8 Configuring and Commoditizing the Archaeological Landscape: Heritage, Identity, and Tourism in the Tuxtla Mountains

Abstract

This paper explores how the burgeoning tourism economy in the western Tuxtla Mountains is shaping the perception and presentation of archaeological heritage. We compare the divergent motives and representations of three groups: professional archaeologists, municipalities, and private entrepreneurs. A struggling local economy has contributed to inhabitants of the region increasingly perceiving the past as a potential economic stimulus. Narratives of the past, however, are unregulated and diverse, and the translocal politics of heritage management can have unintended by-products, including conflicts between externally represented cultural values and locally imagined meanings and identities. The impact of this representational divergence on community and governmental support for the protection of cultural patrimony and heritage education is uncertain. [archaeology, tourism, Tuxtla Mountains, alternative livelihood strategies]