R. Tripp Evans. 2004. Romancing the Maya: Mexican Antiquity in the American Imagination 1820-1915. University of Texas Press, Austin. ISBN 0-292-70247. 162 pages, notes, bibliography, index.
Owning Mexico's Past
The book Romancing the Maya is about ownership of the past. In 1821, Mexico became independent from Spain, and among the first travellers there from the United States were antiquarians. We are luck in some respects. The rich white travelers with passable diplomatic credentials such as John Lloyd Stevens, Frederick Catherwood, Desire Charnay, and Augustus Le Plongeon used the latest recording methods as they wandered through the wrecks and ruins of the Mexican past, such as camera lucida, three-dimensional photography, and papier-mache molds, a legacy not to be sneezed at.
Underlying all these efforts, however, was a compulsion to own Mexico's past. All of the men discussed in Evans' text moved pieces of architecture or artifacts back to the United States. At one point Stephens "bought Copan" for $50; Evans speculates that he may have intended to move the Maya temple home to New York, to live in it, much as American industrialists bought up European castles to live in back home. That didn't happen.
Underlying all these efforts, however, was a compulsion to own Mexico's past. All of the men discussed in Evans' text moved pieces of architecture or artifacts back to the United States. At one point Stephens "bought Copan" for $50; Evans speculates that he may have intended to move the Maya temple home to New York, to live in it, much as American industrialists bought up European castles to live in back home. That didn't happen.
Provocative and Insightful
But even apart from the physical pieces of the Mexican archaeology and architecture, these explorers wanted to own the idea of Mexico's past, to stamp it separate from both European classical architectural traditions, and from the indigenous people of Mexico. Included in the book is a discussion of Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, whose imagined Book of the Mormon draws so much from the architecture and culture of Latin America; as well as the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, where a reconstructed Ruins of Yucatan was on display.
This is an intriguing book and I think a rather important one, for all of us who think about the past and study cultures not our own. Liberally illustrated with historic photos and drawings of the ruins, and including extensive foot notes and a bibliography, Romancing the Maya is a provocative and insightful addition to anybody's bookshelf.
This is an intriguing book and I think a rather important one, for all of us who think about the past and study cultures not our own. Liberally illustrated with historic photos and drawings of the ruins, and including extensive foot notes and a bibliography, Romancing the Maya is a provocative and insightful addition to anybody's bookshelf.
