- Archaeological Site Museums in Latin America
As an archaeologist working in and around rural communities in Guatemala, I was drawn to the opportunity to read and review this volume. The reality of fieldwork in Latin America is that people often want cultural patrimony to stay local, they want to benefit locally from archaeological research, and there is an expectation that archaeologists will work with the community to facilitate all of this. Unfortunately, most of us are thrust unprepared into the complex political world of the local communities where we work. We must learn as we go, making the best of difficult situations. Archaeological Site Museums in Latin America fulfills an important need with its in-depth studies of archaeological site museums and the socio-cultural contexts within which they are built and function, or fail to function.
Silverman has gathered 13 excellent case studies, drawn from Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Most of the authors have extensive firsthand experience in the development and construction of archaeological site museums, the creation of social and financial support infrastructure, and in dealing with the repercussions of these facilities on the community, the site, and the country in which they work. Their experience is important, for as Silverman points out in her Preface, those involved generally in studying and thinking about such museums have been “overwhelmingly talkers (theoreticians) not doers” (p. xviii). Understanding the success and failure of these different examples is an important first step for archaeologists in developing a methodology for interacting with local communities and national authorities in the establishment of archaeological site museums. It is clear from this volume that we have, to date, taken a hit-and-miss approach with predictably hit-and-miss results.
My complaints are few. Foremost is a question of coverage, for the geographic coverage of the volume is heavily weighted to western South America, with a few representatives from Mesoamerica. One wonders if other parts of South and Mesoamerica—not to mention the Caribbean—might offer further contrasting or [End Page 262] supporting case studies. Cases from outside Latin America would also offer fruitful points of comparisons for understanding what, if anything, makes the situations described in this volume particularly Latin American. I lodge this criticism knowing that it is impossible to provide in a single volume all possible examples that might be pertinent to this subject. In that sense mine is not a criticism of the book, but rather of the state of scholarship on a subject for which this book serves as the most significant academic contribution to date.
Lawrence Coben’s chapter is of particular interest, raising fascinating and disturbing questions that all archaeologists would do well to consider. Coben pointedly asks in the context of site museums, tourism, economic development, and local empowerment “whether the arcaheologist’s role . . . is always that of protector of material culture” (p. 250). Our oft-stated goals (formalized by the Society for American Archaeology) have been those of documentation, education, preservation, stewardship, and non-profit scientific investigation. What happens when some of those ideals conflict with the needs and desires of the communities in which we work? If we believe that archaeological sites and materials are national, or even world patrimony, this may be quite at odds with the local communities’ perspective on the matter. If one of the community goals in collaborating with archaeologists is to achieve immediate financial benefit, how are we to react? What if—as Coben suggests while playing the role of devil’s advocate—the community wants to sell some of its patrimony? This is just one of the many issues that Coben raises, and his chapter throws stark light on many of the assumptions that we archaeologists take for granted at our own risk.
In sum, this book represents an important first step in a discussion that archaeologists must continue and broaden. We must develop better skills and provide training to our students for dealing with the issues of patrimony in the communities where we work. The...