Nature and the Simulacrum: (Re)construction, Commodification, and Contestation of Sacred Space in "The Petroglyphs"

Author:

• Elizabeth A. Dickinson (Univ of New Mexico)

Abstract:

This paper explores how nature is systematically (re)created through public discourse in governmental and commercial documents in the case of " Albuquerque Petroglyphs. Baudriallard's simulacra exposes capitalistic and hegemonic ideologies of nature as they are both preconditioned and replicated in discourse. I found that stakeholders use ownership, protection, history, and utility discourses to (re)make the space into "The Petroglyphs" simulacrum. Development companies then copy the area to (re)construct notions of sacred space as the hyperreal.