Monumental Ambivalence: The Politics of Heritage (review)

There is much of value in Lisa Breglia's recent monograph, most importantly attention to the very real complexities of modern heritage claims within the globalized tourism market. Breglia sets out to compare the notions of heritage held by two Yucatec Maya communities—one a century into participation in management of a UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site (Chichén Itzá), the other subsistence farmers living adjacent to a largely unexplored archaeological site in the poorest part of the peninsula. While deftly explaining the historical reasons for the deeply embedded notions of land ownership held in Yucatán, and their implications to contemporary understandings of heritage, Breglia succeeds less well when she attempts to explore the disparate ways in which Maya farmers understand archaeological remains as part of their cultural tradition.

Breglia begins with the premise that "heritage is practice" (p. 14) and does a thorough job of documenting how the Mexican state has encouraged the codification of Maya Culture as defined by language, dress, food, and importantly, heritage sites. Through legislation and selective privatization, the Mexican government (like so many throughout Latin America) created an image of national patrimony that is both convenient to its own social and economic interests, as well as palatable to tourists. Breglia is at her best when she chronicles the three generations of custodians at the huge touristic site of Chichén Itzá—the processes by which villagers from the surrounding area have been transformed into federally employed stakeholders is a fascinating example of the multi-national forces at work in the heritage industry throughout the twentieth century. Breglia seems comfortable deconstructing the way the state manages heritage at Chichén Itzá, but much less certain about how to deal with the emerging and contested notions of heritage expressed in the villages of Kochol and Chunchucmil.

This volume contributes important twenty-first century documentation of the lingering ambivalences, resentments, and romantic idealizations of the hacienda period in Yucatán held by modern Maya people today. But when attention is turned to how the archaeological past is understood by modern villagers, the discussion becomes much less subtle. Claims that workers did not understand development plans or that participation in such plans would "solidify the construct of Yucatec Maya as docile descendants" (p. 210) do not capture the range of ways in which Maya farmers are actively involved in finding meaning and economic sustainability within heritage resources, whether they be archaeological sites or historic haciendas. As a cultural anthropologist working at the intersection of social anthropology and archaeology, Breglia's musings on archaeological practice and permitting are distracting and de-contextualized. While this volume is an important study of the historical context and potential for conflict over heritage claims, it does not fully capture the voices of those people most affected but also most often overlooked in the rush to development that characterizes the current tourism enterprise throughout much of Latin America.