ABSTRACT
This chapter considers these two museums, Cusco and Peruas, spaces in which elites and non-elites express their ideologies about contemporary as well as prehispanic society. Museums have become an international phenomenon related closely to the global culture industry, itself potentially encompassing contingent issues of colonialism/imperialism, community assertion memory, heritage and tourism and economic development with each of these being frequently interconnected to one or more of the others, as in heritage and tourism. The chapter explains the museum's exhibitionary scripts within the larger context of Cusco as a major node in the global tourism network, an example of capitalism par excellence. Museo Inka is a public university museum part of the Museo e Instituto de Arqueologa of the Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco. It is an anthropological museum with an overt political message of empowerment and pride. Its coherent, didactic script makes the museum effective in its local context, as narrated by local guides and local school teachers.
