Treasure

Chapter 5 explores how the absent Coatlinchan stone is entangled with other substances and objects such as gold, sand, water, and other ancient artifacts that town residents consider “lo nuestro.” Once bountiful and self-replenishing, treasure remains fragile, hidden in Coatlinchan, continuously under threat of extraction and appropriation. Understanding ancient things, including the stone, as treasure complicates state discourses that focus on the material qualities of such objects as separate, authentic, and singular vestiges from the past that require isolation, protection, and intervention to ensure their care and conservation. As treasure, these things remain embedded in territory, guarded by humans and more-than-humans, as they generate wealth, abundance, and well-being and continue to sustain and replicate the community and the territory on which it thrives.