CULTURAL HERITAGE OF MÉXICO

Alan Gilberto Martínez Valle

A01625423

The role of women in research

and conservation of cultural
heritage.
Individual Activity.
Contenido
Introduction. ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Development ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Conclusion. ......................................................................................................................................... 5
References........................................................................................................................................... 6
Introduction.
Mexico is a country with a great diversity of wealth, from the history that transcends it as well as its
variety of cultures, languages and traditions that are part of us until today, where the value of this
wealth is so great that it has been classified internationally as tangible or intangible cultural heritage
of humanity, but nevertheless, it is not enough to recognize its value and beauty, but it is also
necessary to ensure the transcendence of these heritages by taking care of them, However, it is not
enough to recognize its value and beauty, but it is also necessary to ensure the transcendence of such
heritage by taking care of them, where most of the time a large number of monuments, sculptures,
paintings, archaeological sites or unique natural places have been affected by human intervention and
ignorance of the value they have, It is therefore interesting to analyze the work of researchers,
scientists and experts in the cultural theme that day by day are responsible for the conservation of
these cultural resources through actions such as informing the population of the importance of all
these cultural heritages in our history, conducting in-depth research to analyze the past and the history
of our ancestors, learning about their interests, customs, traditions and a little more of their day to day
life, or by directing organizations and schools with the aim of preparing professionals to become more
involved in the subject and make new discoveries or continue to care for the vestiges of our past.

However, it is even more interesting to recognize that this has been an arduous task where the role of
women has been a critical factor for the achievement of great advances and the preservation of our
culture, where generally they are not given the proper recognition for their merits or in the same way
the population is unaware of the role of women in research and discoveries due to lack of
dissemination, however, this problem has been repeated throughout human history, However, this
problem has been repeated throughout human history, where women have not been given the right
value for their work and merits only because of sexist or discriminatory issues, which is really an
absurd decision, however, as I mentioned earlier, their role has been fundamental in the field of
discovery, research, conservation and dissemination of cultural heritage in the country, which is why
this essay will try to delve a little deeper into the subject.

Development
When entering into the subject of women's participation in the research, dissemination and
conservation of the country's cultural heritage, we must analyze and interpret why their role in this
subject has been limited, where the first cause has been the limited opportunity for formative
development in educational institutions, because as we know the sad discriminatory history that has
been given to women has continued even to the present day, It is surprising to know that until just
last century women began to have a voice, to develop protests to increase their participation in society,
either by participating in political life, professional, having an educational preparation and even
fighting for the right to vote, so that although for many we are surprised by all this, until today
continues to present similar situations. The late incorporation into having a complete educational
formation is one of the main causes of the absence of women in the conservation of cultural heritage
in the last century, however, currently, according to the ENAH (National School of Anthropology
and History) "there are currently more women students of archaeology, (INAH, 2021) so in the
coming years we expect an incentive within the participation of women, however, at present we have
a great diversity of women who have developed great achievements and progress in the field of
research and conservation, such as Beatriz Barba who participated in the planning of the National
Museum of Anthropology which is considered one of the most important places not only in Mexico
but in the American continent for containing and exhibiting an extensive archaeological legacy of the
cultures that inhabited the territories of the continent (the design of this museum is considered unique
in the history of modern architecture in Mexico) and is also the first Mexican woman to become the
head of the ENAH, Another woman who has collaborated in an important way in the field of
conservation is María de la Luz Gutiérrez, who has focused her research in the Sierra of Baja
California to understand more deeply the indigenous peoples of that region, in addition to developing
alliances with these communities to protect the ancient rock paintings and disseminate their value.

In recent decades, the role of women within the conservation and dissemination of cultural heritage
had been mostly focused on theoretical contributions, this because their professional training had
been based on the professional areas of the theoretical area such as Art History or branches of
Humanities, that is why their research is based on historical records and information gathered from
direct research, while on the other hand, men presented a training and application of their careers in
the practical area, that is, field work, working directly with archaeological remains, historical
monuments or any other discovery, having physical access to many specific and unique details that
allowed them to reach the formulation of hypotheses that would later add within their research, and
that is why these were considered of greater value compared to those of women, since they presented
a physical support, but not accurate or truthful.

However, recently within the topic of Cultural Heritage, one of the branches where a greater number
of specialized studies have been carried out is within the topic of Art History, within which there is a
high female presence for its study and interpretation, having a great number of theoretical
contributions of value especially within the university aspect, allowing great advances of study and
remarking in the same way the importance of this topic of study for the preservation of the Heritage.
Since the 80's, women began to have relevant roles within the practical area of conservation of
historical heritage, especially with their immersion in conservation and restoration of monuments,
however, these projects were all directed by male architects, but this began to represent a significant
advance for the role of women in the practical area. The importance of women began to increase
significantly as their work was characterized by being meticulous, patient and detailed in tasks of
discovery and restoration, this until today to form the majority in the department of ICCROM, (the
International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage), which is
responsible for promoting and preserving the various forms of cultural heritage internationally, where
it is noteworthy that this center contains one of the most important libraries with conservation content
in the world, housing about 120 thousand books, magazines and documents in at least 70 languages,
so that women have contributed greatly to the conservation of these cultural assets.

The parity of participation must be implemented in a profound way, essentially because there should
be no reason for there to be any gender gaps in the participation for the conservation and
dissemination of cultural heritage; Within history, female participation has always been "from the
shadows" especially in conservation tasks, however, despite this, the record of this has been
presented, as seen in the previous work, one of the first women who made great paleontological
discoveries was Mary Anning, who never really received the correct recognition for her work, but on
the contrary was attributed to the different men with whom she worked, Despite this, today she is
known as the first female paleontologist in history, however, this should have been attributed at the
time, this was not done because of technical specifications that did not allow the participation or even
the presence of women in specialized discussion forums, so they missed out on the knowledge shared
by scientists and researchers that would further boost their professional development.

UNESCO has developed several strategies to formalize equal participation between men and women
in an essential way at a global level, especially within programs and projects for the conservation of
intangible and tangible heritage, due to the recent trends created at the end of the last century with the
conservation of cultural traditions and customs representative of each region, especially those with a
higher vulnerability index where their transcendence depends largely on the practice itself. Similarly,
UNESCO considers the development of the conservation of tangible and intangible heritage as a
measure to create a parity of participation in professional activities (in this case the care and
dissemination) between men and women, as it presents the common goal of safeguarding our heritage,
and therefore is considered as a common duty in which both men and women can be involved by
contributing with their knowledge and skills, this framed within the phrase:
"Contribute to the development of regulation and control mechanisms for the conservation of
Intangible Cultural Heritage. Its protection implies understanding and consideration of gender (in
representations and processes)" (UNESCO, 2003).

Therefore, this is not a task isolated to certain groups divided by gender or any other characteristic,
but it is the responsibility of all of us as members of a culture, a society, and as part of being human
beings with a history that transcends us and makes us unique in terms of having different capacities,
abilities, reasoning and ideas among all of us.

Conclusion.
Finally, encompassing all of the above, it is amazing to analyze the role that women have played since
they began their incursion into the conservation of cultural heritage, since their contributions both
theoretically and practically have been of value to the area of conservation, even improving practices
and procedures. It is interesting that we ourselves as human beings from a very young age presented
an assimilation and learning that each sex has its own independent tasks and places in society,
however, personally as I grew and developed I understood that these functions and gender activities
are not static, but on the contrary, they are developing adaptations and improvements, in this case
with similarity to the cultural heritage, which are presenting constant changes, from its creation to its
rediscovery, they are adapting permanently to the new circumstances of the changing world.

In the same way, it was possible to interpret that cultural heritage is a "tool" that not only gives us a
vision of the vestiges of our past, but also encourages within the population the creation of values
around gender equality in this case, allowing everyone to develop their abilities and skills as they see
fit in the area they like, to later give their contributions to the science in which they specialized and
receive their corresponding recognition, as has been reinforced with the great women of recent times
in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Supporting the conservation of our Cultural Heritage is the task of both men and women, however, it
is important to give special recognition to women for their excellent performance in the areas in which
they develop, since they manage to do their activities in a disruptive and even more specialized way
than how it has been done by men throughout history.
References.
UNESCO. (2015). Patrimonio cultural inmaterial y género. https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/34300-
ES.pdf

Quirosa, Victoria. (2010). El_papel_de_la_mujer_en_la_conservacion.

file:///C:/Users/Alan%20Gilberto/Downloads/El_papel_de_la_mujer_en_la_conservacion.pd

EL ICCROM. (2020, February). ICCROM. https://www.iccrom.org/es/acerca-del-

iccrom/descripci%C3%B3n-general/el-iccrom

Vassallo, J. (2018). Mujeres y patrimonio cultural. Revista Do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros, 80–

94. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-901x.v0i71p80-94

Fundamental, el aporte de las mujeres en el INAH en pro del patrimonio cultural. (2018, March 8).

Inah.gob.mx. https://www.inah.gob.mx/en/boletines/7005-fundamental-el-aporte-de-las-

mujeres-en-el-inah-en-pro-del-patrimonio-cultural