In one of my English courses last semester, we discussed the concept of imperialist nostalgia. Imperialist nostalgia is a concept originally established by Renato Rosaldo. According to Rosaldo, imperialist nostalgia occurs when “people mourn the passing of what they themselves have transformed” or have had a role in transforming. In being nostalgic about it, they tend to even yearn for this past. Echoes of expressions that could be described as imperialist nostalgia stuck out to me from Hiram Bingham’s “The Search for Machu Picchu.” Bingham is an American explorer who spent much time in Peru and supposedly “discovered” Machu Picchu. He says that “there is a fascination here of finding here and there. . . the rugged masonry of a bygone race; and of trying to understand the bewildering romance of the ancient builders who ages ago sought refuge in a region . . .”
By suggesting that he himself is fascinated in finding information on a “bygone race,” Bingham already expresses that he longs to recover information on its culture. To want to recover something is practically synonymous with a yearning for it to come back. Bingham’s additional comments of ancient builders having been involved in some kind of a “romance” emphasizes the fascination he himself describes. To him, Machu Picchu appears to be the setting of a story. It is one of a civilization so far removed from him, that simply to learn about it is like diving into a cool, fictional world. Why wouldn’t he want to be part of that? To have any part of that, of course, he will have to recover what’s left.
Precisely because Bingham longs to bring back Machu Picchu, he too can be considered an imperialist nostalgist. After all, he works as an explorer; he holds the same occupation and forms part of the same group as those who initially interrupted the continued knowledge of Machu Picchu’s presence and Machu Picchu’s continued inhabitation. After all, it is believed that its abandonment was tied to Spanish conquest and/or deaths due to illnesses brought by travelers. Bingham himself is destroying something Indigenous by having this discovery claimed as his own. After all, his “discovery” ensures that the world won’t know that Indigenous peoples did have continued knowledge about this site much before Bingham. The “discovery” of this site becomes White much as was the “discovery” of the Americas — the “discovery” of the Americas that ensured that what Bingham most yearned to bring back became hidden to many in the world for years. Upon contemplating this, one question I asked myself is what makes someone at fault for the past . Could Bingham’s fascination of Machu Picchu have been tied with some sort of hidden guilt?
2 replies on “Did Hiram Bingham have Imperialist Nostalgia?”
Hey Yasmine! I enjoyed reading your blog post and learning about imperialist nostalgia. I’m a nit confused about the concept though. Does it mean wanting to bring back past cultures and practices, or is it a yearning to seek them out in order to learn from them? Personally I think that studying past cultures so that we can learn from their unique wisdom to be an positive goal. Though I do agree that harm can unintentionally result from these types of ‘discoveries’ and we should proceed with care and caution so not to miss the mark on the initial goal — recovering lost cultural knowledge and history.
Your blog has helped me think about some topics! It is also the time when the United States is consolidating its imperialism in Latin America, both by military means and by other more subtle means, such as propaganda. As you say, this “imperialist nostalgia” allows the United States to project itself towards the south of the continent.