Archaeological Heritage in Peru: Definitions, Perceptions and Imperceptions

Abstract

The threat to what is now known as archaeological heritage may even have started in pre-His panic times with looting and kidnapping of huacas (Andean sacred objects and places) by groups wishing to obtain them due to their inherent value (material), or (re)take the spiritual forces associated with the objects and even the archaeological sites. An example of this can be seen in the practices of appropriation of huacas developed by the Incas, both material and ideological, and even involving destruction (Topic et al., 2002, p. 311). With the arrival of the Spanish in the Andes, huacas were treated as if they were mines, even providing taxes to the Spanish crown. It is interesting to note that at that time this was a legal practice (Zevallos, 1994; Mujica, 2000, p. 220). Another activity that deeply affected archaeological sites and objects during the Viceroyalty of Peru (seventeenth to nineteenth centuries) was the destruction of huacas and objects associated with idolatry extirpators (Shady, 2008, p. 7; Gerdau-Radonic and Herrera, 2010). Although autonomy was achieved after the total expulsion of the Spanish following the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824, which arguably should have led to greater acknowledgement and ownership of the pre-Hispanic past, looting continued to occur in many parts of the nascent Peruvian republic.