Institutional Analysis of the Social Property System and its Application for the Management of Cultural Resources in Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In Mexico, archaeological sites are located on private, communal, ejido, federal or vacant land. The exercise of land ownership rights determines the type of technical and legal protection, which is usually assumed by the Mexican State. Generally, to mitigate risks, official archaeologists must carefully collaborate with public, private or common-pool resources and develop strategies to promote site management. This paper presents an institutional analysis of the different approaches in which social land property boards -those formed by members of an agrarian nucleus or people with communal property or interests in a community- can contribute to the conservation of archaeological resources and their operational potential for the Mexican case. Based on recent fieldwork experiences at a collectively owned site in southeastern Mexico, I discuss the unique challenges of involving a community in the exercise of its land ownership rights in parallel to archaeological conservation, and the potential of such participation to encourage local community archaeological stewardship.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39605.0