Chapter 12 - Links

The Absent Stone
http://www.lapiedraausente.com
The Absent Stone is a documentary film by Sandra Rozental and Jesse Lerner. In 1964, the largest carved stone of the Americas was moved from the town of San Miguel Cuatlinchan in the municipality of Texcoco to the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City in an impressive feat of engineering. The extraction of the monolith, which represents the pre-Hispanic water deity, set off a rebellion in the town and led to the intervention of the army.

Today, the enormous stone, now upright, is an urban monument; it has been transformed into one of the principal icons of Mexican national identity. The inhabitants of Coatlinchan insist that the removal of the stone has caused droughts. Representations and replicas of the absent stone appear everywhere in Coatlinchan, where it resonates in the memories of the inhabitants. Using animations, archival materials and contemporary encounters with the protagonists of the transport of the stone, this documentary explores the relevance of the ruins of the past in the present day.

The trailer for the film can be found here: https://vimeo.com/58413344

An interview published in Cultural Anthropology: https://culanth.org/fieldsights/810-screening-room-the-absent-stone

The Absent Stone will soon be available for purchase and streaming with Third World Newsreel as well as Alexander Street https://www.twn.org/ and http://alexanderstreet.com/

The Chimapahin Codex
The INAH´s site: http://www.codicechimalpahin.inah.gob.mx

Christie´s press release: http://www.christies.com/about-us/press-archive/details?PressReleaseID=7467&lid=1

Another interesting case that is not mentioned in the text but that is related concerns the controversy over the Moctezuma headdress in the Museum of Ethnology, Vienna. A documentary about it and its conservation was recently released: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaI48sA_XGs (in Spanish and German).