Between Art and Artifact: Archaeological Replicas and Cultural Production in Oaxaca, Mexico

Oaxaca is internationally renowned for its marketplaces and archaeological sites where tourists can buy inexpensive folk art, including replicas of archaeological treasures. Archaeologists, art historians, and museum professionals sometimes discredit this trade in "fakes" that occasionally make their way to the auction block as antiquities. Others argue that these souvenirs represent a long cultural tradition of woodcarving or clay sculpting and are "genuine" artifacts of artisanal practice...