ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes paradigmatic constellations spanning from Mexico to Chile where different actors, from social movements to cultural entrepreneurs, state agencies and NGOs, try to make use of heritage, and where they reinterpret history through heritage in several ways. It explores to what extent it is possible to articulate difference or even resistance within the established idiom of heritage. The chapter shows that indigenous actors are located and how they have located themselves in the logic and language of heritage, while there is always a surplus of meaning that challenges the established discourses. It explores how indigenous movements and communities make tactical use of heritage by addressing their demands in the discursive frame of heritage. The chapter argues that the appropriation of cultural heritage by indigenous peoples is not limited to the appropriation of artifacts or to the defense of traditional rights and territories.
