The Absent Stone: Mexican Patrimony and the Aftershocks of State Theft

Author/Contributor(s):	Rozental, Sandra
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Date:	02/17/2026
Binding:	Paperback
Condition:	NEW

"The Absent Stone centers around the Tlaloc Monolith-the largest monolithic stone sculpture in Mesoamerica -and its forceful relocation from San Miguel Coatlinchan to Mexico City in 1964. Sandra Rozental documents the history of this stone's theft and uses ethnography to engage its lingering presence and generative aftershocks in Coatlinchan. The book moves critical work on monuments and museum collections beyond the language of law, heritage and cultural property, revealing the ecological and telluric relations of care, belonging and connection that bind people and things to the places they inhabit. Rozental makes visible the fraught relationship between patrimony, nationalism, territory, memory, and materiality in Mexico"--