National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico)

"National Museum of Anthropology" redirects here. For other national anthropological museums, see National Museum of Anthropology (disambiguation).
This article is about the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico. For the museum in Spain, see Museo Nacional de Antropología (Madrid).
National Museum of Anthropology
Museo Nacional de Antropología (Spanish)
The museum's front entrance in 2006
Map
Interactive fullscreen map
Established1964
LocationMexico City, Mexico
Coordinates19°25′34″N 99°11′10″W / 19.42611°N 99.18611°W / 19.42611; -99.18611
TypeArchaeology museum
Collection size600,000 [1]
Visitors2,336,115 (2017)[2]
Public transit accessAuditorio Station (line 7)
Websitemna.inah.gob.mx Edit this at Wikidata

The National Museum of Anthropology (Spanish: Museo Nacional de Antropología, MNA) is a national museum of Mexico. It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Mahatma Gandhi Street within Chapultepec Park in Mexico City,[3] the museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from Mexico's pre-Columbian heritage, such as the Stone of the Sun (or the Aztec calendar stone) and the Aztec Xochipilli statue.

The museum (along with many other Mexican national and regional museums) is managed by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History), or INAH. It was one of several museums opened by Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos in 1964.[4]

Assessments of the museum vary, with one considering it "a national treasure and a symbol of identity. The museum is the synthesis of an ideological, scientific, and political feat."[5] Octavio Paz criticized the museum's making the Mexica (Aztec) hall central, saying the "exaltation and glorification of Mexico-Tenochtitlan transforms the Museum of Anthropology into a temple."[6]

  1. ^ Britannica. "National Museum of Anthropology".
  2. ^ "Estadística de Visitantes" (in Spanish). INAH. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  3. ^ "Plan Your Visit Archived 2017-02-10 at the Wayback Machine." National Museum of Anthropology. Retrieved on April 12, 2016. "The Museum is located at Av. Paseo de la Reforma y Calzada Gandhi s/n, Col. Chapultepec Polanco. Delegación Miguel Hidalgo. C.P. 11560, México, D.F."
  4. ^ Arnaiz y Freg, Arturo. "Los Nuevos museos y las restauraciones realizados por el Presidente López Mateos." Artes De México, no. 179/180, 1974, pp. 62–67. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24317704 accessed 11 March 2019
  5. ^ Enrique Florescano, "The creation of the Museo Nacional de Antropología and its scientific, educational, and political purposes." In Nationalism: Critical Concepts in Political Science, Vol. IV p. 1257. John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith, eds. London and New York: Routledge 2000.
  6. ^ Octavio Paz, Posdata, Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno 1969, quoted in Florescano, "The creation of the Museo Nacional de Antropología", p. 1258, footnote 9.