Celtic Crosses and Quetzal Masks: On the (Re)production of the Archaeological Record

Summary

In an era of globalization and mass production, archaeological objects and images are not immune to being transformed into commodities and sold for profit. This (re)production of the past can profoundly influence the ways that consumers understand the history of particular times and places—often erasing the experiences of marginality and resilience that archaeologists work so hard to recover. This paper examines two distinct cases in which historical images (and periods) are being transformed into objects for consumption: the proliferation of Victorian-era Irish concept pubs, and the production of "ancient" Maya masks for the tourist trade in the Yucatán. These examples show how the archaeological record is increasingly implicated in the negotiation of identity and memory within a global market culture that values the past as a spectacle.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Living at the Margins: Archaeological and Ethnographic Research on Post-Eighteenth-Century Irish and Scottish Rural Life

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16848