ABSTRACT
As archaeologists Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn note, the past is a big business, for both tourism and the auction houses. In important museums around the world, the past is a kind of rentable space. This big-business approach to cultural heritage not only affects the integrity of material culture, but destroys the identities of entire nations and limits access to their origins. This is due to the idea that archaeologists view the past primarily in terms of the objects that can be taken straight to the lab, or as exotic works of art that can be exhibited without benefit to the communities who are the real owners of that heritage. Peruvian archaeologists are generally not only disconnected from Indigenous issues, but sometimes work for these corrupt companies, making big money doing rescue archaeology and permitting the destruction of sites and the identity of small communities.
