Critical Heritage Studies

ICOM China and Museums Association of China requested the keynote speech on the ICOM's offered theme: I readily responded as China represents not only the grand culture but also a civilization in its own right. My Chinese experiences, be it from lecturing over-there or receiving their awarded projects in Dubrovnik (at The Best in Heritage conference) where always rewarding and it needed a gesture of thanks.
What I have to say is much explained in other texts on this site and my own www.mnemosophy.com where the video version of this lecture is recorded.

Critical heritage discourses are, by their very nature, political acts in which power relations are exposed, insisting on uncomfortable negotiations of what constitutes heritage narratives, particularly within the constructs of the nation.  Within a new federation such as the UAE, one that was not quite colonial, thus not quite postcolonial, and yet oddly neocolonial, discourses related to ways of being and belonging through practice do not follow known global political frameworks, such as liberal democracies, within which to critique heritage. Complicating further the usual narratives of belonging and heritage is the question of citizenship (or lack thereof), which creates its own complicit systems simultaneously forcing a positionality for those with and without such privilege, creating subsets of hierarchies based on race/class/gender within each.  The manner in which critical heritage discourse is framed in this piece has little to do with questions of citizenship, and importantly so, as it revolves entirely around the claims to place, history, and a negotiated sense of belonging through aesthetics.

The article focuses on the actions of the High Council for Immovable Historic Works and Monuments (HC), which was active from 1951 to 1983 as the sole decision-maker in issues of historic preservation for all historic structures and sites in Turkey. The HC archives reveal a historical and political framework for understanding the context within which the HC operated. Expert knowledge, especially in the conservation of historic cities, has been a powerful instrument, although the use of this instrument depended on the political context. The HC extended its authority in the 1950s, operating under a conservative autocratic government. In the 1960s and 1970s, on the other hand, when central power was lacking and society was dominated by political violence, chaos and economic instability, the HC could reinforce and exercise its power to raise standards in historic preservation in line with the international conservation movement.

Dodona, the most significant archaeological site in Northwestern Greece has been, during the last decades, the epicenter of various contestations regarding its place, history, values, meanings, and uses. Situated in Epirus, a region that is considered to be one of the most impoverished parts of the country, the ancient Oracle and the adjacent theater have played an important role in the formation of a strong local identity. The valley of Dodona and the surrounding mountains form a landscape that is identified with the Epirotes' localism and is strongly linked to the archaeological interpretation of Dodona's antiquities. The discourse of history and archaeology produced around Dodona legitimize a specific hierarchy of the monuments of the valley and certain representations and uses of the Dodonean past. Among them, the cult of Zeus and the foundation of the ancient Greek religion is constantly emphasized, thus implying the connection of Epirus with classical Greece. This much-highlighted myth focuses attention on the remains of the “Sacred House” i.e. the sanctuary of Zeus and the Oracle. What modern Dodoneans conversely value most, is the impressive ancient theater. The archaeological interpretation of the site often ignores these aspects of the antiquities’ social life that are related to the present of the valley. Today's contestations over the ongoing restoration of the ancient theater and the landscape's future reveal a great set of information on the ways past is experienced, both collectively and individually. The main purpose of this paper is to explore these conflicting views on Dodonean antiquities and its surrounding landscape.

In October 2017, the application to list the Voices of the Comfort Women archive on UNESCO's "Memory of the World Register" was rejected (or "postponed"). In this paper, I set that decision in the context of other recent instances of "heritage diplomacy" in East Asia, highlighting the tensions between nationalistic agendas and UNESCO's universalist pretensions. I then discuss the nature and extent of similar tensions in the framing of the "comfort women" issue, as manifested in "comfort women museums" (institutions closely associated with the preparation of the 2016-17 Memory of the World application). I focus especially on the case of China, where the Xi Jinping regime first sought to weaponize this issue against Japan, only to pull back in 2018 as Sino-Japanese ties warmed. I conclude by considering how the story of the comfort women might be reframed to underline its global significance (or "outstanding universal value"), in a manner that makes it more difficult for Japanese nationalists to portray the campaign for recognition and commemoration as an anti-Japan conspiracy.

The final chapter to an edited volume on the history of heritage pedagogy and how archaeologists have approached heritage explores my views on the rift between heritage and archaeology. For most nonarchaeologists, archaeology has little to do with their daily lives; some even reject archaeological knowledge. Heritage, on the other hand, is central to identity, to self-esteem, and to daily life. Most archaeologists unfortunately and indiscriminately conflate archaeology with the pasts they study and those pasts, with heritage. Archaeologists need to recognize this divide between relatively low public interest in archaeology and the publics’ nearly universal interest in heritage, figure out why the divide exists, and develop some ways to reduce the distance. This chapter offers a trial hierarchy of heritage awareness and intensity of interest and suggestions for meshing archaeology pedagogy with it.

The ongoing media debate surrounding 'fake news' is of particular relevance to archaeologists because archaeology has a vested interest in promoting authenticity, facts, and expertise and delegitimizing non-professional, fake and pseudo-archaeologies. This paper considers the convergence of these themes in the media coverage the 2021 Victoria stone pillar affair.

In this piece, I highlight the critical interventions presented in this collection for archaeology as heritage practice , as well as amplify many of the points that were made in relation to politics, particularly around the intersection of racism and gender/sexuality. Core tensions running through this collection are the many relationships between ways of being, concepts of heritage, visibility/invisibility of communities of people, and the practice and management of heritage. The interconnections between identity and heritage are shown as multiple and nuanced. This collection stands at the precipice of radically calling out the white heteropatriarchy that is the structural foundation of modern archaeology; rather than raising its voice, it is a polite, yet insistent, articulation of why inequity exists and how a feminist heritage practice might be able to address this issue in a new way. I will rely on the work of radical feminist scholars, thinkers, poets, and activists to support and articulate strength: each subheading cites a radical feminist thinker, and through the use of their words, I hope to elevate the work we are all engaged in-and it is work; much more needs to be done. [feminist/queer, race/racism, class, heritage/heritage practice, white privilege, colonialism/neocolonialism, decolonizing archaeology, critical heritage practice]

Based on postcards and Instagram posts, Raphael Schwere and Ahmed M. Musa analyse the role of camels in the colonial and contemporary imaginary of Somaliland. The paper deals with pastoralism and colonial conquest as well as with cultural heritage and processus of identity construction.