[Aztlan] geronimo/kennewick/peru

[Lars Frühsorge]

Maybe the difference between North an Latin America in questions of heritage 
is not so much to be seen in different historical background (e.g. who 
destroyed indigenous culture more efficiently?) but rather in terms of the 
present situation. Consider the case of Guatemala. Different from North 
America, Mayan activist in Guate have to struggle for most basic issues 
sometimes even facing dangers for their lives as the recent CONIC-murders 
have demonstrated. In such a situation it might not be surprising, that the 
question of archaeological heritage is not exactly the activists top 
priority.

Beside that, I find it misleading to connect heritage claims exclusively to 
(rather western) questions of cultural authenticity.

Anyway there are many examples of modern Mayan ways to honour the past. If 
you visit the Highland Guatemalan site of Utatlan for example you will find 
in its museum the exhibition of a grave. Local shamans come to that place 
everyday. They have put up a cross in front of it and candles are burning 
there day and night. This example strongly reminds me on the Kennewick case. 
In a country where there is no legal base for indigenous heritage claims 
putting up candles might well be seen as a silent form of protest.

Mayan ceremonies have taken place in archaeological sites for centuries as 
they still do. There are also ceremonies in lowland sites like Tikal but 
they were only introduced in very recent times as a result of cultural 
activism.

But if we talk about authenticity and Catholic conversion it might be worth 
to notice that the more traditional ceremonies use Christian crosses while 
such symbols never appear on altars in lowland sites. So in this case more 
catholic might mean more traditional.

But even more interesting might be the fact that new ideas become attributed 
to pre-Hispanic sites and artefacts time and again. For example some ruins 
serve as "sites of memory" to remember victims of civil war as a way to deal 
with this recent trauma deeply influencing Mayan culture. At another site 
ceremonies are performed especially for the protection of migrants crossing 
the border to the United States. These examples clearly show how, despite 
global changes, archaeological heritage remains important in Mayan culture. 
In my opinion this might be even a stronger argument to respect heritage 
claims than cultural authenticity.



Lars Frühsorge



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Stevenson" <mijobas at yahoo.com>
To: <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 11:45 PM
Subject: [Aztlan] geronimo/kennewick/peru


> Dear All,
>
> Are there similar controvesies surrounding findings of
> human remains in Central and South America?
>
> There seems to be a lot of discussion about the
> Kennewick Man and Geronimo's skull but none concerning
> the recent find of the Moche woman. Do these
> discussions take place and we don't hear about them or
> are the circumstances within those countries
> different?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Michael Stevenson