Rhyming Culture, Heritage, and Identity: The ‘Total Site’ of Teotihuacan, Mexico

Abstract

Culture, identity, and heritage are common concepts for the analysis of relationships among archaeologists, archaeological sites, the archaeological discipline, heritage management, and tourism. Yet, little insight is provided into the exact ways in which tourism, archaeology, heritage management, and the nation-state are related. I examine in a case study on the archaeological zone of Teotihuacan how a national and general diverse public connects to an archaeological past in Mexico to make the larger point that anthropological analyses of power, identity, and culture must entail a notion of materiality. To avoid a troublesome dichotomy of state and people, and history and social memory, I suggest an alternative analytical concept: the total site. In doing so, I aim to illustrate that this new heuristic device will encourage an analysis that highlights all of the aspects that underwrite and shape the ‘archaeological site’ or ‘archaeological zone’ of Teotihuacan. By critiquing existing terms, I hope to illustrate that this new term can facilitate a resolution of terms in the related, but often disparate, areas of nation-state formation and tourism or heritage research.