Artifactual Surface and the Limits of Inclusion: Blurring the Boundary Between Materiality and Intangible Heritage

This article explores a central tension in the relationship between intangible and tangible heritage politics in the Oriente region of the Mexican state of Yucatan. In these communities, the burning of candles in colonial-era churches and the re-occupation of sites that contain pre-Hispanic ruins have played important roles in the reproduction of certain elements of intangible cultural heritage. However, both of these practices involve alterations of archaeological sites or historical artifacts that federal heritage authorities characterize as “destructive.” The seemingly insurmountable tension between intangible heritage that is instantiated through the manipulation of physical objects and the formal statutes for tangible heritage management raises important questions about the boundaries between the human and non-human dimensions of heritage practice.