
Relics of the Past
The Collecting and Study of Pre-Columbian Antiquities in Peru and Chile, 1837-1911
Stefanie Gaenger(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 29. May 2014
Book
Hardback
328 pages
978-0-19-968769-5 (ISBN)
Description
Relics of the Past tells the story of antiquities collecting, antiquarianism, and archaeology in Peru and Chile in the second half of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century. While the role of foreign travellers and scholars dedicated to the study of South America's pre-Columbian past is well documented, historians have largely overlooked the knowledge gathered and the collections formed among collectors of antiquities, antiquaries, and archaeologists born or living in South America during this period.
The landed gentry, the clergy, and an urban bourgeoisie of doctors, engineers, and military officials put antiquities on display in their private mansions or bestowed them upon the public museums that were being formed by municipalities and governments in Santiago de Chile, Cuzco, or Lima. Men, and some few women, gathered antiquities on their journeys 'inland' and during sociable weekend excursions, but also on quotidian commercial voyages or in military campaigns. They bartered antiquities with their fellow collectors or haggled about their price on the antiquities market. In their hours of leisure, they marvelled at them, wrote about them, and disputed over their meaning, age, and interest in learned societies, informal gatherings, and at meetings in universities and public museums. This volume unveils a hitherto largely unknown world of antiquarian and archaeological collecting and learning in Peru and Chile.
The landed gentry, the clergy, and an urban bourgeoisie of doctors, engineers, and military officials put antiquities on display in their private mansions or bestowed them upon the public museums that were being formed by municipalities and governments in Santiago de Chile, Cuzco, or Lima. Men, and some few women, gathered antiquities on their journeys 'inland' and during sociable weekend excursions, but also on quotidian commercial voyages or in military campaigns. They bartered antiquities with their fellow collectors or haggled about their price on the antiquities market. In their hours of leisure, they marvelled at them, wrote about them, and disputed over their meaning, age, and interest in learned societies, informal gatherings, and at meetings in universities and public museums. This volume unveils a hitherto largely unknown world of antiquarian and archaeological collecting and learning in Peru and Chile.
Reviews / Votes
offers an extremely detailed study ... [which] will be most useful to specialist and professional collectors. * F. W. Gleach, CHOICE *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
22 illustrations; 21 half-tones, 1 line drawing
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
543 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-968769-5 (9780199687695)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Stefanie Gänger
Relics of the Past
The Collecting and Study of Pre-Columbian Antiquities in Peru and Chile, 1837-1911
E-Book
05/2014
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€74.99
Available for download
Person
Dr Stefanie Gaenger is a Assistant Professor at the Institute for Iberian and Latin American History at the University of Cologne.
Author
Assistant Professor at the Institute for Iberian and Latin American HistoryAssistant Professor at the Institute for Iberian and Latin American History, University of Cologne
Content
List of Illustrations ; Introduction: Antiquities in Peru and Chile ; 1. The Mascapaycha: Collections of Incan Antiquities in Cuzco ; 2. The Khipu: Antiquarianism and Archaeology in Lima ; 3. Pascual Cona: Collecting and Colonization in Araucania ; 4. The Valdivia Jug: Archaeology over the War of the Pacific ; Conclusion ; List of Archives ; List of References ; General Index