Heritage Values in Contemporary Society

DOCUMENT Full-Text Sandra L. Lopez Varela.

“Alternative Mexico” is a mobile application drawing from the need to preserve and promote contemporary heritage resources that are of great value to its citizens. After more than a century of infrastructure building and promotion of urban lifeways to become a modern country, the experience has resulted in the appropriation of modern spaces and behaviors by Mexico’s citizens, with the inevitable creation of new heritage values. These new heritage resources oppose the national definition of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chen Shen.

Museums play a pivotal role in engaging in diversified communities and public at large, as cultural heritage value is applied to an understanding of the past that is relevant to everyday life today. Museums hold significant collections of natural and cultural worlds over the age that witnessed climatic changes, natural disasters, and humanly-powered manipulations. The survival objects displayed in the galleries and exhibition today are keys to engaging the public into the dialogues of cultural...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Whitney Battle-Baptiste. Elizabeth Chilton. Elena Sesma.

Over the past several decades there has been a great deal of archaeological excavation and analysis of both U.S. and Caribbean plantations. However, many of these research projects are designed to address archaeological research questions rather than some of the pressing problems faced by descendant communities concerning their heritage. In 1994, UNESCO launched their “Slave Route” project, with the aim of “contributing to a better understanding of the causes, forms of operation, issues and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only William Jansen.

Various regalia and practices for recognizing traditional chiefs were used to support political agendas for maintaining colonial rule in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia and, earlier, Southern Rhodesia) for over 120 years, becoming part of the country’s cultural heritage. After independence (1980), different political agendas of the new regime resulted in many of these practices no longer being utilized or emphasized. By 1999, with political opposition growing, the long-ruling regime adopted new...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anne Pyburn.

A decade of collaboration with Kyrgyz citizens from many walks of life has resulted in several new heritage initiatives including local museums, teaching materials for school children, a college textbook, a national avocational organization, and a new government ministry. Kyrgyz people have always placed great value on their heritage, but as these programs have developed people have become more interested in protecting the material signifiers of heritage. Counter to expectations, public and...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Jamie Hampson.

In many countries, cultural and socio-political identity is still shaped, manipulated, and presented through rock art. Both on and off the rocks, pictographs and petroglyphs are powerful tools. In this poster, I present results from ten years of fieldwork in southern Africa, northern Australia, and west Texas. I focus on re-contextualised rock art images, in commercial settings, in academic publications, and as integral components of national symbols. I also consider innovative new visitor...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Neil Brodie.

The existence of different heritage values is well-established. For centuries, cultural objects have been looted or stolen because of their heritage value, in particular because of their value as art objects. Cultural heritage sites have suffered accordingly. In the rapidly globalizing world of the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries, however, a new set of fundamentalist values relating to ethnic and religious identity have been foregrounded, with no less damaging consequences....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Teresita Majewski. Jeffrey Altschul. Antonio Arantes.

In response to ever-growing threats to intangible and tangible cultural heritage in the region, the Anthropology Department of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil, organized and held the inaugural meeting of the Inter-American and Caribbean Cultural Heritage Working Group on August 11–12, 2015, at UNICAMP. The goal is to establish a permanent collaborative forum to explore ways to improve anthropological practical and theoretical approaches to cultural heritage issues....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Koji Mizoguchi.

The 'post-modern' condition can be characterized by reflexivity, by which is meant that every social fact is scrutinized as socio-historically constructed. The spread of this 'attitude' fundamentally destabilize the sense of the authenticity of heritage. However, as long as we have to accept this constitutive element of social reality, we have to consider how to come to terms with this and how to better utilize this for the betterment of our relationship with heritage and of our life-world. This...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Francis McManamon. Jodi Reeves Flores.

This conference poster describes for individuals, organizations, and public agencies responsible for cultural heritage the challenges and opportunities that stewards of this important information face. Challenges include: heritage loss due to poor access and preservation; lack of perceived value; hesitancy to share information resulting in absence of public interest; and loss of heritage information through destruction or neglect. Digital techniques can provide access to information (with...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Uzi Baram.

Recognizing the intellectual, social, and political economic terrain for archaeology is crucial for effective and meaningful work in the present, archaeologists have reflected on the colonial, imperialist, and nationalist context for research and representations of the material past. Since the 1990s tourism has grown as a concern particularly as heritage tourism has expanded greatly, offering opportunities for preservation and representation of the past. Through multiple examples, this poster...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heidi Bauer-Clapp.

Increasing interest in a heritage of violence and dark tourism raises new questions about social, political, ethical, or economic dimensions of heritage values. In this poster I present a case study of St. Helena to examine diverse interests in violent heritage, in this case the island’s little-known use as a refuge for captive Africans liberated from illegal slave vessels. I evaluate the efficacy of existing resources such as codes of ethics and heritage policies in balancing potentially...

DOCUMENT Citation Only George Nicholas.

When descendant groups are denied direct and meaningful engagement in decision making, heritage management policies are ineffective at best and harmful at worst. Access to and control over one’s own heritage is a basic human right essential to identity, wellbeing and worldview. The historic separation of Indigenous peoples from their heritage not only results in considerable economic and cultural harms, but is a form of violence. Community-based heritage initiatives are capable of challenging...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Claire Smith.

The confluence of contemporary terrorism and radical changes in the media landscape constitutes a fresh—and currently under-rated—threat to cultural heritage. Socially mediated terrorism in Syria and Iraq is underpinned by a clash in heritage values. As visual symbols of competing political, ideological and religious values, iconic cultural heritage is an increasingly likely choice for extremists seeking visual ways to maximise their impact. Not everyone ascribes to the notion of Outstanding...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Qiaowei Wei. Feng Shi. Yichao Zhao.

The legislative system of cultural heritage in China outlined cultural heritage management and archaeological activities fulfilled under exclusive right of state. This state archaeology proves its worth to increase the authority and quality of cultural heritage management, as well as to enhance the heritage values at the state level. The local communities, however, hardly embedded into the activities of cultural heritage management and archaeological projects, nor meet cultural heritage concerns...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Arlene Fleming.

The World Bank provides loans, credits and technical assistance to governments of its client countries. The importance and value of cultural heritage on international, national and local levels are reflected in the Bank’s investment operations as well as in its Operational Policy 4.11 – Physical Cultural Resources. Investment for cultural heritage has totaled over four billion U.S. dollars in the past two decades. The Bank’s safeguard policy requires that an Environmental Impact Assessment...