María de la Luz Gutiérrez Martínez
Keywords: archaeology of hunter gatherers; rock art; management of cultural heritage.
María de la Luz Gutiérrez works as an archaeologist at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Baja California Sur.
She studied at the Mexican National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) and graduated with the thesis “Contextual Analysis of Rock Painting, a case study in Baja California” (1990). Her doctoral thesis on “Ancestral Landscapes: Identity, Memory and Rock Art in the Central Cordilleras of the Peninsula of Baja California” (ENAH, 2013) obtained the INAH Alfonso Caso Award for the best doctoral thesis (2014).
Her career began in 1981, at the Sierra de San Francisco, and since then she has focused her archaeological research on it, as well as on the Sierra de Guadalupe.
Her research has particularly centered on the abundant and diverse rock art that is concentrated in these two mountain ranges located at the north of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur.
Between 1992 and 1994, she led the project “The Rock Art of Baja California Sur” on behalf of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. This project undertook a deep investigation of the archaeology of the Sierra de San Francisco and laid the foundations for future research.
Between 2000 and 2004, she oversaw the project “Social Identity, Ritual Communication and Rock Art: The Great Mural in the Sierra of Guadalupe, Baja California Sur”, funded by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT) and the INAH.
Throughout the years, she has become increasingly interested in the development of methodologies for the rock art management of these mountains. She actively participated in the design of the Management Plan for the Sierra de San Francisco (1994) in collaboration with the Getty Conservation Institute.
Since 1994, she is in charge of the management of the UNESCO World Heritage Sierra de San Francisco property (1993).
RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS
Braniff, B., Cordell, Linda S., Gutiérrez, M. L., Villalpando, E., & Hers, M.-A. (2001). La Gran Chichimeca, El Lugar de las Rocas Secas. Milán: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, México D.F. y Jaca Book Spa.
Gutiérrez, M. L., & Hyland, J. R. (Eds.). (2002). Arqueología de la Sierra de San Francisco: Dos décadas de investigación del Fenómeno Gran Mural. Dirección de Publicaciones del INAH.
Gutiérrez, M. L., Hambleton, E., Hyland, J. R., & Price, N. S. (1996). The Management of Word Heritage sites in remote areas. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, 1(4).
Gutiérrez, M. L. (2013). Paisajes Ancestrales. Identidad Memoria y Arte Rupestre en las Cordilleras centrales de la Península de Baja California. Doctoral thesis. México: Escuela Nacional de Antropología. INAH Alfonso Caso Award (2014).