenous Languages in an Age of Globalization”. In Responsibility and Language Practices in Place. Laura Siragusa and Jenanne K Ferguson, eds. Pp. 99-114. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.
2019. “Yucatec Maya Language on the Move. A cross-disciplinary approach to indigenous language maintenance in an age of globalization”. Dissertation, University of Bonn
2016. “Milpa, Wage work and Yucatec Maya: Future orientation and language attitudes of children and youth in Yucatan, Mexico”. In Integral Strategies for Language Revitalization. Justyna Olko, Tomasz Wicherkiewicz, and Robert Borges, eds. Pp. 461-481. Warsaw: University of Warsaw.
2015. “Multi-sited Ethnography of Yucatec Maya Speakers. How Multi-sited and Urban Approaches help comprehend the Sociolinguistic Situation of Yucatec Maya“. In On Methods: How we know what we think we know about the Maya. Proceedings of the 17th European Maya Conference, Helsinki, December 9–15, 2012. Harri Kettunen and Christophe Helmke, eds. Pp. 77-87. Markt Schwaben: Verlag Anton Saurwein.
Book reviews
in press. Review of the book “Undoing modernity: Linguistics, higher education, and indigeneity in Yucatan.” Catherine R. Rhodes. Austin: University of Texas Press. Anthropos.
2024. Review of the book “The transnational construction of Mayaness: Reading Modern Mesoamerica through US archives.” Fernando-Armstrong and Ben Fallaw, eds. Denver: University of
Colorado. Anthropos, 119(1): 231-232.Courses
University of Marburg:
04/2025 – 07/2025 B. A. & M.A. course “Zukunft aus anthropologischer Perspektive” (The future from anthropological perspectives)
10/2023 – 01/2024 B.A. & M.A. course “Anthropology of diversity”
05/2023 – 07/2023 B.A. & M.A. course “Anthropology of food”
10/2022 – 02/2023 B.A. & M.A. course “Anthropologie der Nachhaltigkeit” (Anthropology of sustainability)
04/2022 – 07/2022 B.A. & M.A. course “Digitale Anthropologie – anthropologische Annäherung an digitale Medien und Technologien in Lateinamerika” (Digital anthropology – anthropological approaches to digital media and technologies in Latin America)
University of Bonn:
04/2019 – 07/2019 B.A. & M.A. course “Einführung in die Umweltanthropologie“ (Introduction to environmental anthropology)
10/2018 – 01/2019 B.A. course “Anthropologie der Globalisierung im indigenen Amerika“ (Anthropology of globalization in the indigenous Americas)
Conference papers (selection)
2026. “Indigenous biocultural diversity conservation as an alternative to the Plantationocene: Yucatec Mayan engagement with native maize in Mexico,” LASA 2026, Paris.
2025. “More than ‘sustainability’: indigenous approaches to biocultural diversity conservation,” Conference of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA), Cologne.
2024. “The creation and lasting heritage of food hierarchies between maize and wheat in Mexico, from colonial to post-colonial” with Richard Herzog, the Fourth World Congress of Environmental History, Oulu.
2023. “Food security between cultivating maize and buying tortillas: Shifting foodways among the Yucatec Maya in contemporary Mexico”, Workshop “Politics of basic foodstuff in times of crisis (17th- 20th century)”, University of Marburg, Marburg.
2023. “Memes in Yucatec Maya: Indigenous language activism between virality and rootedness”, Conference of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA), Munich.
2022. “Global threats to biocultural diversity and decolonial alternatives: Indigenous engagements with agrobiodiversity in Yucatan, Mexico”, 17th European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference, Belfast.
2021. “Citizens’ Engagement for the Sustainable Future in View of a Dilemma: International Tourism Development and Lake Management in Bacalar, Mexico”, IUAES 2021 Yucatan Congress (online).
2021. “Threatened maize, threatened language: Indigenous engagements with biocultural conservation in Yucatan, Mexico”, Virtual conference “Anthropology and Conservation”, Royal Anthropological Institute (online).
2021. “Visions of sustainable future shaped through a dilemma: International tourism development and lagoon management in Bacalar, Mexico” with Melanie Uth, Digital conference “Visions of Sustainability in the Modern Period”, University of Siegen (online).
2019. “Voces del presente: El estado actual de las lenguas indígenas de las Américas” with Catherine J. Letcher Lazo, Conference – The Americas 2019, University of Bonn, Bonn.
2019. “A bandwagon to jump on? – The Tren Maya project and contested visions of future” with Melanie Uth, Conference – The Americas 2019, University of Bonn, Bonn.
2019. “The relation of attitudes, agency and intergenerational transmission reconsidered: Language socialization and educational beliefs in Yucatán, Mexico” with Melanie Uth, Symposium on ideologies, attitudes, and power in language contact settings, Stockholm University, Stockholm.
2018. “Yucatec Maya Language on the Move: Considerations on the Vitality of Indigenous Languages in an Age of Globalization”, 15th European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference, Stockholm.
2017. “Speaking between nostalgia and symbolic power – Language ideology and social belonging in Yucatan, Mexico”, Conference of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA), Berlin.
2015. “Sprachsozialisierung in bilingualen Gemeinschaften Yukatans: Wahrnehmung der Kontinuität und des Wandels angesichts der Sprachkontaktsituation zwischen dem yukatekischen Maya und dem Spanischen (Language socialization in bilingual communities of Yucatan: Perception of continuity and change in the face of the language contact situation of Yucatec Maya and Spanish), ” Conference of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA), Marburg.
2014. “Rethinking the category of ‘indigenous migrant’ – mobility of Yucatec Maya speakers in Mexico”, 13th European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference, Tallinn.
2014. “The Impact of Urbanization on Language Vitality: The Case of Yucatec Maya, Mexico”, International Conference “Endangered languages: comprehensive models for research and revitalization”, Wilamowice.
2013. “Migración y vitalidad del maya yucateco – etnografía multisituada de maya hablantes”, IX Congreso Internacional de Mayistas, Campeche.
2012. “Multi-sited ethnography of Yucatec Maya speakers – How multi-sited and urban approaches help comprehend the sociolinguistic situation of Yucatec Maya”, 17th European Maya Conference, Helsinki.
2010. “Influencias de la migración rural-urbana en la península de Yucatán sobre la conservación de la lengua maya yucateca”, Octavo Congreso Internacional de Mayistas, Mexico City.
Membership
BASS (Bonner Altamerika-Sammlung und Studien e.V.)
Curupira (Förderverein Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie Marburg e.V./treasurer)
DGSKA (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie/spokesperson of the Mesoamerica regional group)
EASA (European Association of Social Anthropologists)
GBS (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Sprachen e.V.)
LASA (Latin American Studies Association)
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