Genes and Memes in Cultural Landscape Conservation

Abstract

Cultural landscapes gained global prominence through the World Heritage Convention in 1992. In parallel, the concept of biocultural diversity was being developed by the Anthropological community. Some Anthropologists have argued that like genes, memes (cultural information or system of behaviour) may be passed from individual to individual by non-genetic or epigenetic means. The idea of feedback between genes (biodiversity) and memes (human cultural constructs) seems a useful and simple way to conceptualise bio-cultural diversity. Interplay between people and nature also informs the critical idea of sense of place. Across all continents, twenty-first-century rural depopulation and ignorance of the importance of traditional ecological knowledge mean that rural landscapes are abandoned, yet not necessarily subsequently wilded – the concept of cultural severance. A consequence of cultural severance is a decline in biological and cultural diversity. But the dynamic nature of cultural landscapes means that conservation is a highly active process that can include restoration and rewilding. Heritage embedded in cultural landscapes is both tangible and intangible. An understanding of cultural landscapes as heritage also allows for the deconstruction of wilderness ideas. Interactions between the two diversities, as well as the diversity of place, are the key to understanding, valuing, managing, and conserving cultural landscapes.