From Hacienda Domesticity to the Archaeological Sublime: Sentiment and the Origins of Heritage Management in Yucatan, Mexico

Abstract

Frictions between state-sanctioned heritage policies and the quotidian practices of local stakeholder communities often have deep historical roots. In this essay, I trace the history of conflicts in the management of archaeological sites in the Yucatan peninsula to the emergence of a romantic sensibility toward the leisured enjoyment of ruins in the mid-nineteenth century. This posited a kind of subjectivity that was radically different from the subsistence practices that brought Maya-speaking peasants into contact with archaeological sites. There are important parallels between this discourse on ruins and a philological approach to the Yucatec Maya language which tended to denigrate the vernacular of rural speakers. Interestingly, the tendency of these entwined discourses to delegitimate the speech and customs of rural agriculturalists posited a “proper” relationship to heritage that could be assumed by people from diverse ethnic categories if they adopted an attitude that was consistent with liberal perspectives on labor and identity. The heritage of this simultaneously inclusive and elitist discourse is still evident in contemporary heritage practice and neoliberal multiculturalism.