El patrimonio arqueológico mexicano y la International School of American Archaeology and Ethnology

Resumen

The archaelogical patrimony of Mexico and the International School of American Archaeology and Ethnology

In recent years, the usual narratives in the history of anthropology, especially regarding its founding fathers, have received radical criticism. Although this is written from the present or current context, it does not amount to an unreflective historical presentism, but intends to provide new starting points for this discipline in the face of the twenty-first century and of teaching in anthropology. The historiography of Mexican anthropology has paid scarce attention to the pre-Revolutionary periods and to the activity of the National Museum of Archaeology, History and Ethnology under the government of Porfirio Díaz. Rather, Manuel Gamio, with his Department of Archaeological and Ethnographic Studies (1917), is considered the founding father of scientific anthropology in the country. This essay intends to locate an episode of anthropology in the final years of the Diaz regime. The International School of American Archaeology and Ethnology was created then on the initiative of Franz Boas, with support from the Mexican and Prussian governments and from some U.S. institutions. The first head of the School was Eduard Georg Seler, an Americanist well-known in the central nations, and also a personal and professional friend of Boas’s. In 1911, together with his wife and some of his students, Seler set out on several archaeological expeditions for which, according to the School’s statutes, he received an authorization from the then Department of Inspection and Preservation of Archaeological Monuments. Thus, in March of that year, he visited Palenque, where he discovered mural paintings. Such discovery led to a conflict with Leopoldo Batres, the Inspector and Preserver of Archaeological Monuments. The conflict centered in the discovery and preservation of the paintings. From the horizon of the early twentieth century, this episode, unknown until now in the historiography of Mexican anthropology, highlights problems which still prevail in the current discussions regarding the ethics, policy, and the professional practice of the preservation and rescue of Mexico’s cultural patrimony.