Sandra Rozental | El Colegio de México (original) (raw)
Uploads
Papers by Sandra Rozental
Las Luchas por la memoria contra las violencias en México. El Colegio de México, 2024
Eduardo Abaroa: Total Destruction of the National Anthropology Museum., 2017
Museum Anthropology Review, Feb 1, 2008
Historia y Grafía
Esta reseña analiza los aportes del libro Historia del columpio del historiador Javier Moscoso
Anthropological Quarterly, 2016
San Miguel Coatlinchan, a town 35 miles east of Mexico City, became famous following an episode o... more San Miguel Coatlinchan, a town 35 miles east of Mexico City, became famous following an episode of state-perpetrated dispossession. In 1964, the Mexican state enforced its legal claim to pre-Hispanic material culture as national property by removing a colossal pre-Hispanic monolith from its lands and transporting it to the capital’s National Anthropology Museum. Ever since, the stone sculpture that represents an ancient rain deity has stood at the entrance of the museum as an emblem of Mexico’s ancestral indigenous heritage or patrimonio. For the residents of Coatlinchan, however, the monolith’s removal brought about ecological and social disruptions: drought and other forms of scarcity which profoundly altered their town and its surrounding landscape. In this article, I draw on an ecological framework to explore the productive effects of dispossession and absence in Coatlinchan. Rather than analyzing its residents’ loss as that of a bounded artifact, I argue that material traces from the pre-Hispanic past are embedded within and integral to webs of environmental, material, and social relations that are essential for the production and reproduction of life itself.
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 2016
Fraser Valley Patrimony and patrimonialization have long served as key vectors of postcolonial st... more Fraser Valley Patrimony and patrimonialization have long served as key vectors of postcolonial statecraft in Latin America. Stewardship of monuments and cultural practices has thus done much to underwrite legislation, bureaucratic structures, and forms of knowledge essential to modern nation-states and transnational programs like UNESCO World Heritage initiatives. Meanwhile, and most recently, growth in leisure tourism and the heritage industry has spurred a proliferation of strategies for promoting patrimony (Babb 2010; Guerrón 2014; Hill and Tanaka 2015; Little 2004). In much scholarship on heritage, however, living traditions and their reproduction tend to be associated with so-called intangible patrimonies, or folkloric practices, knowledges, and cultural forms. Such intangible patrimony is often counterposed to monuments and buildings (Arzipe and Ames
Encartes, 2022
La extracción y el traslado del monolito prehispánico conocido como Tláloc de San Miguel Coatlinc... more La extracción y el traslado del monolito prehispánico conocido como Tláloc de San Miguel Coatlinchan al Museo Nacional de Antropología en 1964 quedaron plasmados mediante la producción, la circulación, el acomodo y el resguardo de diferentes tipos de imágenes. Estas imágenes han sido organizadas mediante procesos de montaje que buscan fijar el suceso y que, por ende, son también políticos. Siguiendo la invitación de Roland Barthes de “escuchar” las imágenes para acceder a su “sentido obtuso”, recurro a la práctica etnográfica para atender las resonancias y los enjambres afectivos que no se ciñen a los bordes de sus encuadres y que interrumpen sus ordenamientos lógico-temporales.
Museum Matters, 2021
cross from the gates leading to the Bosque de Chapultepec, on the sidewalk flanking Paseo de la R... more cross from the gates leading to the Bosque de Chapultepec, on the sidewalk flanking Paseo de la Reforma, a pre-Hispanic monolith stands watch over Mexico City (figure 10.1). Unlike the vestiges of temples and buildings that have become urban archaeological sites, such as Tlatelolco or the Templo Mayor, and unlike objects excavated from plazas and avenues, such as the Piedra del Sol or the Coatlicue, this urban ruin was not excavated in ancient Tenochtitlan. It was through an impressive engineering feat that, in 1964, the 167-ton carved stone monolith was brought from its original location to its new Mexico City abode. Before then, it was lying in a ravine in San Miguel Coatlinchan, a town in the Municipio de Texcoco, Estado de México, some thirty miles from its current location. It had lain there for centuries, partially covered by the sediments from rivers that flowed from the Valley of Mexico's mountains and volcanoes into Lake Texcoco. The colossal anthropomorphic figure has been on its feet for over fifty years, buttressed by steel beams and standing seven meters tall in the middle of a circular fountain. Surrounded by greenish water and shaded by the eucalyptus trees lining the museum's gardens, the sculpture watches over the city's hustle and bustle. Many now know it as the Aztec rain deity Tlaloc, although it was probably carved much prior, around 500-800 CE. In view of its longevity-first as volcanic rock formed in the Pleistocene, then as \\ 10
Alteridades, Jul 27, 2018
Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture, 2020
Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture, vol 2, no. 4, 2020
This collection of essays reconsiders a seminal 1961 article by George Kubler, the most important... more This collection of essays reconsiders a seminal 1961 article by George Kubler, the most important art historian of Latin America of the English-speaking world at the time of its writing. Often greeted with indifference or hostility, Kubler’s central claim of extinction is still a highly contested one. The essays in this section deal with Kubler’s reception in Mexico,the political stakes of his claim in relation to indigeneity, as well as the utility of Kubler’s categories and objects of“extinction” beyond their original framing paradigm.
Esta colección de ensayos reconsidera un artículo fundamental de 1961 de George Kubler, quien, al publicarse el volumen, fue el historiador del arte latinoamericano más importante del mundo de habla inglesa. A menudo recibida con indiferencia u hostilidad, la tesis de Kubler sobre la extinción sigue siendo controvertida. Los ensayos de esta sección abordan la recepción de Kubler en México, las implicaciones políticas de su afirmación en relación con la indigeneidad, ası ́como la utilidad de las categoríaas de Kubler y los objetos de “extinción” más alla ́de su paradigma original.
Esta coleção de ensaios reconsidera um artigo seminal de 1961 de George Kubler, então o mais importante historiador da arte da América Latina no mundo anglófono. Frequentemente recebido com indiferença ou hostilidade, o argumento central de Kubler para a extinção permanece altamente contestado. Os ensaios nesta seção tratam da recepção de Kubler no México, os riscos políticos do seu argumento em relação á indigeneidade, bem como a utilidade das categorias e objetos de “extinção” de Kubler além de seu paradigma de enquadramento original.
The Routledge Companion to Cultural Property, ed. Haidy Geismar and Jane Anderson, 2017
San Miguel Coatlinchan, a town 35 miles east of Mexico City, became famous following an episode o... more San Miguel Coatlinchan, a town 35 miles east of Mexico City, became famous following an episode of state-perpetrated dispossession. In 1964, the Mexican state enforced its legal claim to pre-Hispanic material culture as national property by removing a colossal pre-Hispanic monolith from its lands and transporting it to the capital's National Anthropology Museum. Ever since, the stone sculpture that represents an ancient rain deity has stood at the entrance of the museum as an emblem of Mexico's ancestral indigenous heritage or patrimonio. For the residents of Coatlinchan, however , the monolith's removal brought about ecological and social disruptions: drought and other forms of scarcity which profoundly altered their town and its surrounding landscape. In this article, I draw on an ecological framework to explore the productive effects of dispossession and absence in Coatlinchan. Rather than analyzing its residents' loss as that of a bounded artifact, I argue that material traces from the pre-Hispanic past are embedded within and integral to webs of environmental, material, and social relations that are essential for the production and reproduction of life itself. [
Las Luchas por la memoria contra las violencias en México. El Colegio de México, 2024
Eduardo Abaroa: Total Destruction of the National Anthropology Museum., 2017
Museum Anthropology Review, Feb 1, 2008
Historia y Grafía
Esta reseña analiza los aportes del libro Historia del columpio del historiador Javier Moscoso
Anthropological Quarterly, 2016
San Miguel Coatlinchan, a town 35 miles east of Mexico City, became famous following an episode o... more San Miguel Coatlinchan, a town 35 miles east of Mexico City, became famous following an episode of state-perpetrated dispossession. In 1964, the Mexican state enforced its legal claim to pre-Hispanic material culture as national property by removing a colossal pre-Hispanic monolith from its lands and transporting it to the capital’s National Anthropology Museum. Ever since, the stone sculpture that represents an ancient rain deity has stood at the entrance of the museum as an emblem of Mexico’s ancestral indigenous heritage or patrimonio. For the residents of Coatlinchan, however, the monolith’s removal brought about ecological and social disruptions: drought and other forms of scarcity which profoundly altered their town and its surrounding landscape. In this article, I draw on an ecological framework to explore the productive effects of dispossession and absence in Coatlinchan. Rather than analyzing its residents’ loss as that of a bounded artifact, I argue that material traces from the pre-Hispanic past are embedded within and integral to webs of environmental, material, and social relations that are essential for the production and reproduction of life itself.
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 2016
Fraser Valley Patrimony and patrimonialization have long served as key vectors of postcolonial st... more Fraser Valley Patrimony and patrimonialization have long served as key vectors of postcolonial statecraft in Latin America. Stewardship of monuments and cultural practices has thus done much to underwrite legislation, bureaucratic structures, and forms of knowledge essential to modern nation-states and transnational programs like UNESCO World Heritage initiatives. Meanwhile, and most recently, growth in leisure tourism and the heritage industry has spurred a proliferation of strategies for promoting patrimony (Babb 2010; Guerrón 2014; Hill and Tanaka 2015; Little 2004). In much scholarship on heritage, however, living traditions and their reproduction tend to be associated with so-called intangible patrimonies, or folkloric practices, knowledges, and cultural forms. Such intangible patrimony is often counterposed to monuments and buildings (Arzipe and Ames
Encartes, 2022
La extracción y el traslado del monolito prehispánico conocido como Tláloc de San Miguel Coatlinc... more La extracción y el traslado del monolito prehispánico conocido como Tláloc de San Miguel Coatlinchan al Museo Nacional de Antropología en 1964 quedaron plasmados mediante la producción, la circulación, el acomodo y el resguardo de diferentes tipos de imágenes. Estas imágenes han sido organizadas mediante procesos de montaje que buscan fijar el suceso y que, por ende, son también políticos. Siguiendo la invitación de Roland Barthes de “escuchar” las imágenes para acceder a su “sentido obtuso”, recurro a la práctica etnográfica para atender las resonancias y los enjambres afectivos que no se ciñen a los bordes de sus encuadres y que interrumpen sus ordenamientos lógico-temporales.
Museum Matters, 2021
cross from the gates leading to the Bosque de Chapultepec, on the sidewalk flanking Paseo de la R... more cross from the gates leading to the Bosque de Chapultepec, on the sidewalk flanking Paseo de la Reforma, a pre-Hispanic monolith stands watch over Mexico City (figure 10.1). Unlike the vestiges of temples and buildings that have become urban archaeological sites, such as Tlatelolco or the Templo Mayor, and unlike objects excavated from plazas and avenues, such as the Piedra del Sol or the Coatlicue, this urban ruin was not excavated in ancient Tenochtitlan. It was through an impressive engineering feat that, in 1964, the 167-ton carved stone monolith was brought from its original location to its new Mexico City abode. Before then, it was lying in a ravine in San Miguel Coatlinchan, a town in the Municipio de Texcoco, Estado de México, some thirty miles from its current location. It had lain there for centuries, partially covered by the sediments from rivers that flowed from the Valley of Mexico's mountains and volcanoes into Lake Texcoco. The colossal anthropomorphic figure has been on its feet for over fifty years, buttressed by steel beams and standing seven meters tall in the middle of a circular fountain. Surrounded by greenish water and shaded by the eucalyptus trees lining the museum's gardens, the sculpture watches over the city's hustle and bustle. Many now know it as the Aztec rain deity Tlaloc, although it was probably carved much prior, around 500-800 CE. In view of its longevity-first as volcanic rock formed in the Pleistocene, then as \\ 10
Alteridades, Jul 27, 2018
Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture, 2020
Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture, vol 2, no. 4, 2020
This collection of essays reconsiders a seminal 1961 article by George Kubler, the most important... more This collection of essays reconsiders a seminal 1961 article by George Kubler, the most important art historian of Latin America of the English-speaking world at the time of its writing. Often greeted with indifference or hostility, Kubler’s central claim of extinction is still a highly contested one. The essays in this section deal with Kubler’s reception in Mexico,the political stakes of his claim in relation to indigeneity, as well as the utility of Kubler’s categories and objects of“extinction” beyond their original framing paradigm.
Esta colección de ensayos reconsidera un artículo fundamental de 1961 de George Kubler, quien, al publicarse el volumen, fue el historiador del arte latinoamericano más importante del mundo de habla inglesa. A menudo recibida con indiferencia u hostilidad, la tesis de Kubler sobre la extinción sigue siendo controvertida. Los ensayos de esta sección abordan la recepción de Kubler en México, las implicaciones políticas de su afirmación en relación con la indigeneidad, ası ́como la utilidad de las categoríaas de Kubler y los objetos de “extinción” más alla ́de su paradigma original.
Esta coleção de ensaios reconsidera um artigo seminal de 1961 de George Kubler, então o mais importante historiador da arte da América Latina no mundo anglófono. Frequentemente recebido com indiferença ou hostilidade, o argumento central de Kubler para a extinção permanece altamente contestado. Os ensaios nesta seção tratam da recepção de Kubler no México, os riscos políticos do seu argumento em relação á indigeneidade, bem como a utilidade das categorias e objetos de “extinção” de Kubler além de seu paradigma de enquadramento original.
The Routledge Companion to Cultural Property, ed. Haidy Geismar and Jane Anderson, 2017
San Miguel Coatlinchan, a town 35 miles east of Mexico City, became famous following an episode o... more San Miguel Coatlinchan, a town 35 miles east of Mexico City, became famous following an episode of state-perpetrated dispossession. In 1964, the Mexican state enforced its legal claim to pre-Hispanic material culture as national property by removing a colossal pre-Hispanic monolith from its lands and transporting it to the capital's National Anthropology Museum. Ever since, the stone sculpture that represents an ancient rain deity has stood at the entrance of the museum as an emblem of Mexico's ancestral indigenous heritage or patrimonio. For the residents of Coatlinchan, however , the monolith's removal brought about ecological and social disruptions: drought and other forms of scarcity which profoundly altered their town and its surrounding landscape. In this article, I draw on an ecological framework to explore the productive effects of dispossession and absence in Coatlinchan. Rather than analyzing its residents' loss as that of a bounded artifact, I argue that material traces from the pre-Hispanic past are embedded within and integral to webs of environmental, material, and social relations that are essential for the production and reproduction of life itself. [
Antropologías visuales latinoamericanas: genealogías, investigación y enseñanza, 2024
Capítulo 5 Antropología de los medios de comunicación en Latinoamérica: comunidades, involucramie... more Capítulo 5 Antropología de los medios de comunicación en Latinoamérica: comunidades, involucramientos y compromisos culturales en la era digital. .
Antes de América: Fuentes originarias en la cultura moderna, 2023
El Tiempo de las Ruinas, ed. Mario Rufer y Cristobal Gnecco, 2023
Título: El tiempo de las ruinas / Cristóbal Gnecco y Mario Rufer (edición académica y compilación).
Museum Matters. Making and Unmaking Mexico's National Collections, 2021
This is a book about objects. Stones, ruins, bones, mummies, mannequins, statues, photographs, fa... more This is a book about objects. Stones, ruins, bones, mummies, mannequins, statues, photographs, fakes, instruments, and natural history specimens all formed part of Mexico’s National Museum complex at different moments across two centuries of collecting and display.
Museum Matters traces the emergence, consolidation, and dispersal of this national museum complex by telling the stories of its objects. Objects that have been separated over time are brought back together in this book in order to shed light on the interactions and processes that have forged things into symbols of science, aesthetics, and politics. The contributors to this volume illuminate how collections came into being or ceased to exist over time, or how objects moved in and out of collections and museum spaces. They explore what it means to move things physically and spatially, as well as conceptually and symbolically.
Museum Matters unravels the concept of the national museum. By unmaking the spaces, frameworks, and structures that form the complicated landscape of national museums, this volume brings a new way to understand the storage, displays, and claims about the Mexican nation’s collections today.
Entangled Heritages: Postcolonial Perspectives on the Uses of the Past in Latin America, Routledge, 2016., 2016
Boletín del Colegio de Etnólogos y Antropólogos Sociales, 2021
Este texto reflexiona sobre la experiencia de los primeros cinco años del 'Taller de Etnografía e... more Este texto reflexiona sobre la experiencia de los primeros cinco años del 'Taller de Etnografía en y desde México', organizado desde el Colegio de México y la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana - Unidad Cuajimalpa. El taller tiene por objeto comentar e intervenir trabajos en proceso desde una óptica que refleje la diversidad de formas y potenciales que toma la etnografía en tanto ejercicio singular de reflexión y escritura colectiva. Esto incluye tanto la co-producción con informantes/sujetos etnográficos como con colegas, lectores, y co-autores desde diversos ámbitos. La motivación original del taller fue trascender el faccionalismo y la introspección que caracterizan a la antropología mexicana mediante una agenda con horizontes abiertos: internacionales, trans-regionales y abierta a temáticas y perspectivas teóricas múltiples.
CAA, 2022
Much of the literature engaging the repatriation of museum collections has focused on claims made... more Much of the literature engaging the repatriation of museum collections has focused on claims made by postcolonial nation-states, or by Indigenous communities in settler-colonial contexts such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Latin America, specifically, has been relatively absent from these debates because of the enduring legacies of Indigenism as a key politics of nation making, justifying the appropriation of Indigenous cultural production in favor of the nation. The very few instances of repatriation in the region have been negotiated between specific museums and private collectors, who have returned objects to countries of origin, rather than through centralized state-led policies. In even fewer cases, artifacts and human remains have been returned not to national governments but to the communities from which they were removed. In 2022, in an unprecedented act of recognition and restitution within a contemporary Latin American nation, the Chilean National Museum of Natural History returned a Moai, one of Rapa Nui´s iconic stone monuments, to the island.
Platypus, the CASTAC Blog, 2023
A volcano is not a military victory, nor a conquest, nor a war with friends and foes to be honore... more A volcano is not a military victory, nor a conquest, nor a war with friends and foes to be honored or shunned. It is an eruption, a geological emergence, a sudden and unexpected event that physically opens and breaks the earth’s surface, reminding us that we travel on an unwieldy, unknown, and capricious fireball. A volcano might then be imagined as an interstice, a liminal space that for a brief moment in earthly temporalities, brings together history and deep time. It’s an event, but it is also a place where the forces of what we call “nature” and of human historicity and territoriality collide. How, then, do humans memorialize the kinds of disruptions and transformations, even violence, caused by such a phenomena? How might those who endure its effects up close mark a volcano’s birth and subsequent destruction of their territory and livelihoods?