Chapter Thirteen. Heritage And Indigeneity: Transformations In The Politics Of Tourism

Abstract

The ethnographic history of socio-political conflicts at Chichen relied upon a set of specific concepts. In contrast to the non-analytical, descriptive sense of the word, author proposes a theory of heritage that differentiates between heritage as patrimony, as resource and as governmentality. He therefore also differentiated the politics of patrimony from that of heritage, and both from the politics of tourism. These analytical notions, can be productively applied to other Latin American and global contexts in order to understand the particular historical configuration of agents, interests, stakes and dynamics. The invocation of indigeneity is crucial, for it is another element that converts the politics of tourism into a politics of heritage. Using the case of Chichen Itza, the chapter analyses the shifting politics of tourism to identify the emergence of a politics of heritage at Chichen.Keywords: Chichen Itza; heritage; indigeneity; patrimony; politics of tourism; socio-political conflicts

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