Local engagement in UNESCO World Heritage sites: Mexico as a case study

Summary

The ‘critical importance of involving indigenous, traditional and local communities in the implementation of the [World Heritage] Convention’ (World Heritage Committee Decisions 31.COM/13A and 31.COM/13B, 2007) reflects discussions that have been taking place in WH since 1994, and has guided much of UNESCO's efforts regarding these communities in World Heritage Sites since. In 1994 social participation became a requirement in the nomination of new World Heritage Sites and since 2008 it has been expected in their management. However, the extent to which social participation has been implemented is a moot point. Inspired by the 'Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Procedures' (REAP) method developed by the US National Park Service (Low, 2002), our team has conducted fieldwork to examine the situation in archaeological WH sites in Mexico. Methods used by our team include personal semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participant observation and archival research. We will explain some of the results obtained so far and contextualize them in the social and political processes that have taken place in Mexico in the last two decades.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16816