In the Shadow of El Tajín: The Political Economy of Archaeology in Modern Mexico

Located in the Papantla municipality of the Mexican state of Veracruz, El Tajín is a UNESCO World Heritage site but a lesser-known tourist destination and national symbol. The Indigenous Totonac residents of the region know well that the site’s relative absence from discussions of global archaeology and heritage belies a century of wide-ranging labor, extractive industries, and commodity exchange.

In the Shadow of El Tajín tells the story of how a landscape of ancient mounds and ruins became...