Heritage Prospecting and the Past as Future(s) in Peru

Abstract

Resumen En febrero de 2008 un paro de 48 horas estalló en la ciudad de Cuzco, Perú, sobre dos leyes que se habían aprobado desde la ciudad de Lima. Estas dos leyes dieron concesiones a organizaciones que prometieron a desarrollar el patrimonio de la nación. Los manifestantes entendieron que las leyes afectarían los restos arqueológicos. Este artículo examina el paro a través del concepto de “prospección de patrimonio” a demostrar que el patrimonio hoy es un recurso politizado y flexible que se forma constantemente, y que está siempre en desarrollo y expansión. En vez de entender el paro como una crítica del neoliberalismo, o política sobre entendimientos del espacio, o una afirmación de los derechos indígnenos, el paro es mejor entendido como una lucha por prospección a reclamar el patrimonio, uno de los recursos más importantes en el Perú. Esto sugiere que el valor del patrimonio es la posibilidad de su potencial, ni tradición o historia.

Bolivar's Sword: The Mapoyo and the Politics of Heritage‐Making in Venezuela

“…Finally, unlike other Latin American heritage regimes (e.g., Mexico and Peru), driven by neoliberal governance and tourism profit (Breglia 2006; Cox Hall 2019), the current Venezuelan heritage strategy is more invested in boosting national pride than in fostering an economic agenda. The Mapoyo heritagization represents a shift from previous (although still persistent) folklorist ideologies in Venezuela that privilege festive practices.…”

Recognising, Safeguarding, and Promoting Food Heritage: Challenges and Prospects for the Future of Sustainable Food Systems

“…The risk of increasing inequalities can stem from the legal regulation of heritage that is transforming traditional practices into community law and converting them into private or state property. This situation is more likely to happen when private or state entities convert heritagisation into what Cox Hall [100] (p. 337) called an "extractivist process" that generates income from heritage rather than strengthen collective identity and social cohesion.…”

Documenting the UNESCO feast: stories of women’s ‘empowerment’ and programmatic cooking

“…Cavanaugh defines the latter as a relationship that ‘encompasses both the flexibility enabled by social interaction, in contrast to the rigid contours of documented production, and the constraints that shape such interaction’ (2016: 697). Economic sociability is crucial to cocineras ’ ultimate success, as it allows them flexibility to balance the control of surveillance (Cavanaugh 2016) and countering cultural, ‘resource extractivism’ (Cox Hall 2019; more on this below). Maria declared that people have tried to copy her dishes, and that this was one of the reasons for distancing herself from Encuentros, although she could not break ties completely because the economic gain is still significant.…”

“…This applies to contexts in which heritagisation contributes to the sense that culture and subjects are resources to be mined. Cox Hall categorises heritage as resource extractivism ‘because private‐states entities seek to create opportunities to generate rents through patrimony’ (2019: 337). As a valuable and extractable resource, heritage generates concerns over access, the means of production, dispossession and corruption.…”

“…The Cambridge English Dictionary defines prospecting as ‘the activity of searching for gold, oil, or other valuable substances on or under the surface of the Earth’, which translates outside the context of mining into actively seeking resources to extract value from them. Here I draw on what Cox Hall (2019) termed ‘heritage prospecting’ to address the ability of subjects to seek, exploit and protect (for themselves) potentially valuable food cultural features, and exert some control on them.…”