National Relics: Secular Sacrality, Museums, and Heritage‐Making in Nineteenth‐Century Chile

ABSTRACT This article examines how objects and bodily remains are transformed and ritualized into national relics through collecting and exhibiting practices in museums. Focusing on nineteenth‐century Chile, it draws on archival sources, material culture theory, and the anthropology of religion to argue that objects associated with Chile's nation‐state foundational figures have been sacralized through museological practices that closely mirror religious ritual. These relics, whether body parts, material traces, or personal belongings, function not merely as historical artifacts but as secular sacra : vestiges imbued with sacred national significance. The article introduces the concept of the logic of the relic to map the transformation of ordinary items into vehicles of collective memory and patriotic belief. Tracing this logic from the nineteenth century to the present, it reveals the dual role of museum practices as both secular repositories and ritual media. By challenging triumphalist narratives and questioning conventional claims about the historical value of certain materials, this study contributes to interdisciplinary debates on the role of material culture and museums in postcolonial nation‐building contexts, as well as to debates on museums as sites of secular belief rather than mere representation.