American Cultural Heritage Research Articles

Leveraging historical hospitality in the national parks: Fred Harvey, Mary Colter, and the heritage of the American Southwest

ABSTRACT This conceptual paper examines the Fred Harvey Company, a key entity that helped develop tourism at Southwestern national parks, in particular Grand Canyon National Park and Petrified Forest National Park. The article describes some of the influences of this organization on the image of tourism in the Southwest, from the thematic design of spaces to the commercializing of Native American cultural heritage. After examining these impacts, the contemporary state of interpretation in these national parks is highlighted. Drawing on not only the natural and cultural resources of the region, organizations such as the National Park Service or Xanterra Travel Collection employ the historical hospitality foundations of the sites to create a multi-layered image of the national park as well as connect to tourist identities.

The Role of Computing in the Study of Latin American Cultural Heritage

The Role of Computing in the Study of Latin American Cultural Heritage

Digital Cultural Heritage

Session 1: Preserving Memories during the Wartime: Ukraine
 Ulia Gosart, Assistant Professor, School of Information, San Jose State University
 The first session focuses on pedagogical strategies supportive of utilizing and preserving Digital Cultural Heritage. Presented in a case study manner, the panel connects experiences of digital preservation with development of relevant curricula. The case studies include preserving memories during wartime in Ukraine; African American cultural heritage in the southwest of the US; conserving traditional knowledge (TK) and indigenous knowledge (IK) within Indigenous communities in Western Pacific. Each Case can lead to innovative pedagogy possibilities be they emerging as components of traditional educational programs; or exist as elements of innovative teaching centers, and/or growing interdisciplinary collaborations.
 
 Session 2: African American Digital Cultural Heritage through the San Antonio Public Library
 DL Grant jr, Carver Library Branch Manager, San Antonio, TX
 Libraries now transcend more traditional services and resources offering informal gatherings and community events that uniquely uplift the various communities they serve. History harvests, as they are sometimes known, celebrate the cultural heritage of the users leading to preservation of archival matter via digitization. This San Antonio based case study touches on two such services: 1) oral history events that weave stories of the past and document as well as entertain; and 2) a funeral program collection gone digital, making researching African American cultural heritage easier to research. With so much as a cellphone phone one can connect to electronic representations that document families, communities, rituals, institutions and genealogy, to name a few. These library programs encourage donations and help to ensure survivability of cultural heritage.
 
 Session 3: Digital Cultural Heritage and Our Existential Threat
 Cecilia Salvatore: Professor, School of Information Studies, Dominican University
 In communities where their existence is threatened by global climate change, the need for a digital cultural heritage repository is stark and poignant. For example, the small island nations in the Western Pacific, which are responsible for only 0.03% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and yet they are disproportionally facing many of the threats of climate change head on. The communities on these islands are not simply passive towards what’s going on. They want to be equipped with the resources to tackle climate change. And they know that their own traditional knowledge and indigenous knowledge, which has been passed on for hundreds of years, is the most critical resource. The presenter describes TK/IK in the Pacific Islands, some current practices for preserving this knowledge, and the role of digital cultural heritage tools and methodologies.

Laugh—cry, eat—drink, dance! Tracing belonging through cartographies of joy

SummaryThis article explores joy, identity, and belonging at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival through an ethnographic project inviting festgoers and staff members to draw, sketch, or map their experiences and journeys through festival landscapes. Building on scholarship in visual, humanistic, and post‐humanist anthropology, we view map‐making as an emergent strategy for performative epistemology, a way of making and thinking together. In a festival with a strong visual culture that centers African American music and cultural heritage, drawings often reflect racialized landscapes and subjectivities. Maps reveal the centrality of affect in festival experiences while affording insights into what makes joy complicated. For some, festival sociality brings those tensions to the fore while making it possible for others to imagine a world otherwise.

Singing-in and Singing-out Ethnicity: An Immigrant Songbook as a Locus for Negotiations of Ethnic Identity, Cultural Heritage Preservation, and Acculturation, 1880s–1940s

Abstract This article extends research literature on the cultural production of nineteenth-century immigrants to America by exploring how a Danish American songbook constitutes an important historical source documenting the ethnic identity, political standpoint, and gradual acculturation of its compilers and users. Based on the seven editions of Songbook for the Danish People in America published between 1888 and 1949, the article demonstrates how the songbook was compiled as an ideological tool for intergenerational cultural transmission and cultural heritage maintenance, which ultimately laid the foundation for a new, Danish American cultural heritage. By linking the physical manifestation of the songbook with the semantic content of its songs and the social, embodied practice of singing, the article argues that the songbook became a locus for negotiations of ethnic identity, cultural heritage preservation, and acculturation among Danish Americans by the end of the nineteenth century and throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Each time a new edition was compiled, the editorial process spurred public debates about the current state of Danish ethnicity in America and the ideal strategy for integration. As such, the songbook offers a window on the variable and negotiable nature of ethnicity.

A Presidential Conversation: Preserving the Legacy of Historically Black Colleges and Universities

In 2020, the National Trust African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund launched the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Cultural Heritage Stewardship Initiative through a partnership with the National Endowment for Humanities, the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and others. The Initiative is empowering HBCUs with the resources to protect, preserve and leverage their historic campuses, buildings, and landscapes, ensuring these academic institutions and symbols of African American pride are preserved to inspire and educate future generations. A discussion of HBCU Presidents highlights the legacy of HBCUs, the importance of preserving their historic assets and campuses and how they are addressing the challenges impacting these important cultural landscapes.

The Religious, Scientific, Cultural, and Economic Foundations of America

Historian Lynn White wanted to understand why the Western civilization had exploited nature so much that its own quality of life--even its survival--was now at stake. White concluded that the answer is: the Judeo-Christian tradition.The environmental movement began in the early 1960s, with far-reaching changes in American values and attitudes, that were powering a growing interest in wilderness and its preservation.By destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects. Severed from the human community and its ethical protection, nature was fully exposed to human greed.Aristotle’s scientific philosophy of nature—animate and alive—dominated Western thought for two thousand years after his death. But thanks to the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, the notion of an organic and spiritual universe was replaced by that of the world as a machine, and the word machine became a dominant metaphor of the modern era. It was around 1850, that Western Europe and North America arranged a marriage between science and technology that signified the Baconian creed of power over nature. Its acceptance as a normal pattern of action may mark the greatest event in human history since the invention of agriculture. Perhaps the most profound legacy of the Scientific Revolution is the principle of reductionism that encourages an atomistic and disintegrated view of nature. As a result, we have the Faustian bargain of Hydrogen bombs that pose an existential threat to the universe. Individualism is first on the list of American cultural heritage. Next is the “Bootstrap philosophy.” This phrase has become part of American mythology, and the nation’s attitude toward helping those in society that have been left behind; and we lecture them to lift themselves up by their bootstraps. Next are the negative attitudes toward government that are unjustified. Then there is the free-market crusade that has led to American economic decline. And next, this is their promised Utopia for what ails America: “Privatization, deregulation, downsizing, shrinking entitlements, and lower taxes.”Smith’s explanation of the paradox of the interplay between supply and demand, is an important scientific contribution to society. But, why then did he cross that line, and enter the domain of metaphysics with his proclamation that “consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production”?Yet, he put no limits on consumption and left the door of overconsumption wide open.Smith says that in an unfettered market--propelled by competition among self-interested sellers and buyers--the invisible hand will then allocate goods efficiently.However, one of the best-kept secrets in economics is that there is no case for the “invisible hand.”Finally, Adam Smith ignored the Industrial Revolution? This is because his static theory could not handle innovation.

Charles Godfrey Leland and His Magical Tales

Charles Godfrey Leland and His Magical Tales

Conserving Context and Community: Reconnecting an Illegally Excavated, Precolonial Dugout Canoe to its Community

ABSTRACT The oldest canoe discovered in South Carolina was illegally recovered from the Cooper River near Charleston in 1997 and spent 23 years in state custody awaiting funding for conservation treatment. In 2020, it was transferred into the temporary custody of Clemson University’s Warren Lasch Conservation Center. Where once the conservation methodology would have begun and ended with an impregnation treatment and vacuum freeze-drying, the Cooper River Canoe Project instead began by consultation with the Native American communities of South Carolina. Through collaboration with Native American leaders, archaeologists, and conservators, the conservation of a 4000-year-old, waterlogged, fragmentary dugout canoe will be undertaken. Unprecedented in South Carolina, the Cooper River Canoe Project challenges established colonial practices in archaeology and conservation, and designs a new approach to the conservation of Native American cultural heritage. By recognizing Native American communities’ rights to the management and determination of their cultural heritage, project partners are creating a new model for the conservation of cultural heritage in South Carolina.

Notes from the Special-Issue Editor

Notes from the Special-Issue Editor

A Conversation About Landscapes and Preservation as Justice

From the conservation of sites of enslavement, freedman villages, segregated cities, or memorials of remembrance like cemeteries and parks, African Americans have and continue to shape our shared American landscape. This article captures a dynamic conversation between landscape designer, MacArthur Fellow, and public artist Walter Hood and Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. They discuss the importance of preserving Black landscapes that make visible African American struggle and achievement.

Digital dispossessions: the importance of regional specificity and sovereign spaces to video game representations of native American cultural heritage

ABSTRACT Indigenous peoples and their culturalheritages, their ways of knowing and living, are tied to land. As Mishuana Goeman states,“Land is foundational topeople’s cultural practices, and if we define culture as meaning making ratherthan as differentiation and isolation in a multicultural neoliberal model, thanby thinking through land as a meaning-making process rather than a claimedobject, the aspiration of Native people are apparent and clear,” (Goeman, 73).Goeman asserts here that land is not limited to physical space, and that landlocates a group of people physically, culturally, spiritually, intellectually,etc. and provides them with both an internal and external locus of understandingfor and within broader society. When digital representations of Indigenouspeoples are completely removed from any meaningful connection to their land, anerasure of culture occurs. Moreover, the physical removal of Indigenous peoplesfrom the virtual representations of their lands is another form ofdispossession and the enactment of digital Manifest Destiny. This paperutilizes a decolonial Indigenous framework to analyze the dispossessions thattake place within the digital realm of the video game, why they occur sofrequently, and why they are so harmful.

Capacity building for the documentation and conservation of Latin American cultural heritage: making technology accessible and sustainable

PurposeThe purpose of this contribution is to demonstrate the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in integrating advanced and emerging digital techniques in the appropriate and sustainable documentation of heritage sites in Latin America. Existing collaboration between the Universidad del Externado de Colombia, the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History and the Carleton Immersive Media Studio of Carleton University in Ottawa (Canada) have been sued to demonstrate the importance of this approach. The described collaboration allowed a team of students, researchers, government experts and educators to document selected pilot areas of the remarkable UNESCO World Heritage Sites of National Archeological Park of Tierradentro (UNESCO, 1995) and San Agustín Archaeological Park (UNESCO, 1995). The sophisticated digital recording techniques described, such as 3D scanning, aerial and ground photogrammetry techniques, were used to capture the site's current physical condition, emphasizing the pressing need to conserve the threatened mural paintings (Tierraadentro) and carved rock phases (San Agustin). This contribution also underlines the importance of developing the training of emerging professionals from Colombia in adopting these techniques to make their documentation more accurate, reliable and sustainable in the long term. The project's conclusions demonstrate that it is crucial to integrate emerging documentation techniques into the sustainable approach to conservation of these two important UNESCO World Heritage Sites.Design/methodology/approachThe approach presented in this contribution makes technology more accessible to the conservation specialist in Latin America. It provides a comprehensive capacity building program that involves teaching about theory and practice, using two important UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in Colombia. It is also relevant to the interdisciplinary and institutional collaboration between two universities in the North/South areas of the continent and a government institution that effectively collaborates to provide training to emerging professionals.FindingsThe contribution summarizes the opportunities and limitations of adopting technology to make the documentation process for conservation more sustainable in low-income economies and provides a framework to implement future strategies in South America.Originality/valueThe paper raises a discussion on how the concept of sustainability of adopting new technologies in the context of Latin American countries can assist in optimizing the conservation of decorated surfaces in important UNESCO World Heritage Sites by involving capacity building of emerging professionals.

Rising from the ashes: The biggest South American deers (Cetartiodactyla: Cervidae) once roamed Northeast Brazil

The tragic fire at the National Museum (Brazil) in September 2018 caused invaluable losses to South American natural and cultural heritage. However, previous visits to the paleontological collection generated photographic and descriptive records of mammalian fossil specimens from the Pleistocene of Brazil. Thus, it was possible to redescribe and revise the taxonomy of Cervidae fossils from two important paleontological sites in the Brazilian Intertropical Region (João Cativo and Lage Grande). These fossils include antlers and lower teeth, and they were described and taxonomically identified by morphological comparisons with all extant and extinct South American deers. A new diversity of Cervidae was recognized, differently from that proposed in the literature, which recognized the presence of Hippocamelus sulcatus, Mazama americana, and Ozotoceros bezoarticus. Instead, the Cervidae fossils from João Cativo and Lage Grande sites belong to the extinct deer Morenelaphus. Although some specimens could not be identified at a specific level (Cervidae indet.), a comparative analysis of the estimated body mass pointed out the most massive deer in South America (including extinct and extant) and recognized Morenelaphus as the second heaviest. The record of these large deers with huge antlers suggests the presence of natural grasslands areas and milder climatic conditions for late Pleistocene in the Brazilian Intertropical Region. Climatic and environmental changes may have driven these large deers to extinction in the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. This study reveals an unprecedented Cervidae diversity for the Brazilian Intertropical Region, emphasizes the relevance of dental features, together with antlers morphology, in taxonomic studies of Cervidae, and also highlights the importance of South American natural heritage in the retrieving of knowledge and new scientific discoveries through collection specimens.

The Hybridization Of The Noir Genre As Expression Of Ethnic Heritage: Rafael Navarro’s Sonambulo

In his ongoing comic book series Sonambulo, versatile artist Rafael Navarro has been able to channel his Mexican American cultural heritage by creating a unique blend of narrative genres. In his work, Navarro exploits classic American film noir as a fundamental reference and hybridizes it with elements distinctive to a shared Chicanx heritage, such as lucha libre cinema, horror folktales, and border-crossing metaphors; the construction of an oneiric dimension helps bring the narrative together, marking it with a peculiar ambiance. Drawing heavily on a diverse range of film genres, as well as ethnocultural pivots, this comic book series carves out a definite space in the panorama of the Mexican American production of popular culture, adding a powerful voice to the expression of US ethnic minorities.

Things that time forgot Native American objects in Danish Museums Problems and possibilities

We present a hitherto unresearched part of a shared Danish and American cultural heritage: Native American objects in Danish regional museum collections. Thus far, we have identified more than 200 Native American artefacts in 27 local museums, largely a result of Danes abroad privately collecting in the late 1800s and 1950s–70s. The majority of these artefacts, many of which are prehistoric in age, have never been displayed and have lingered in storage since they were accessioned, understudied and often unrecognised for what they are. Recent deaccessioning pressures from the Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces potentially place these objects at risk of destruction, making the discussions presented here a timely issue. These Native American objects, like the unknown numbers of other non-Danish artefacts held by regional museums, hold tremendous potential to elucidate overlooked parts of Danish museum history, trans-Atlantic networks and interconnectedness in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as rich material cultures originating far from Denmark. We argue that this perspective is highly relevant and should be utilised in Danish museums, as it begets reflections on Danish glocal identity and society in a post-colonial world.

Mortifying Earthly Desires in Toni Morrison’s Home

As is true of all of Toni Morrison’s texts, Home does not shy away from difficult topics, particularly those related to sexuality. In this instance, her novel reveals the contestation between the societal narrative of Black male sexual depravity and the struggle to assert an authentic, strong, good, identity that privileges mutually balanced relationships. While characters falter and make mistakes, Morrison’s text is about redemption and reconciliation to the ideals of a self-created theology steeped in a rich African and African American cultural heritage and tradition. This essay argues that Morrison uses a biblical theme to create a culturally relevant theology that shifts the narrative away from Black male depravity to a place of deliberate, conscientious, mutually beneficial relationships.

Responses of Native American cultural heritage to changes in environmental setting

Cultural expressions of American Indian and Alaska Natives reflect the relationship between American Indian and Alaska Natives and the plant and animal species present in an area. Different forces that modify that relationship and influence those expressions can potentially shape American Indian and Alaska Natives cultural heritage and even compromise their cultural identity. Herein, we propose seven modalities to illustrate how American Indian and Alaska Natives cultural expressions may respond to changes in environmental settings that alter the relationship between plant and animal assemblages, and Native peoples. Each modality provides insight into the vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity of American Indian and Alaska Natives cultural expressions to changes in environmental settings. Future research may delve deeper into these modalities and help identify appropriate methods for managing culturally important resources. More culturally sensitive management approaches may strengthen conservation practices and safeguard the cultural legacy of indigenous groups.

‘‘They could defecate over a whole people […] and defecate some more by tearing up the land”: Ecological (Un) consciousness and Resistance in Toni Morrison’s Selected Novels

This paper aims to deconstruct Toni Morrison’s selected novels through the lenses of ecocriticism. It looks at her work from an ecocritical angle. Sula has traditionally been read as a story about female friendship ;Song of Solomon has been critically acclaimed for its vivid capture of African American cultural heritage ; Tar Baby is regarded as a masterpiece because of its high folkloric resonance ; Beloved is perceived as a survey of the horrors of slavery ; Paradise is regarded as the narrative of contemporary communities confronted with great social changes, while A Mercy is considered to be a story of black women slaves’ struggles to gain freedom in America in the 1600s. Historically, critics have attempted to perceive Morrison’s fiction from the socio-historical lens that has little to do with Nature. However, Nature serves as a background to Morrison's work. It not only serves as imagery but more of a living being that reacts to human exploitation. Morrison's selected novels highlight diverse aspects of this human versus nature relationship that deserves an in-depth analysis. In fact, these novels provide ample evidence that the author sees ecosensitivity and ecological consciousness as possible ways to curb environmental degradation. This paper posits the nonhuman world encoded in Morrison’s novels. It maintains that Morrison’s fiction could raise awareness about ecological wisdom which is key to understanding and solving the current environmental challenges.

The Potential Cost of Cultural Fit: Frame Switching Undermines Perceptions of Authenticity in Western Contexts.

Behaving consistently across situations is fundamental to a person’s authenticity in Western societies. This can pose a problem for biculturals who often frame switch, or adapt their behavior across cultural contexts, as a way of maintaining fit with each of their cultures. In particular, the behavioral inconsistency entailed in frame switching may undermine biculturals’ sense of authenticity, as well as Westerners’ impressions of biculturals’ authenticity. Study 1 had a diverse sample of biculturals (N = 127) living in the United States and Canada describe an episode of frame switching (vs. no switching control vs. neutral control) and report on their state authenticity during the episode. Results showed that biculturals recalled feeling less authentic during an instance of frame switching compared to no switching control and neutral control. Study 2 had mainstream Canadians (White and of American, Canadian, or Western European cultural heritage, N = 97) read a hypothetical vignette, from a third-person perspective, about a bicultural who frame switches (vs. no switching control vs. neutral control) and provide their impressions of the bicultural’s authenticity and multiple other desirable traits. Participants rated the bicultural as less authentic when he frame switched compared to no switching control and neutral control, and rated him as less likeable, trustworthy, and warm (but not competent) as downstream consequences of seeing him as less authentic. These results demonstrate that frame switching can come at a cost to authenticity, both in terms of how biculturals see themselves and are seen by others, at least in Western societies. These findings highlight that the way biculturals negotiate their cultures affects them psychologically and socially. In the context of cultural fit, the active process of establishing and maintaining fit with one’s cultures can have unforeseen consequences.