Heritage and Its Missions

This book examines the interactions between heritage discourses and local communities at Catholic mission sites. Heritage and Its Missions reveals the dynamic meanings surrounding these cultural spaces.

This book delves into the intricate dynamics between heritage discourses and local communities at Catholic mission sites across the southwestern United States, northern Mexico, and the Southern Cone. Heritage and Its Missions is framed within the interdisciplinary field of critical heritage studies, employing ethnographic methodologies to reveal how heritage is not merely a static collection of artifacts but a dynamic interplay of meanings that resonate within social, political, and economic contexts. The authors illustrate how these interactions shape and are shaped by the materiality of the social and political landscapes.

Bringing together a diverse group of researchers from various countries, Heritage and Its Missions focuses on the pre-republican Catholic missions in the Americas as significant heritage sites. Each chapter presents a unique examination of how different stakeholders—ranging from national and multicultural states to local Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities—interpret and engage with these missions. The essays explore the evolving heritage meanings that are ascribed to these sites and how they reflect broader societal narratives.

The contributors analyze the ways in which heritage actors generate knowledge from their distinct vantage points, highlighting the complex relationships between various collectives and communities. The book addresses the contested nature of heritage representations, illustrating how differing conceptions of heritage can collide, collaborate, and intertwine, ultimately shaping the ongoing struggles over meaning and identity within these cultural landscapes.