"We’re Gonna be Rich!’": The Portrayal of Underwater Cultural Heritage Themes in LEGO

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

LEGO, the world’s biggest toy brand, offers numerous play themes involving underwater adventure, with ubiquitous submarine gadgets and the ever-present danger of sharks, and where treasure is synonymous with shipwrecks and mysterious ancient ruins and is the ultimate reward for the most intrepid. More than twenty years after the drafting of the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001), LEGO still offers influential play themes that appear to run counter to UNESCO messaging. This paper explores the underwater cultural heritage themes in LEGO sets and the ways consumers are encouraged to play with them and considers the impact they may have on attitudes towards the UNESCO Convention and the underwater cultural heritage it seeks to protect. Demonstrated engagement in other areas of social responsibility suggests that LEGO could retool many of these themes to achieve a more ethical position on underwater cultural heritage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2023 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow