Landscapes We See, of Their Creation We Know Naught. The Agave Landscape: Cultural Patrimony of Humanity

Authors

  • José de Jesús Hernández López Ciesas-Occidente

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24901/rehs.v34i136.165

Keywords:

agave landscape, tequila, tangible and intangible patrimony

Abstract

This article analyzes key historical conceptions of landscape and patrimony, as well as the pragmatic use to which these two concepts are currently being put. The case chosen to sustain the argument is the “Agave Landscape and ancient tequila installations”, declared Cultural Patrimony of Humanity by the unesco in 2006. The framework for the analysis is based on Wallerstein’s proposed modern world system and the division among political and vernacular landscapes posited by John B. Jackson. The agave landscape is not a homogeneous space but, rather, an asymmetric social and historical construction with a center, a periphery and a semi-periphery, where certain artifices are made visible and valued, while others remain invisible.

Author Biography

José de Jesús Hernández López, Ciesas-Occidente

Profesor investigador en Ciesas-Occidente. Doctor en Antropología Social por el Colegio de Michoacán. Líneas de investigación: a. Transformación de paisajes culturales; b. Pueblos huerteros.

Published

2013-12-09

Issue

Section

Ecología, fruto del ambiente y del tiempo