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- Convenor:
-
André Cicalo
(King's College London)
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- Location:
- ATB G205
- Start time:
- 12 April, 2013 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 3
Short Abstract:
The objective of this panel is to explore intersections of public heritage and national identity across Latin America, with examples that will help us trace similarities and differences, national specificities and regional continuities in this field.
Long Abstract:
This panel explores how public heritage intersects with national identity in Latin America. Substantive literature discusses whether public memorialisation of past facts is to be seen as a neo-colonial tool through which the state and/or international bodies such as UNESCO discipline, normalise and objectify memory, with the risk of hiding alternative histories. Other literature, instead, looks at the de-colonial potential of public memory, highlighting the way by which certain groups make their history visible through heritage, and contest official narratives of the nation. That said, little research concretely explores the ways in which public heritage is used to shape and/or question national identity in Latin America. In Peru, official food heritage is shaping a 'modern' image of national identity at home and abroad, by selecting certain native ingredients and marginalising others. In Brazil, recent public use of slave memory reflects some changes in Brazilian national identity and challenges some aspects of its traditional view as a 'mixed-race' society.
We look for abstracts that address intersections of heritage and national identity across the region, in order to trace similarities and differences. Welcome, for instance, will be papers dealing with relations between national identity and memorialisation of dictatorship crimes, papers dealing with the way the nation is represented in national feasts, music and literature, cinema, national brand advertising, representations of the nation in money notes, stamps, and so on.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
In this paper I want to link the data found about musicians and their work to try to understand if there was a process of construction of a national musical culture in Colombia during the period of study. In doing so, I also wish to explain the factors that associated to produce a national musical culture.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper I wish to share the findings, questions and answers that I have come across through my research about the link between music and politics in Colombia during the second half of the nineteenth century. By proposing a link between the data about found about musicians and their work I want to try to understand if there was a process of construction of a national musical culture in Colombia during this period. In doing so, I also wish to explain the factors that associate in order to produce such musical culture. The first factor is the role of the musicians in this process; the second factor is the role of the concert as a social space/activity in which a type of culture is exercised and promoted as social heritage and the third factor is the role of support networks which stimulated the musicians' work through their expectations about that artistic production. The formation of a musical national culture during the second half of the nineteenth century can be synonymous with the formation of an urban musical culture, the emergence of new patterns of consumption and the construction of social identities by the groups that formed Colombia society at the time. Through the understanding of these interrelated dynamics is possible to comprehend the process of production of a national representation in/through music.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the emergence of two important warfare memories during the social struggles in Bolivia between 2000 and 2005: the Chaco War, fought against Paraguay in the 1930s, and the eighteenth-century indigenous rebellion of Tupac Katari against the Spanish colonial rule.
Paper long abstract:
Much of the literature about collective memories, particularly about war events, focus on their stabilizing nature, how they help to maintain status quo. Indeed, memories of warfare have been used by official nationalisms to tell a story of glory, heroes and national communion. In the Bolivian case, the anti-colonial rebellion of Tupac Katari was interpreted by the official historiography as a precursor of the Independence Wars, and the Chaco War is commonly understood as an event that symbolically founded the contemporary Bolivian nation.
However, both events were clearly cited by the social struggles that have shaken Bolivia from 2000 to 2005, which fought against the governments' neoliberal policies, such as the water and gas privatizations. On one hand, Katari was a reference to peasant activists: in 2000, they blocked all the roads connecting La Paz to the rest of the country, claiming they were "sieging" the city the same way Tupac Katari did. On the other, the Chaco War was cited to defend the gas nationalization (since it is located in the Chaco region) and when Aymara peasants used war mausers to resist the army actions to break their road blockades.
The Bolivian example shows us that collective memories are more dynamic, and can have an important role in social change situations, than most of the literature would predict, and that warfare events are tricky references to official nationalisms, particularly in societies in which so much of the past (racism, xenophilic political elites) is still valid.
Paper short abstract:
Focusing on the centennial celebrations that took place last year in Cusco to commemorate the scientific discovery of Machu Picchu, this paper analyses the role of cultural heritage in the (re)construction and (re)shaping of contemporary Peruvian national discourse.
Paper long abstract:
This paper considers how Peruvian cultural heritage has been appropriated by the Peruvian state to elaborate or invent a glorious ancient past that contributes to the construction of a specific Peruvian identity discourse. The paper discusses the diverse uses of pre-Columbian images and representations in contemporary Peru, and how Peruvian cultural heritage has been socially and politically constructed to become a powerful instrument that forms and (re)shapes the collective memory of the nation as well as modifies indigenous communities' identities. To provide an example of these processes, the paper discusses the case of last year's centennial celebrations of the Machu Picchu scientific discovery. In doing so, it explores how the Peruvian Inca past has been actively and powerfully reconstructed through a series of events, festivities, cultural performances and celebrations, which contributed to situate Cusco nationally and worldwide as the symbolic centre of an idealized Inca past. By highlighting this re-interpretation (or reconstruction) of the ancient past, this paper is interested not only in how the use of Machu Picchu places the Inca culture within the contemporary Peruvian national discourse, but also in the ways which this selective use of the past tends to ignore the living conditions and challenges facing contemporary indigenous communities in the Southern Andean region.
Paper short abstract:
This presentation deals with the national identity construction in Brazil through state policies regarding the value assignment of cultural heritage. Comparing different contexts, it highlights continuities and discontinuities in relation to identities submerged by hegemonic national identities.
Paper long abstract:
The cultural preservation practices implemented by the nation states are integration devices of segments of a population contained within national territory. This modality of cultural and territorial integration, triggered by the power of definition of national cultural heritage has been one of the vehicles of construction of national identities, through the materialization of a national history and the reproduction of its image in school books, musical themes, tourism propaganda, amongst other spaces.
In the 1930's and 1940's in Brazil, the colonial baroque art and architecture became national patrimony through the state policies as the first genuine Brazilian artistic expression and the images of this baroque Brazil were exhaustively reproduced in many settings. In this way, a single national identity was forged and recognized, although many other aspects of Brazilian culture were therefore simply ignored.
In the 2000's thanks to the process of redemocratising of the country and in conjunction to international regulations of Unesco, new policies were implemented referring to the recognition of Brazilian cultural diversity, with the safeguard of cultural artifacts, assets and practices related to indigenous, afro-descendent and popular culture.
Considering the historical background of the criteria of value assignment of cultural heritage in Brazil, I intend, through this presentation, establish comparisons between the different narratives of national identity, expressed in literature, the arts, music, monuments etc.. And also, reflect upon the policies of cultural heritage and its reach in the post-colonial context in relation to the submerged, buried and parted identities by the still hegemonic national identities.
Paper short abstract:
The objective of this paper is to investigate the use of public opposition movements and discourses in the construction and legitimisation of post-authoritarian and post-neoliberal national identities.
Paper long abstract:
The first decade of the twenty-first century saw what has been called a 'pink tide' sweep across South America. In the wake of the collapse of the neoliberal consensus, a number of nation-building projects explicitly mobilised a public heritage of anti-imperialist activism to legitimise their centre-left policies and construct a concomitant national identity. This paper investigates this process, paying particular attention to how certain opposition tropes have been domesticated while others have been marginalised.
Using the example of Argentina, it will discuss the way president Nestor Kirchner embraced the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, one of the most recognisable symbols of resistance to the 1976-83 dictatorship, and also one of the sources of the strongest critiques of the neoliberal policies of both the dictatorship and subsequent democratic governments. The Kirchner government adopted the symbolic Madres in order to promote a national political identity based on a rejection of economic imperialism in word, without necessarily eliminating its structures in deed.
The paper will go beyond the well-explored topic of the memorialisation of authoritarian-era crimes in the construction of a post-authoritarian national identity and instead look at the shifts that have occurred in the use of this past in the legitimisation of the present. While focused on the case of Argentina and its particular trajectory through dictatorship, democracy and neoliberalism, the paper will also place the example within the context of the region-wide 'shift to the left' and will raise discussion points relevant to other national projects within this emerging tradition.
Paper short abstract:
The zero hour of the contemporary Mexican state is the Revolution, this paper considers how the foundation of the modern nation has been commemorated through film festivals.
Paper long abstract:
Film festivals are often narrowly defined closely following the model of the so-called A-list, such as Cannes, Toronto and Berlin. These provide significant opportunities for filmmakers and producers to lay out their stall or garner publicity for their offerings. Such annual global marketplace gatherings have been well studied. What are neglected in this field are the event festivals that coalesce around a theme or historical commemoration, which are usually more local in flavour. An example of one recent event which helps complicate this picture of what a festival is took place in 2010 in Mexico City to commemorate the centenary of the Mexican Revolution. From September to November of that year the national film institute presented a film series that included a canonical selection of Mexican films alongside a number of international films that touched on similar themes. Thereby, they intersected the national and the global. Festival theory presupposes a global view. So, where does the national focus of such an event fit? When the national event draws on the international, where, then, does that leave the local? This paper will consider these questions and see how this commemoration can help expand the definition of what a festival is.
Paper short abstract:
This work aims about the relation between tourism, patrimonialization process and the representation of National Identity. The case of study is the Atacama deseart, as one of the most important touristic destination in the north of Chile.
Paper long abstract:
This work is part of an ongoing doctoral research, which deals with the relationship between heritage, tourism and ethnogenesis processes in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. In this context, this paper raises questions about the mechanisms used by the Chilean State to patrimonialize indigenous culture and to use it as a symbol of national identity and as a touristic resource. It is on this last point that this reflection will center its attention.
Tourism is essentially an economic activity which constructs images and representations- allegedly authentic-on cultural identities. In this context, "nationalized" indigenous heritage becomes an essential resource for promoting tourism of the country. However it is essential to analyze who are the state agents who are producing these images and discourses, what is the role of indigenous communities involved, how to negotiate the selection of cultural elements that are patrimonialized as well as the exclusion of other cultural elements.
To perform this project, ethnographic fieldwork has been done during the years 2010 to 2012. The objective was to study different Atacama communities who are currently developing projects to patrimonialize indigenous culture for tourism as a strategy of ethnic development stimulated by government agencies and NGO's. Parallel to this, an ethnography of the agencies involved in these processes has been done, as well as of their management mechanisms and uses of indigenous heritage as part of the multicultural identity that is promoted for tourism.
Paper short abstract:
My presentation explores the recent process of public commemoration of slavery in the port area of Rio de Janeiro and its relation to national identity.
Paper long abstract:
My presentation explores the recent institutional efforts to commemorate slavery in Rio de Janeiro, with the establishment of a slavery memorial and an Afro-cultural itinerary in the port area. Rather than being completely accidental, the facts described interweave with the contemporary flourishing of affirmative action in favour of Afro-Brazilians, which aims to redress historically-rooted social inequalities, include minorities, and challenge the myths of racial democracy in Brazil. These facts give the impression of a radical revision of Brazil's national identity from mixed and non racial to multi-racial and multi-ethnic. Looking at the discourses of different social actors involved in the process of slave-heritage making in the port area of Rio de Janeiro, I discuss how new discourses of inclusion can also cohabit with persistent practices of exclusion. Examples of these relate to the growing urban gentrification in the port area and the relative marginality of black social movements in the decision processes of public memorialisation of slave memory. This case study is useful to reflect on changing ideas of the nation, setting out discontinuities but also the continuities between the myth of racial democracy and the recent turn in favour of racial and ethnic politics/policies in Brazil.
Paper short abstract:
Mexico included in national museums the heritage of los olvidados but new minorities communities ask for recognition. How heritage of gender and migrants is integrated in the Mexican national identity and how this phenomenon is represented in the national contemporary museums? Answers based on case studies.
Paper long abstract:
Historically, museums and Nations were constructed in a similar way and time. The museums are the repositories of the "legitimated culture" of countries. They produced long thoughtful speeches seeking to represent the treasures and the imaginaries of peoples. The identities are mnemonic constructions that had been transformed and negotiated over the time. In Mexico, the consolidation of the Mexican national identity emerges as a Government project in the post-revolutionary period. The political party in charge of this sees in mestizaje the "essence" of the Mexican national identity, leaving out of the discourses the presence of living indigenous peoples as well as Mexican afro heritage. Since then, the politics of representation changed and discourses on national identity were transformed. All this let us think that Mexico has done a lot of work to include the heritage of "los olvidados " in the project of nation. However, the contemporary scenario shows a paradox. The folklorization of traditions lives with the struggle of "new minorities" communities who ask for recognition within the nation. This is the case of women and other sexual minorities as well as migrants. In this talk we will show how heritage of gender and class (migrants) is integrated in the Mexican national identity and how this phenomenon is represented in the national contemporary museums. We will give answers based on case studies.