Archaeological sites in Mexico: New thinking on socializing the values of heritage sites

Abstract

According to the International Council of Museums, archaeological sites are a special kind of museum. There is a growing debate in Mexico about whether they should be considered ‘cultural industries.’ Today a federal institution administers, finances, and regulates them. But there is pressure from the private sector to allow businesses to profit more directly from them. The business sector argues that more people could benefit from their visit, since facilities and interpretation would improve and be better maintained. But this would open sites to tensions well known to museums (‘mission vs. market,’ ‘excellence vs. profit’). The author argues against this move by challenging the applicability of the concepts of ‘cultural industries’ and mise en valeur (‘setting value’) to heritage. Paradoxically, this requires convincing the ‘gatekeepers’ of heritage, the professional archaeologists, that it is possible to socialize heritage values without ‘dumbing down.’ Their resistance is analyzed and a strategy to appease it is briefly sketched.