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Podcast: NBN Book of the Day
Episode: Samuel Holley-Kline, "In the Shadow of El TajÃn: The Political Economy of Archaeology in Modern Mexico" (U Nebraska Press, 2025)
Description: Located in the Papantla municipality of the Mexican state of Veracruz, El TajÃn is a UNESCO World Heritage site but a lesser-known tourist destination and national symbol. The Indigenous Totonac residents of the region know well that the site’s relative absence from discussions of global archaeology and heritage belies a century of wide-ranging labor, extractive industries, and commodity exchange.In the Shadow of El TajÃn: The Political Economy of Archaeology in Modern Mexico (U Nebraska Press, 2025) tells the story of how a landscape of ancient mounds and ruins became an archaeological site, brings to light the ne...