Empire and the Limits of Analogy: Aztecs and Romans in Malibu

This review discusses the politics of museum display evinced by an exhibition of Aztec artifacts held at the Getty Villa in Spring 2010. I argue that the curators draw on the comparative agenda of the sixteenth-century Spanish conquistadors, whose attempts at cultural assimilation are put on display, in order to pursue a form of cultural imperialism of their own. I point to the fault lines that appear in their attempts to illustrate the analogies drawn by the Spanish between the unfamiliar religious culture of the Aztec world and the religious system of ancient Rome, by juxtaposing the Aztec exhibits on loan with Roman artifacts contained in the Getty's permanent collection. I also explore some of the tensions produced by the decision to host the cultural heritage of Los Angeles' vast Mexican population in Getty's shrine to Greco-Roman antiquity. The particular set of juxtapositions presented to viewers at this exhibition exposes the power of the New World museum to fabricate a cultural myth of origin for its patrons at the expense of the cultural heritage of those displaced.