Cultural Heritage and Community: Protecting the Past for the Future in the Moche Valley, Peru. Alicia Boswell, History of Art and Architecture, UCSB

Media reports on cultural heritage issues focus primarily on the destruction of ancient monuments and the illicit looting and sale of antiquities, especially at the hands of groups such as ISIS. In doing so, they largely ignore the likelihood that antiquities extraction and site destruction is more related to issues of global economic development. This talk addresses the global and national socioeconomic pressures connected to heritage destruction in Peru and highlights a model implemented to combat archaeological site destruction in the Moche Valley, Peru by Moche Inc, a nonprofit organization that Boswell collaborates with. This model, which engages local communities in heritage preservation and development projects demonstrates that the benefits of conserving archaeological sites can extend beyond site preservation and tourism opportunities. Community collaboration and protection of archaeological sites can contribute to economic opportunities and long-term community development.