Day four in Lima and so much has happened. In a way it feels like I’ve been here for so much longer. So much is yet to happen.
One of the activities I’ve been reflecting on is our visit to Larco Museum. Coming from an Anthropology background, I receive museums with much skepticism. I have yet to see a museum that does not function as an institution of continuing colonial narratives.
Although the belongings (not artifacts) fill me with so much awe, my voyeurism on such sacred items left a little pang in my chest. I found the preservation of the belongings to be quite astounding, especially considering their age. This had prompted me to ask our guide about the sourcing of them. Although I had my suspicions already, the sentence “purchased from private collections” caused a short silence in the room.
My heart sank.
You see, the guide was correct in her commentary about the dry and arid environments being unique in its preservation of organic material (which is often lost in the archeological record). This results in items like the large red burial tapestry being preserved in its colours and designs- so vibrant and whole. The problem is, human remains also preserve exceptionally well in these conditions. So where was the person who was wrapped in this burial blanket?
I felt this was brushed past quickly by our guide, and I no longer pushed for any more answers. There is a large possibility that these “collectors” in which whom have sold sacred stolen belongings may also be in possession of ancestral remains. There simply is no way to know. But the likelihood of “stumbling” across collections worth of burial items and leaving the remains of the dead out of respect is highly unlikely.
It felt quite ironic for our guide to emphasize so heavily the Indigenous communities’ dualist beliefs during our tour- simultaneously acknowledging how communities viewed these items- belonging to the dead- to be just as alive as they are. Yet, separating them from the people in which they are supposed to serve in the afterlife. In a way, I feel this is similar to the ways in which the museums attempt to teach about Indigeneity, yet separate themselves entirely from Indigenous communities. If they did not brush past these inquiries, they would have to acknowledge how their institutions profit off of colonial narratives.
2 replies on “Experience Post #1: An Anthropologist’s Review of Larco Museum”
“There is a large possibility that these “collectors” in which whom have sold sacred stolen belongings may also be in possession of ancestral remains. There simply is no way to know. ” This is true. But excuse me if I’m being a horrible person here. It is also possible that there is will in not wanting to know, an effort to erase the traces of a supposedly perfect crime. The museum is testimony to at least two lootings. The first, the one that was done to extract the pieces from their conservation places with the fetishism of objecthood, destroying other contextual clues with that action. But there is also the exploitation of the workers from whom the Larco family obtained the money to acquire the objects from the other lootings. The museum itself is a display of the evidence of the case… and little was said about it.
This is a really thought-provoking blog, Grace. Museums as inherently colonial institutions are something I’ve thought a lot about myself, and I found your point about the hypocrisy of pushing forward the narrative that these belongings were viewed as alive and yet pushing down the reality that they were separated from their burials. The violence of that act is totally brushed over in essentially every museum I’ve ever been to, now that you have me thinking about it specifically.