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8 Configuring and Commoditizing the Archaeological Landscape: Heritage, Identity, and Tourism in the Tuxtla Mountains
Author(s) -
Venter Marcie,
Lyon Sarah
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
archeological papers of the american anthropological association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1551-8248
pISSN - 1551-823X
DOI - 10.1111/apaa.12049
Subject(s) - tourism , heritage tourism , cultural heritage , politics , cultural heritage management , narrative , perception , identity (music) , industrial heritage , divergence (linguistics) , geography , sociology , economy , history , aesthetics , political science , archaeology , art , law , linguistics , philosophy , literature , neuroscience , economics , biology
This paper explores how the burgeoning tourism economy in the western Tuxtla Mountains is shaping the perception and presentation of archaeological heritage. We compare the divergent motives and representations of three groups: professional archaeologists, municipalities, and private entrepreneurs. A struggling local economy has contributed to inhabitants of the region increasingly perceiving the past as a potential economic stimulus. Narratives of the past, however, are unregulated and diverse, and the translocal politics of heritage management can have unintended by‐products, including conflicts between externally represented cultural values and locally imagined meanings and identities. The impact of this representational divergence on community and governmental support for the protection of cultural patrimony and heritage education is uncertain.