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The Pursuit of Ruins
Archaeology, History, and the Making of Modern Mexico
Christina Bueno
- 280 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Pursuit of Ruins
Archaeology, History, and the Making of Modern Mexico
Christina Bueno
About This Book
Famous for its majestic ruins, Mexico has gone to great lengths to preserve and display the remains of its pre-Hispanic past. The Pursuit of Ruins argues that the government effort to take control of the ancient remains took off in the late nineteenth century during the dictatorship of Porfirio DĂaz. Under DĂaz Mexico acquired an official history more firmly rooted in Indian antiquity. This prestigious pedigree served to counter Mexico's image as a backward, peripheral nation. The government claimed symbolic links with the great civilizations of pre-Hispanic times as it hauled statues to the National Museum and reconstructed TeotihuacĂĄn. Christina Bueno explores the different facets of the Porfirian archaeological project and underscores the contradictory place of indigenous identity in modern Mexico. While the making of Mexico's official past was thought to bind the nation together, it was an exclusionary process, one that celebrated the civilizations of bygone times while disparaging contemporary Indians.