Biography

Arcia Tecun is the pen name of Daniel Hernandez, which is after his grandmothers. Tecun is Wīnak (Maya in Turtle Island) and descends from K'iche', Tz'utuhil, Kaqchikel, and Mam lineages. They are also of Afro, Arab, Jewish, and European ancestry. As an ethnomusicologist and social-cultural anthropologist Tecun’s research and teaching interests are in global Indigeneities, kava, identity, popular culture/music, eco/food justice, critical and place-based pedagogy, Indigenous epistemology, religion, metaphysics, and relational ethics. Their research is grounded in Indigenous theories and frameworks of Cosmovisión Maya, Tāvāism, Mana/Tapu/Noa-Ngofua, and the ancestrally mindful oratory-dialogics of talanoa/plática/tzïjonik. Tecun's work also engages with modernity/coloniality/decoloniality theory and with fields including Indigenous studies, Ethnic Studies, Area Studies, Critical Latinx Indigeneities, and Global Mormon Studies with regional focuses in Turtle Island/Iximulew/Abya Yala (Americas) and Moana/Wansolwara/Tåsi/Madau (Oceania). Tecun's scholary work includes ethno-historical, gender, and Indigenous analyses of contemporary kava rituals; ongoing co-development of the undercurrents concept that synthesises Moana relational ethics with undercommons projects; and proposed global conceptualisations of the metaphysics of indigeneity and global Indigenous metaphysics.

Tecun's first teachers are their parents and they continue to learn in community and with family. They are an alumni of Rose Park Elementary, West High School, Salt Lake Community College, and the University of Utah. Tecun graduated from the ethnomusicology programme in the anthropology department at Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland), where he also taught anthropology courses for five years and held a Pouako (Lecturer) title while in Aotearoa-New Zealand. They also previously held the inaugural position of director of culture for Tracy Aviary and the Nature Center at Pia Okwai in Soonkahni (Salt Lake Valley, Utah). Tecun was also the fall 2023 community practitioner in residence for the University of Utah's Environmental Humanities programme. They are an editorial board member for the Mormon Studies Review, a Pacific Island Scholar Award committee member with the Association for Social Anthropologists of Oceania, and a steering committee member in the Global Mormon Studies organisation. Additionally, Tecun is on the community advisory board for the University of Utah's Center for Pasifika Indigenous Knowledges, the recruitment committee for Utah Valley University's Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, and has served on a Mayan Community Consultancy Committee for The Museum of Us and currently for Southwestern Community College. Tecun's public intellectual work includes podcasting, filmmaking, and journalism. They are currently an assistant professor in the anthropology programme at Utah Valley University in the Timpanogos territory.

Education

Teaching

Scholarly/Creative Works