ABSTRACT

Carved out of the jungle by American big business, Penn Museum’s project at Tikal to restore massive pyramids and showcase Maya civilization was a direct outgrowth of government, military, and corporate connections. The story of Pennsylvania in the Petén is about American involvement in developing tourism, infrastructure, research stations, training, and the making of Guatemalan heritage citizens. It is also about increasing US government vigilance south of the border after the 1954 CIA-backed coup, whether in forging anti-communist alliances or commercial concessions. Philanthropists supporting Tikal were themselves representatives from US banking, oil, agriculture, aviation, and tourism sectors, making it impossible to disentangle archaeology from industrial and political adventurism. Extractive economies involving archaeology, oil, chicle, and bananas all ferried equipment and products back and forth to the Petén via American boats and planes, along dirt roads and airstrips built by American firms. Sold as the first great city of the Americas and costing almost a million dollars, the resurrection of Tikal underlines the ineluctable dependencies between security, espionage, international politics, corporations, conservation, and donor economies.

摘要

由美国大企业开辟出丛林，宾夕法尼亚博物馆在蒂卡尔的项目是恢复巨大的金字塔并展示玛雅文明，这是政府、军队和企业联系的直接产物。佩滕的宾夕法尼亚州的故事是关于美国参与发展旅游业、基础设施、研究站、培训和危地马拉传统公民的培养。这也是关于在 1954 年中央情报局支持的政变之后提高美国政府在边境以南的警惕性，无论是建立反共联盟还是商业让步。支持蒂卡尔的慈善家本身就是美国银行业、石油业、农业、航空业和旅游业的代表，因此不可能将考古学与工业和政治冒险主义区分开来。涉及考古、石油、糖胶、所有的设备和产品都通过美国的船只和飞机，沿着美国公司建造的土路和机场来回运送设备和产品到佩滕。蒂卡尔作为美洲第一大城市出售并耗资近 100 万美元，它的复活突显了安全、间谍活动、国际政治、企业、保护和捐助经济之间不可避免的依存关系。