Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Yucatan, Mexico was home to the last great Mayan cities. Places such as Mayapan, Chichen Itza, and Dzibilchaltun, in the heartland of Yucatan, were home to thousands of people and feature some of the most inventive and beautiful examples of Mayan art and architecture. To the ancient Maya each of these cities was, in its own time, the center of the world. Today, these places, along with the museums that exhibit their art and artifacts, are centers of Yucatan’s thriving tourist economy. This paper reviews the contexts of display practices in two museums that currently house and exhibit material culture from each of these sites. These museums include the “Gran Museo del Mundo Maya” (the Great Museum of the Maya World) located in Merida, Yucatan and the site museum located on the archaeological grounds of Dzibilchaltun. Ultimately, I argue that contexts of display and museum location permit and restrict certain access in manners that either benefit or obstruct contemporary indigenous ownership over thier own history. I have found that although large museums in the Yucatan preserve the ancient Maya past, this past has been effectively distanced from local indigenous communities and re-centered for the consumption of foreign visitors.