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The Spaniards established several congregaciones or missions in central Petén, Guatemala, shortly after the 1697 conquest of the region to help control local indigenous populations. Recent investigations at the church and community of Mission San Bernabé revealed details about the entangled relations of Mayas and Spaniards. Foucault's four technologies of domination help explicate these power relations as they were played out in the small settlement and the church at its center. Material culture differed in many ways from that of the pre-conquest Itzas, but was clearly predominantly “Maya.” Spanish-style goods and burial patterns were found as were hybrid ceramic wares, the Spanish-style artifacts most common in an elite residence, reflecting that Maya elite acted as brokers with the Spaniards. The occupants also incorporated Spanish domesticates into their diets. Some changes likely resulted from various ethnic groups residing in the same settlement, but others were the product of indigenous adaptations to the situation of contact. Nevertheless, it is clear that the mission anchored a number of strategies of domination that subdued the occupants of San Bernabé.

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Archaeologists strive to understand ancient lifeways, and bioarchaeological data provide honest and immutable evidence of the realities of ancient society in the bodies of the dead. Given the importance of human remains in the archaeological record, a major component of the author's work has been devoted to the ethical responsibilities of bioarchaeologists in the treatment of the collections studied. However, the curation of skeletal remains is often challenging because the conservation and storage of these delicate materials may be afterthoughts in archaeological plans, being inadequately or incorrectly stored and sometimes treated to the same conservation conditions as more robust artifacts and samples. This article offers guidelines and recommendations for skeletal curation based on observations of curation challenges in a large collection in the subtropical Maya region. The collection was not well managed and human remains were not prioritized in the conservation program. The challenges and mitigations are presented here.

Colonialism came late to northern Guatemala. The Spanish began to establish missions in the Peten Lakes region in the early 1700s, nearly 200 years after initial contact with the Mayas. Excavations in 2011–2012 at the Mission San Bernabé revealed European goods, nonnative animal species, and burial patterns that marked a new lifestyle. Who lived at the Mission San Bernabé, and where did they come from? The Spanish resettled indigenous populations to facilitate the colonization process; however, isotopic data are inconsistent with large population movements. Instead, strontium and oxygen isotope values in the tooth enamel and bones of individuals buried at the mission suggest a mostly local population. The data suggest in-migration from Belize, a region under nominal Spanish control, but with pre-Hispanic ties to the Peten. Changes did not come from migrants crossing a border; instead, the border itself moved and brought the colonial world to the Peten Mayas.