Maya Ruins, Cultural Tourism and the Contested Symbolism of Collective Identities

Abstract

The more accessible archaeological sites of the ancient Maya have become cultural attractions for international mass tourism. Their development is a function of occupational and economic factors that construct an unrepresentative image of Maya civilization as a modem cultural production. While this image is part of the official heritage of modern nation states, the interaction of mass tourism and cultural resource management is creating a supranational structural framework conducive to the development of Maya ethnonationalism.