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.