Atacama, the Most Arid Desert in the World

In San Pedro de Atacama, we learned more about the customs and funeral traditions that characterize the lives of the first indigenous groups in this area until the arrival of the Spanish colonizers who dramatically modified their way of living by imposing the Catholic religion. Several mummified bodies from the natives were found in this area, many of them stolen and taken into private collections and museums. Some of these mummies used to be displayed until recently in the Museum of Gustavo Le Paige. Today, thanks to the advocacy of the indigenous community of Atacama who continue fighting to preserve the values of their culture and ancestors, these mummies have been permanently removed. We never thought how disrespectful and violating it would be to display funeral ornaments and mummified bodies of a cultural group for their members, imagine publicly displaying the corpse of a loved one. Unfortunately, every time we visit a museum, we are so excited and curious to learn that we did not think about the rights, feelings, and meaning that those exhibitions could have for members of a specific cultural group. We have to acknowledge that we are also guilty of the “Western Voyeurism” that we have been against so many times. This was a great lesson for us, a realization of how culturally insensitive we can be regardless of how much we believe we are not.