Pablo Garcia

PABLO GARCIA, Independent Scholar, Elizondo, Spain, was awarded funding in October 2019, was awarded funding to aid research on “Temporalities of Andean Heritage Landscapes.” This project addresses the conflicting temporalities of Andean heritage landscapes subject to processes of patrimonialization and “puesta en valor” (enhancement) for tourism consumption. More specifically, it is an ethnographic inquiry into the Quechua category of muyuy with reference to how time is understood through the material world and use of space in the community of Chinchero (Cuzco, Peru). Moreover, it looks at muyuy and its potential to destabilise current mainstream models of heritage conservation deemed inadequate on the grounds of their discrepancy with native sensitivities towards heritage, history, and material culture. The concept of muyuy encodes notions of rotation, circulation and alternation, and can therefore be useful in developing new models for the management of archaeological sites in this iconic region of the Andes. Above all, it can help site/project managers to conceptualize these spaces differently, by departing from mainstream paradigms and practices of heritage conservation that do violence to indigenous views and understandings of time and space.