Anthropology and Humanism, Vol. 30, Issue 2, pp 141­155, ISSN 0193-5615, electronic ISSN 1548-1409.
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Embodied Heritage, Identity Politics, and Tourism
HELAINE SILVERMAN
Department of Anthropology
University of Illinois
109 Davenport Hall
Urbana, IL 61801
SUMMARY In this article I interrogate the conjunction of archaeological discovery,
narrational packaging of the past for tourism, and discourses of identity, using as my
example spectacular burials discovered on the north coast of Peru. I argue that the
ancient elite bodies are being manipulated and interpreted within a framework of international
cultural heritage tourism, nationalist ideology, and regional assertions
against the centralized government in Lima. The archaeological discoveries are being
used in their local context to promote economic development around tourism and social
well-being around identity on the basis of a newly valorized archaeological past.
[Keywords: archaeological past, heritage, identity, tourism, Peru]
Introduction
There is currently a widespread Peruvian discourse promoting identity
assertion on the basis of ancient glory and the tourism that extraordinary
archaeological sites can attract (see, e.g., Silverman 2002). In this article I interrogate
the conjunction of archaeological discovery, narrational packaging of the
past for tourism, and discourses of identity. I use as my example the series of
spectacular burials discovered at the site of Sipán in the Lambayeque Valley on
the north coast of Peru. It is the conjunction of cultural heritage tourism with
Peru's late-twentieth-century/early-twenty-first-century discourse of national
identity that is the framework within which Sipán's ancient elite bodies are
being manipulated and interpreted. I argue that the naming of the Sipán rulers
by their discoverer and the popular media has embodied and empowered an
ideology of regionalism in Lambayeque. This ideology seeks to promote economic
development around tourism and social well-being around identity on
the basis of a newly valorized archaeological past. The revival and invention of
a Mochica identity in Lambayeque and the espousal and conscious construction
of "lambayecanidad"--"Lambayequeness" or local Lambayeque identity--are
embedded in larger national and international contexts.
The Sipán Burials
In 1987 archaeologists began to recover at Sipán the intact tombs and
preserved bodies of the rulers of an ancient society known as Moche or
Mochica, which flourished on the north coast of Peru in the first half of the first
millennium A.D. (see Bawden 1996). These finds have received national and
worldwide media attention because they are the richest unlooted burials yet
reported for the New World (see, e.g., Alva 1988). National Geographic has been
especially active in keeping the public informed about the ongoing discoveries.
The magazine's role in constructing popular attitudes toward the past and
toward foreign ("exotic") societies is well known (Lutz and Collins 1993).
Beyond archaeological interest in Sipán, the most fascinating aspect of the
burials, for me, is the naming of the occupants of the excavated tombs.
Beginning with the announcement about the first discovery (Alva 1988) and in
popular and scholarly accounts about subsequent discoveries, the occupants of
Sipán's tombs have been named. The most famous of these burials are the Lord
of Sipán (Alva 1988), Old Lord of Sipán (Alva 1990), and Priest (Alva 1994) (see
Alva 2004 for the most recent discussion of the thirteen excavated tombs and the
Looted Tomb that led to the original archaeological intervention). Once named
by Dr. Walter Alva, their excavator, these individuals acquired new lives as the
known rulers of an ancient Peruvian realm, particularly the Lord of Sipán.
The media immediately seized upon the name, Lord of Sipán. This mute
skeleton became a person, indeed a celebrity, given life as much by the artistry
of National Geographic and concomitant media attention as by archaeological
interpretation. So important did this named ancient person become that in
1993, Peru's former president, Alberto Fujimori, welcomed back from
Germany the conserved skeleton of the Lord of Sipán in a ceremony that
treated the skeleton with the same state honors extended by protocol to any
visiting head-of-state.1 In his speech President Fujimori said: "Ladies and gentlemen,
we greet the return to Peru of the Lord of Sipán, Lord of Lords, with
undescribable joy and pride as Peruvians." At the ceremony, the German
ambassador to Peru replied, saying, "Mr. President, it is a great honor and
pleasure to deliver to you and the Peruvian people the remains of a worldwide
famous Peruvian."
For several days after his return to Peru, the Lord of Sipán lay in state at the
Presidential Palace in Lima--again signaling the national importance of the
body. This event and its discourse of ancestral political genealogy served to
legitimate Fujimori as president and the Peruvian people as a deeply historical
nation-state. But the appropriation was not uncontested. Critics of Fujimori
seized upon the opportunity to mock the president, calling him the "Lord of
Sin Pan" (Caretas, 11 March 1993)--a clever play on Sipán: the president as the
Lord of the Realm of People Without Bread (i.e., food), a president who glorifies
the past and his legitimation from it, but who is unable to feed and employ
millions of poor Peruvians.
At the local level, the people of Lambayeque basked in the privileging
of their region's contribution to the grand civilizational sweep of Peruvian
history. The remains of the Lord of Sipán were greeted by massive crowds when
they were returned to their place of origin. At the Chiclayo airport, in a ceremony
paralleling that in Lima, Walter Alva reiterated the message of the
President saying, "For us, the Peruvian past is not merely inert objects. It is a
vast spiritual presence that nourishes the deep roots of the Peruvian nation."
Alva explained the significance of the actual Lord of Sipán saying that the
remains "are not merely archaeological findings, but the people of Lambayeque
are meeting their own Mochica ancestors."2
142 Anthropology and Humanism Volume 30, Number 2
The Mochica Revival and Local Resistance
Although the major archaeological sites and ancient cultures of Lambayeque
have always been known by local people as a result of the visibility of
the archaeological monuments and public education, until the discovery of the
Lord of Sipán and his ancient counterparts, Lambayecanos were more focused
on their present and future in terms of the region's productive agro-industrial
complex than on the pre-Columbian past. Today, however, Lambayecanos bask
in the privileging of their region's contributions to the grand civilizational
sweep of Peruvian history. Identification with Sipán's rulers and ancient
Mochica culture is running rampant. A private university, a hospital, shops, and
several clubs have adopted the name of "Seor de Sipán." There is also a new
Sipán brand of "King Kong," a traditional large, rectangular, layered cookie with
a sweet fruit filling. An extravaganza called the Sipán Cantata has been performed
since 1990, which combines song, music, dance, and drama to present
the epic story of the Lord of Sipán and praise Mochica cultural achievements.
The Cantata explicitly espouses mestizaje and cultural continuity between the
current population of Lambayeque and the ancient Mochica one. As enunciated
by the group's founder, Edgar Dante, the Cantata serves to "integrate local culture
in the process of continental and universal development" (quoted in La
Industria, 26 June 1999). Dr. Alva, the Cantata's consultant, says that the performance
"exalts the permanent presence of the [Mochica] roots of our nationality"
(quoted in La Industria, 26 June 1999). This invented link to the past became
hyperreal in 2002 when a local politician sought to gain official recognition of the
Cantata as an authentic element of Peru's cultural patrimony. His proposal was
categorically denied by a congressional commission's determination that the
performance was fully of recent origin, notwithstanding its theme (La Industria,
12 March 2002, 28 August 2002). Also, a "Mochica village" of living artisans was
recently established alongside the Royal Tombs of Sipán museum (Figure 1). The
village is intended to present a recreation of Mochica craft activities, as carried
out by "the descendants of this culture" (La Industria, 3 October 2002), as if
Mochica talents had been genetically transmitted across the centuries.3
The local visibility and accessibility of the excavated remains from Sipán
and revival of ancient and traditional crafts surely contribute to popular interest
in and identification with the Mochica in Lambayeque. Editorials in
Chiclayo's newspaper, La Industria, repeatedly emphasize that Lambayeque's
tourism potential rests principally in the discovery of the Lord of Sipán. But I
want to caution that in Lambayeque references were being made to the local
ancient past before the Sipán tombs were discovered. A housing development
called "Los Mochicas" already existed, as did a local musical group called
"Naymlap," after the first king of the Lambayeque Dynasty (see Donnan 1990).
Indeed, throughout Peru the names of ancient cultures and ancient kings are
frequently used iconically in schools, housing developments, sports arenas,
restaurants, manufacturing industries, and stores. Moreover, these names are
translocal (not location specific). So the use of the name Sipán is hardly the first
time that an archaeological name has been appropriated for a civic or commercial
venture in Lambayeque or elsewhere in Peru.
What is noteworthy and different in the case of Sipán, however, is the intensity
and rapidity with which this nomenclatural borrowing has occurred. Sipán
Silverman Embodied Heritage, Identity Politics, and Tourism 143
fervor is overtly linked to a local movement to establish a regional identity
and promote tourism as a competitive response to what is perceived, in
Lambayeque, as a lack of a cultural politics in contrast to the inculcation of
identity in other Peruvian regions, especially Cusco. This discourse mushroomed
in 2000 when, to rectify the perceived disadvantageous situation, the
first "Lambayeque Cultural Identity Week" was organized. The two professors
in charge of this project stated that from ancient times a festival spirit has characterized
the people of Lambayeque and that agriculture, crafts, fishing, and
shamanism still link the past and present. The president of the organizing
committee said that the event sought to create "a space in the calendar of
Lambayeque festivals for the affirmation of our identity" (quoted in La
Industria, 20 August 2000). Lambayeque's "Cultural Identity Week" continues
to be celebrated yearly.
This hyper-Lambayeque ideology is being orchestrated and disseminated
through frequent exhortations in La Industria and by activities undertaken by
schoolteachers and local civic institutions. La Industria publishes news of great
archaeological finds in the region, along with guest editorials, and informs
readers about the nature and locations of identity-affirming activities sponsored
by civic and private entities. In 2002 the newspaper decided to take direct
action by convening a colloquium for its avocational high school journalists
in order to "create awareness about tourism and strengthen the Lambayeque
identity and national identity" (La Industria, 11 August 2002). Professional journalists,
professors, and educated laypeople write frequent editorials in La
Industria arguing that there should be academies of lambayecanidad, professoriates
of lambayecanidad, and agoras of lambayecanidad so that "we are catalyzed
into knowing who we are and how we should elevate lambayecanidad
to the highest category of our identity in concert with all the people of Peru and
the world" (editorial by Estuardo Deza Saldaa in La Industria, 6 August 2000).
144 Anthropology and Humanism Volume 30, Number 2
Figure 1.
Mochica village on the grounds of the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum.
Sipán has been conscripted to this effort of local identity creation. A professor
of pedagogy and history at the national university in Lambayeque, for
instance, argued repeatedly in La Industria that the region's tourist potential lay
principally in the discovery of the Lord of Sipán and also that "around this find
should be generated a good part of the Lambayeque identity" (editorial by
Pedro Delgado Rosado in La Industria, 15 May 2000). President Alejandro
Toledo (who was elected after Alberto Fujimori in June 2001) said, at the inauguration
of the new Sipán museum, "A people without history is a people
without culture, a people without culture is a people without soul, and for this
reason this museum must be visited first by the Lambayecanos" (quoted in La
Industria, 9 November 2002). La Industria (10 November 2002) commented that
"the Lord of Sipán in his new home re-encountered his people, represented
by the different communities [of the Lambayeque region] that came to the
museum the second day it was open." Walter Alva himself said, "The rulers of
Sipán have awoken to bring us a message of their great cultural quality, of their
impressive knowledge about the world and, above all, to show us that the roots
of their society are also ours and are the essence of our identity" (quoted in
El Comercio, 9 November 2002).
Attention to Sipán and the Mochica has facilitated the valorization of
regional identity in Lambayeque, already premised upon Lambayeque's
distinctive cuisine, traditional handicrafts, particular saints, and vernacular
villages such as Morrope, Puerto Eten, and Monsefu. Links to an ancient
Mochica identity are being added to these features and foregrounded. The current
revival of Mochica identity in Lambayeque is particularly interesting since
the indigenous Muchik language died out at the beginning of the twentieth
century, and Mochica culture has all but disappeared save in the faces of some
people, local surnames and toponyms, particular shamanic practices, and the
traditional reed fishing boat. The reinvention of Mochica identity today is
being conducted as a very contemporary project of modernist discourse and
practice.
But we would be severely mistaken if we regarded this affection for the past
as locally unanimous: quite the contrary. In the very town of Sipán, where the
burial mound is located, memory is still quite fresh of the armed struggle
between looters and the police that led to archaeological intervention in the site
and the exclusion of town residents from the mound, thereby cutting off a
much-needed source of income (see details in Kirkpatrick 1992).
Moreover, the new state-of-the-art Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum was not
constructed at Sipán, but rather was built in the town of Lambayeque, more
than thirty-five kilometers from Sipán but just a few minutes from the provincial
capital of Chiclayo. It was inaugurated on 8 November 2002. The Sipán
townsfolk vigorously protested the new museum's location from the time it
was announced, but to no avail. Clearly, the rustic site museum at Sipán
(Figure 2) is unable to compete with the magnificent new facility in
Lambayeque (Figure 3), which displays the fabulous original artifacts from the
tombs and reproduces the burials with the conserved skeletons themselves
(photographs may not be taken inside; for images of the exhibits see
http://www.tumbasreales.org/MAR_SUP.htm ), thereby obviating the
need to see the original locale among all but the most authenticity-seeking
tourists. Place of discovery is superseded by place of representation.
Silverman Embodied Heritage, Identity Politics, and Tourism 145
For all the national and international attention that ancient Sipán has
received, contemporary Sipán still lacks basic infrastructure. Townsfolk have
been insistent in their demands for running water, sewers, paved roads, and
other amenities. Indeed, on 22 September 2001 residents put up roadblocks to
prevent tourists from gaining access to the site so as to draw attention to their
demands. But Walter Alva said, the day after, that although the residents were
right in their demands, their social concerns must not be mixed with scientific
work (quoted in La Industria, 23 September 2001). And herein, of course, lies the
source of conflict and ethical debate. Archaeology should not be removed from
146 Anthropology and Humanism Volume 30, Number 2
Figure 2.
The modest site museum at Sipán where the great Mochica burials were
found.
Figure 3.
The magnificent Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum in the town of Lambayeque,
near Chiclayo.
its social context. The lives of living people must be considered as we investigate
and appropriate the lives of the dead. One of the kiosk owners at Sipán
told me in June 2004 that if Walter Alva excavates again at Sipán the townsfolk
are going to insist that the recovered remains stay in Sipán so that they get
more tourist visits. But, she said, they really do not want him to return at all
because he controls their activities by having declared the ground under and
around their homes an untouchable archaeological zone (zona intangible). And
she continued, "This is not fair; we are poor." They have formed a community
commission to try to protect their interests.
Living alongside an ancient site that yielded incalculable wealth beyond
their reach, the contemporary residents of Sipán, an annex of the Tumán
Agrarian Cooperative, try to get a legal piece of the tourist action by setting up
vernacular service stands alongside the ruin and selling kitschy crafts and the
occasional looted trifle (ancient beads and broken figurines on the day of my
most recent visit) in addition to soda, crackers, and candy (Figure 4). Over the
past few years infrastructural improvements (for instance, electricity) have
begun to be made in and around Sipán by the regional government. These
improvements are necessary because of the poor impression contemporary
Sipán makes on tourists in comparison to its ancient glory. But given the years
of antagonism between the townsfolk of Sipán and the archaeological and
political establishment, and the relocation of the actual remains from their site
of origin to the new museum in the town of Lambayeque, it is difficult to conceive
of the residents of Sipán ever becoming and feeling like stakeholders.
The Legitimating Body
As I consider the zeal with which a multidomain and multimedia discourse
about lambayecanidad is being locally disseminated, I keep returning to the
Silverman Embodied Heritage, Identity Politics, and Tourism 147
Figure 4.
Kiosks of local townsfolk alongside the Sipán archaeological mound.
animating significance of the actual bodies at Sipán. Would the reception of
these tombs have been the same without the actual bodies? I think not. Indeed,
it is not coincidental that the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum is referred to as
"the new house of the Lord of Sipán" (e.g., El Comercio, 26 October 2002) and a
"palace of the Mochica dynasty" (e.g., La Industria, 8 November 2002). In
Walter Alva's words, the new museum is "an appropriate space for a ruler, a
kind of museum and at the same time a mausoleum, where not only are jewels,
emblems and ornaments exhibited that served to forge cultural identity
and establish the rank and power of a ruler of ancient Peru, but also where we
are going to conserve for posterity the remains of this person" (quoted in La
República, 9 November 2002). This discourse is repeated by the museum's well
trained and smartly uniformed tour guides, three of whom enthusiastically
told me, in June 2004, that the museum is not just a museum "but a sacred mausoleum.
The Lord of Sipán is very happy here because everything he did in life
and as confirmed by Mochica iconography indicates that he wanted to be seen
and admired in the next life, and now he is admired internationally. He is
happy here in this other place [the museum], resting and being exhibited."
Furthermore, in Lambayeque interest in Sipán and the Mochica has led to a
resurgence of local interest in the other local ancient cultures. Thus, in 1999, the
group that performs the "Cantata al Seor de Sipán" presented a theatrical
work called "Ode to the God Naymlap," stating that this work reflects the
origins of the local Lambayeque culture. The case of Naymlap is especially
interesting because here we have a historically preserved pre-Hispanic name,
but no body. With Sipán we have no idea what the leaders were actually called,
but we do have their bodies in their tombs. The archaeological Sicán culture
(see Shimada 1981, 1990, 1995, 2000) is also being promoted and counts with its
own fine museum in Ferreafe, similarly not located at the principal archaeological
site. I paraphrase here the comments of Srta. Orly, an enthusiastic young
schoolteacher earning extra money as a waitress at the Hebron Restaurant in
Chiclayo. Upon ascertaining my interest in the region's past, she proceeded to
lecture me on the difference between Sipán and Sicán, identifying herself with
Sicán rather than Sipán by virtue of her original residence in Ferreafe, while
taking pride in all of Lambayeque's prehistory.
The discoveries at Sipán have been locally managed as a brilliant public
relations triumph with major exhibitions of the funerary materials in Lima, the
United States, and Japan. That the town of Lambayeque has been able to gain
possession of the spectacular artifacts and acquire a five-million-dollar state-ofthe-art
museum is remarkable given the strong centralization of archaeology in
Lima. Justifiably, Walter Alva has become a local hero--except at Sipán itself,
according to local people interviewed there--because of the world-class excavation
he has conducted and his dedication to the town of Lambayeque and its
rights to its region's cultural patrimony, including the contribution that his discoveries
make to the economic development of the Lambayeque region and
Peru through the tourism that is attracted. Dr. Alva even appears in children's
cartoon books about Sipán.
Tourism is being managed and promoted locally in Lambayeque, with the
agro-industrial and commercial resources of the region4 providing a strong
base for continued development. The presence at the new museum's inauguration
of the current President of the Republic, Alejandro Toledo, and the First
148 Anthropology and Humanism Volume 30, Number 2
Lady, as well as cabinet ministers, national dignitaries, numerous foreign
ambassadors, and international businessmen, indicates how very important
this ancient assemblage is to the future of Lambayeque and the nation-state.
In this matter of the relationship between the museum and tourism in
Lambayeque, I am reminded of Bruner's keen observation:
Museums preserve; tourism markets. . . . Both museums and tourism are engaged in
the production and exhibition of culture, and both depend upon an audience. . . .
Both are in the business of representing the culture of others, usually those who have
lived in another time or in another place. Both must construct and hence invent what
they display. Both . . . valorize some [objects] as worthy of exhibition. Both are
engaged in the enterprise of informing, educating, and entertaining an audience.
Both museums and touristic sites have themselves been constructed in a
particular social context and historical period, and are embedded in the politics of
their settings . . . both museum and tourism are the result of travel, as the objects, the
traditions, and the visitors all travel, to and from the site. [1993:6]
Comparisons
A couple of valleys to the south of Lambayeque, in Jequetepeque, the intact
tomb of a female officiant of the local Mochica court was discovered in 1991
(Donnan and Castillo 1992). She has been named "The Priestess" by her excavators
and is referred to as such by local people. Indeed, the Mochica Priestess
has been seized upon by the nearby small town of Chepén as the vehicle for its
own claim to attention on the national and international tourist stage. A statue
of the Priestess has been erected at the entrance to town (Figure 5), depicting
this archaeological skeleton in fully fleshed form, and local people are now
talking about themselves as descendants of the Mochica. The Priestess is said
to be the "novia" (bride) of the Lord of Sipán (Krzysztof Makowski, personal
communication).
But in the eponymous Moche Valley, a strong discourse about the past is
largely absent, even though the greatest pan-regional Mochica capital city
(Huaca del Sol-Huaca de la Luna) is located here and extraordinary Mochica discoveries
are being made on a regular basis, from exquisite murals (Uceda et al.
1994) to ancient massacres (Bourget 2001). And on the other (north) side of the
Moche River, on the outskirts of the contemporary city of Trujillo, lie the spectacular
ruins of the vast mud-walled city of Chan Chan, former capital of the
Chimu Empire, historical successors to the Mochica (Moseley and Day 1982).
Why are Mochica and Chimu not an evident part of daily discourse and public
ideology in Trujillo, as Mochica is in Lambayeque? This question is all the more
perplexing because Trujillo has long been a tourist city owing to the colonial
architectural fabric of its historic center, the grandeur and accessibility of Chan
Chan, and now Huaca de la Luna with its stunning polychrome friezes and
recently revealed architectural complexity. Moreover, Trujillo needs tourism far
more for its economic well-being than the richer city of Chiclayo and the larger
and more fertile Lambayeque Valley. I think that Trujillo's fabulous preColumbian
architecture is trumped by the human remains and funerary contexts
removed from the small mound at Sipán and housed in the town of Lambayeque.
These comparisons may be extended. For instance, at Paracas, on the south
coast, in the late 1920s, the discovery of dozens of elite men, perfectly
Silverman Embodied Heritage, Identity Politics, and Tourism 149
preserved in their exquisite ritual garments, provoked no interest in them as
persons, only in their fabulous paraphernalia (see Tello 1959; Tello and Mejía
Xesspe 1979). There was no clamor on the south coast or nationally that at
Paracas were buried the earliest known rulers of ancient Peru. Indeed, once
Peruvian archaeologists had opened the two-thousand-year-old mummy bundles,
the skeletons were quickly separated from their glorious textile wrappings
and the human remains received no further attention.
And in 1946, in the Virú Valley on the north coast, William Duncan Strong
(1947) discovered a rich Mochica tomb containing the remains of an individual
he named the Warrior-God, replete with an exceptionally fine array of funerary
goods. The body, however, disintegrated immediately upon exposure to
the air. But I suspect that the skeleton would have received no further attention,
even if it had survived, because Julio C. Tello, then Peru's leading archaeologist,
was more upset with the fact that a North American project had made
a find of great objects, than that they had recovered actual evidence of an
ancient Mochica lord, known only iconographically until that time (letter from
Julio C. Tello to Toribio Mejía Xesspe, 9 November 1946, photocopy in possession
of the author).
Moreover, despite the important discovery by Izumi Shimada (2000) of an
extraordinarily wealthy post-Mochica Sicán culture tomb (the East Tomb) at
150 Anthropology and Humanism Volume 30, Number 2
Figure 5.
Statue of the Mochica Priestess in Chepén.
Batan Grande in the Lambayeque region itself, the superb National Sicán
Museum he was instrumental in creating in Ferreafe to house the fabulous
excavated archaeological material as well as the museum's outstanding exhibition
script covering the whole prehistory of the region (much of it revealed by
Dr. Shimada's long-term research), and the local creation in Ferreafe of a
Cantata del Seor de Sicán, this archaeological culture and excellent museum
have not attracted the same degree of attention as Sipán. The public, popular
media, and tourism industry appear unable to concentrate on more than one
great ancient lord at a time, in this case the Lord of Sipán discovered by Walter
Alva.5
Analysis
Like many nation-states, Peru has deployed its magnificent archaeological
past at particular moments and for specific political purposes (see, e.g.,
Silverman 1999). But the social and political realities of Peru prior to recent
years were such that a true genealogical connection with indigenous civilizations
and indigenous people was eschewed. Indeed, it was only a decade ago
that the wall between the adjacent National Museum of Anthropology and
Archaeology and the National Museum of History in Lima was broken
through so that a continuous developmental narrative could be told about
Peru. The widely perceived and structurally propagated disjunction between
Peru's past and present may account for the object-focused interest in the great
mummy bundles at Paracas and the Tomb of the Warrior-God in Virú at the
time of their discoveries.
Also, in part, we may understand the current appreciation of Sipán's burials
in terms of advances in Mochica iconographic analysis (references too numerous
to cite here) and the contemporary engagement of archaeology with
particular theoretical paradigms of personhood, legitimation, and materiality
(again, references too numerous to cite here). Thus, although William Duncan
Strong (1947) explicitly stated that the old man buried in the Virú Valley tomb
was a priest, a warrior, and the impersonator of a Mochica god, Strong did not
theorize his conclusion and his idea received no further discussion. But today's
archaeological discourse emphasizes that Sipán and other newly discovered
related burials demonstrate that Mochica iconography was depicting individuals
who fulfilled in life the ritual roles portrayed on pottery. Indeed, Sipán
seems to be claimed as the first evidence of such a link, disregarding earlier
work.
But, returning to this article's central contention, I think the most salient
reason explaining why Sipán is having such great regional and national impact
is that the preserved occupants of the tombs have been named: Lord of Sipán,
Old Lord of Sipán, The Priest, and, at San José de Moro, The Priestess. Through
massive public attention these inert skeletons have morphed into today's
celebrities and cultural icons.
Conclusions
Case studies from around the world demonstrate that a discourse about the
past and the practice of archaeology may intersect to play important roles in
Silverman Embodied Heritage, Identity Politics, and Tourism 151
nation-building (see, e.g., Kohl and Fawcett 1995). Arguably, the most salient
of these cases is the story of Masada for Israel (Bruner and Gorfain 1984).
Although Peru lacks a single narrative of this transcendence, archaeology--
understood broadly--in Peru contributes significantly to various contemporary
projects, from the construction of national and local identities to economic
development (e.g., Silverman 2002).
Throughout time and around the world, particular dead bodies have
enjoyed a political life (see, especially, Verdery 1999), whether Evita Perón,
Lenin, Rameses II,6 or the mummies of Inca kings. The Sipán burials are particularly
interesting as a site of contested and negotiated performances. But
why have the Sipán burials become such potent symbols now? Why have the
ancient Sipán dead been named, personalized, and paraded? Why have they
been adopted so enthusiastically by so many Lambayecanos? Why were they
important to two successive Peruvian presidents?
On the local level, the visibility and accessibility of the excavated remains
from Sipán, and other archaeological sites in the Lambayeque region, contribute
to interest in and identification with the ancient Mochica. The naming
of the Sipán burials and their popularization have literally embodied and
empowered an ideology of regionalism in Lambayeque. This ideology seeks to
promote local economic development through tourism and social well-being
around identification with a newly valorized archaeological past. The ideology
is animated by newspaper campaigns and a range of civic activities. At the
same time, the agro-industrial and commercial wealth of Chiclayo and its
surrounding region is significantly underwriting this effort.
Moreover, the burials themselves are localized. They were found alongside
a contemporary village. This contrasts significantly with the recent discovery
of another, now world famous, ancient Peruvian: Juanita, the young woman
sacrificed by the Incas atop one of the highest mountains in the Andean range
(Reinhard 1996). Here, too, a name was conferred on the anonymous deceased,
leading to the humanization of the victim in this formerly sacrosanct burial.
However, there is no local community to claim and appropriate Juanita for the
purpose of a neo-Inca identity formation nor can adventure tourism to sacred
peaks promote the kind of mass tourism occurring in Lambayeque.7
Beyond this local framework, there is the national position of Lambayeque as
it asserts itself among commensurate regions elsewhere in Peru and with regard
to the highly centralized government in Lima. Ancient Sipán underwrites local
calls to strengthen local identity and promote tourism as a competitive response
to what is perceived as a lack of cultural politics in Lambayeque, in contrast to
the inculcation of identity in other Peruvian departments, especially Cusco, seat
of the ancient Inca Empire. Former President Alberto Fujimori's attention to the
returning Lord of Sipán was an attempt to assert national influence over the
region while seeking to bolster his own position within the country and inter-
nationally.
On the international playing field, attention to Sipán enhances the standing
of Peru among the community of world nations. The serendipitous discovery
of the Sipán burials and Lambayeque's appropriation of the ancient Mochica
people coincides with the growing insertion of the north coast and the entire
country of Peru into the globalized tourist industry and globalized world economy
overall. Thus, a strong recursive relationship between the local and the
152 Anthropology and Humanism Volume 30, Number 2
transnational is created and reiterated. Moreover, although subordinated to the
International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and other similar institutions of the
developed world, Peru nevertheless is able to flaunt itself on the global stage
by the display of its spectacular archaeological treasures, particularly mobile
ones such as the Lord of Sipán who has toured the world. Indeed, the Lord
of Sipán has been described as "the ambassador of our prehispanic culture"
(El Comercio, 8 November 2002). Thus, at the inauguration of the new Sipán
museum, President Alejandro Toledo stated, "I assume the obligation . . . of
showing the world the greatness of our history and selling--in the best sense
of the word--the image of the Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum so that three
million tourists arrive by 2006" (quoted in La Industria, 9 November 2002).
The dead political bodies of Sipán are active social actors in local affairs,
national relationships, and foreign dealings at a time of significant change
and ongoing political and economic difficulties in Peru. Attention to these
dead bodies recognizes and interrogates their importance in contemporary
society.
Notes
1. The return of the remains of the Lord of Sipán was widely reported in Peru in the
print and televised news, and a television documentary was made. The remarks by
President Fujimori and the German ambassador quoted here were transcribed from the
television documentary and then translated by me. All other Spanish language quotes
have also been translated by me for this article.
2. Statements transcribed from the same television documentary and then translated
by me.
3. The Mochica village was the idea of Walter Alva and Susana Meneses, Walter
Alva's first wife and longtime collaborator; she died in 2002. Dr. Alva's son, Ignacio
Alva Meneses, designed the village. It is composed of eight buildings of differing size,
each based on ancient Mochica patterns and decorated with Mochica wall paintings.
I interviewed one of the artisans in the village, Sra. Rosa Chapoán Valdera, from
Morrope. She says she is grateful for the opportunity offered to her and other artisans,
several of whom are also from Morrope but who now live in Lambayeque and Chiclayo.
She says that she and many of her family and friends feel an identity with the ancient
Mochica and she describes this identity as providing "a happier life in which one eats
with one's children . . . One prepares cancha [popcorn] toasted in the sand just as the
Mochica did, chicha [maize beer]--the same as was drank by the Lord of Sipán, chinguirito
[fish macerated with chicha], and my ninety-year-old grandmother weaves
cotton just as the ancient ones did. Iťs a pretty tradition."
4. The Lambayeque region has been a center of cultural and political development
for more than three thousand years. The contiguity of rivers here creates an exceptionally
rich agricultural complex. Indeed, in the late twentieth century this region
accounted for almost one-third of the cultivated land on the entire Peruvian coast.
Lambayeque is a Colonial Period town built over an indigenous settlement. It used to
be the power center in the region because it had the port. But with the opening up of the
Pan-American Highway in the 1940s Chiclayo became an important commercial city,
growing from about 100,000 inhabitants at that time to at least half a million today.
Urbanization is fast joining the town of Lambayeque (population, approximately 51,000
in 1995) to the progressive, bustling city of Chiclayo.
5. Another factor may be confusion among the public between Sipán and Sicán.
6. An article online in Forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/2002/08/13/
0813hot_print.html) states that in 1974 "Egyptologists at the Cairo Museum noticed that
the mummy's condition was getting worse rapidly. They decided to fly Rameses II to
Paris so that a team of experts could give the mummy a medical examination. . . .
Rameses II was issued an Egyptian passport that listed his occupation as `King
(deceased).'"
Silverman Embodied Heritage, Identity Politics, and Tourism 153
7. The Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum is now a major tourist destination for international,
national, and local tourists. In June 2004 I saw lines of visitors waiting to enter
the museum, and Chiclayo's best hotel (Gran Hotel Chiclayo) appeared full to judge by
its crowded restaurant and the tour buses outside.
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