Dark Heritage Research Articles

From Prison Islands to Island Paradises: Are Violent Histories Being Overwritten with Nature-Based Tourism Imaginaries?

ABSTRACT Islands have often been used to exile political prisoners, migrants, criminals, mentally ill individuals, and others deemed unworthy. Yet the remoteness that made islands ideal prison sites is today exploited to develop nature-based ecotourism (NBET). Given the ‘prison to paradise’ phenomenon is previously undocumented in the literature, this paper explores three descriptive cases in the Global South: Ecuador (Galápagos Islands), Panamá (Coiba Island), and Colombia (Gorgona Island). This analysis identifies how the timelines of prison activities and the manifestations of tourism are influenced by contextual factors that determine whether carceral heritage is being preserved or overwritten in each context. The paper also highlights further opportunities to elaborate on this nascent theory and emphasise specific roles for archaeologists in that future research agenda. This work will appeal to scholars interested in dark heritage, prison tourism, island studies, and protected area managers involved with heritage preservation around former prison sites.

Heritage route as pilgrimage. Visiting the battlefield in Ossów

ABSTRACT Scholars have recently been paying more attention to the relationship between religion and heritage, which has brought a deeper focus to processes of ‘sacralisation of heritage’ and ‘heritagisation of religion’. I take this reflection in the direction of discerning how religious practice often underpins the creation of heritage. The case study I tackle here centres on the anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Warsaw fought during the Polish-Soviet war of 1920. Its heritage combines military and religious aspects with a pilgrimage on a section of the Camino de Santiago leading to the battlefield in Ossów to form one of the commemorative events. Drawing from the scholarship on pilgrimages to battlefields and dark heritage, I investigate how heritage is bodily performed during this pilgrimage. I organise my argument around the notion of ‘caminoisation’ to demonstrate how global heritage contexts can be transplanted onto local planes, and how religious and heritage-making processes are entangled. Perceiving pilgrimage through the lens of ‘sensational form’, I explore how heritage and religion are framed ‘on the way’. Placing an emphasis on the embodiment allows for an ethnographic description of participants’ interactions with heritage and religion and for research into how these categories are performed in practice.

Transformative journey experiences to heritage sites: a dark tourism spectrum

ABSTRACT Dark heritage sites can evolve from being merely sites of tragedy to places that offer transformative experiences for travelers. This qualitative study explores travelers’ transformative experiences of Christian pilgrimages after an 8-day Holy Land tour and of Jewish travelers after a 7-day Holocaust sites tour in Poland. Both tours represent different points on the dark tourism spectrum. We explored experiences tapping four domains in which travelers ascribe place meaning to these dark places: personal, spiritual, communal, and global (i.e. broad humanity). The travelers’ experiences in these four domains are mapped onto a matrix of cognitive vs. emotional and self-centered vs. other-centered experiences. In addition, place meaning in each of the four domains was found to be reflected differently in each of the transformation stages in the two examined journeys on the dark tourism spectrum. Each domain triggered different transformational processes in both of these journeys. Tourism planners are encouraged to design transformative journeys to dark heritage sites in light of the dynamics of the four place-meaning domains.

The paradox of attraction: unveiling the dynamics of tourist motivation and impact perception at a dark heritage site through mixed-method approach

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between tourists’ motivations, perception of tourism impacts, place attachment (PA) and loyalty toward Jallianwala Bagh, a dark heritage site in Punjab, India.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method approach comprising qualitative and quantitative methods was used. Semi-structured interviews and the Delphi method helped generate a 34-item survey instrument. A sample size of 869 respondents was obtained, split into two subsets for exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis.FindingsSeven out of nine hypotheses were supported. Motivated tourists perceived higher positive tourism impacts but lower negative tourism impacts. Higher perceptions of positive tourism impacts increased both PA and loyalty to the destination. Surprisingly, the perception of negative tourism impacts did not significantly affect tourist loyalty, contrary to some previous research.Practical implicationsThis study informs stakeholders about tourists’ cognitive and affective responses at a dark tourism site, aiding in the planning and development of sustainable tourism strategies.Social implicationsBy understanding the tourists’ motivations and perceptions, stakeholders can manage tourism impacts more effectively, ensuring that tourists’ experiences align with sustainable practices.Originality/valueThis study enriches the understanding of the tourists’ complex interactions with dark heritage sites. It introduces a new angle by examining how motivations, PA and perceptions of tourism impacts influence tourist loyalty, especially in the context of dark tourism.

Ghost Hunting Events and Storytelling

Ghost hunting events are a popular leisure activity providing visitors with an immersive dark experience, connecting them with the dark heritage and supernatural legends of a place. This research note aims to conceptualize the role of storytelling in the promotion, production, and participatory aspects of ghost hunting events. In doing so, the article argues that ghost hunting events draw upon coproductive and experiential forms of storytelling, and proposes a cyclical model to illustrate an ongoing, iterative process of narrative construction. As this research note suggests, preexisting narratives framed by the dark history and supernatural legends of a place help to frame promotional discourse and the production of events. However, extraordinary personal experiences, mediumistic intuition, and the collective interpretation of unusual activity shape and transform existing narratives. As such, this research note concludes that ghost hunting events are shaped by, and shape, storytelling through interactive and interpretative processes.

Memorialization at Conflict Heritage Sites in Aceh based on Major Events

Aceh’s conflict heritage is a category of dark heritage that has been taking shape since the start of the political conflict between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement in 1976 and the post-tsunami peace agreement in 2005. These events have left a contested tangible and intangible legacy. There is the need to learn from past events with the aim of truth-telling, restoration of victims’ rights, maintaining and nurturing peace. This research aims to identify conflict heritage sites in Aceh and see how the process of memorializing sites is starting to take place. The identification process was conducted through literature review, interviews, focused group discussions, and field verification. Preliminary findings show that 20 significant heritage sites have been mapped, concentrated in the main conflict zones. The heritage objects are identified based on main events timeline and collective narratives of conflict. It also examines the typology of the physical memorials built across the main conflict heritage location and analyzes the process and the results of these memorialization efforts. The results show memorialization efforts face challenges in both the process and form of memorialization. Also, in realizing inclusive and empathic memorialization, it does not only rely on the multi-parties involved but more on the local environmental and cultural context.

IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY FOR DARK HERITAGE INTERPRETATION: THE CASE OF ŽANIS LIPKE MEMORIAL

The article will focus on the use of immersive virtual reality experiences in the interpretation of the dark heritage for young audiences. Here, through a case study of the Žanis Lipke Memorial, a new virtual reality experience was tested with young people, evaluating the benefits and shortcomings of this tool in conveying the story of the largest Jewish rescue mission at the time of the Holocaust in Latvia. Given that every heritage institution aims to pass on the heritage to future generations, it is also essential for them to keep up with the practices of the new generation of the digital natives in their information-seeking, education and leisure-time habits, given that technology plays a pivotal role in their daily life. While virtual reality is often associated with the entertainment and gaming industries, it is also increasingly used in educational processes, in this case – as an interpretive tool in educating people about the Jewish rescue mission and Holocaust at the Memorial. Young people in the focus groups acknowledged the emotional, embodied and implicit learning aspects of the virtual reality experience, but also pointed out some spatial and technological shortcomings of it. While some had relatively low initial expectations about the innovativeness of the Memorial, in the end, most recognised that the high-quality, realistic and historically accurate immersive virtual reality experience, combined with a physical tour at the Memorial, provided a deeper understanding of the historical event in question.

The role of communities in preserving, using and remembering heritage: archaeological monuments and dark heritage sites in Estonia

ABSTRACT This article deals with the question of how communities relate to their heritage in Estonia by focusing on four case studies, two of which represent archaeological sites and two dark heritage sites, and the respective communities involved with these places. The main objective is to understand the dynamics of how heritage communities preserve, use and remember their heritage. Another aim is to explore contemporary community-based and participatory heritage management practices in Estonia and how they relate to the ideals described in the Faro Convention. We examine how the location, the contribution of researchers and personal connections to historic places motivate local people, enthusiasts and the state to care for the sites. It is demonstrated that community-based heritage management is most effective when people are emotionally attached to historic sites, have a sense of ownership and want others to engage with and experience them.

Reading the Identity of Dark Heritage Sites: A Peircean Semiotic Methodology

Shared symbolism and ideology at dark heritage sites construct the narrative of a collective national destiny. Visitors’ experiences with such sites necessarily involve decoding signs and symbols. The commonality in interpretative practices is rooted in “collateral knowledge” and forms the identity of place. Yet, cultural materiality, collective identities, and semiotics have been overlooked by dark tourism academia. In broader tourism studies, semiotic attempts lack methodological homogeneity and congruence and efforts to transpose Charles Peirce’s semiotic theory into practical experiential methodologies are scarce. This study introduces a practical, systematic, and replicable semiotic methodology for reading the identity of dark heritage sites. This methodology revolves around three interconnected Peircean concepts: the sign, the collateral knowledge, and the sign’s relationship to its dynamical object. It is proposed that reading the indexical, iconical, and symbolical functions of signs through the filter of collateral knowledge can ensure a systematic meaning-making process and reveal subtle influences.

Aspects of Significance in the “Dark Heritage” of Thessaloniki, Greece

Located in the north of Greece and boasting an interrupted history of over 2.300 years, Thessaloniki has a wide array of architectural monuments to display. Hellenistic residences, Roman administrative centers, Byzantine churches, and Ottoman communal buildings have shaped for decades the city’s historical profile, leaving limited space for a nonetheless widely acknowledged architectural grouping, namely its “dark heritage”.
 Comprising buildings and sites that have over the years been related to rare phenomena and curious events, Thessaloniki’s “heritage of darkness” fascinates the imagination of its residents, in addition to providing a frequent subject for the writings of local journalists and researchers, and a focal point in the work of the services and bodies involved in monument protection. The above players evidently evaluate its constituents in different manners, thus leading to the emergence of multiple aspects of significance in the appraisal of the city’s “dark heritage”.
 This paper aims to identify these aspects and determine their interrelation and impact on the preservation of the buildings and sites involved. To this end, based on bibliographical research and on-site examination, it begins with a comprehensive overview of the dreaded built assets, followed by the identification of the players involved in their treatment and their respective attitudes. From there on, a discussion of the interaction of these attitudes is pursued, culminating in original conclusions as to the consequences of this interaction for the safeguarding of the tangible and intangible qualities of the city’s “heritage of the dark”.

Building Silver Bridges: Paranormal Apparitions, Settler Heritage, and Indigenous Erasure in the Ohio River Valley

"Paranormal heritage" is contested and should be understood as bridging conceptual divides within dark heritage studies and settler colonial studies. Through historic/fictitious narratives, regional legends, and fortean research this article examines paranormal heritage in the Ohio River Valley, connected to the cryptozoological figure of Mothman, as a continued weaving of settler heritage. Using decolonial and Indigenous theory, it argues that through weaving certain paranormal heritages Indigenous stories and landscapes are usurped, and Indigenous Peoples and Title are erased to ‘indigenize’ settler populations. Paranormal settler heritages require attention for their role in the logic of elimination and settler moves to innocence.

Lubyanka: Dissonant memories of violence in the heart of Moscow

An infamous Soviet edifice, the Lubyanka’s yellow bulk still stands in central Moscow. The building is controlled by the federal security service (FSB), the contemporary security services, and the FSB provides no tangible acknowledgment of the building’s past. Yet, it is not erased; instead, the surrounding landscape has become a meaningful space for memorializing the victims of Soviet repression. Although the government’s official policy is to ignore or muffle the Lubyanka’s dark heritage, other actors have stepped in to interpret this painful legacy in various ways. This article examines different processes of heritagization and memory work within this “heritagescape.” It sheds light on the Lubyanka area’s polysemic meanings and sociopolitical roles in contemporary Russia, as well as the contested processes of heritagization and memorialization at sites of violence. It also introduces the idea of “accountability” as a concept that can be communicated at a heritage site, especially at times of increased state violence.

Tourists’ national identity at heritage sites of natural disasters

Cultivating national identity at dark heritage sites is of national significance and important for one's sense of belonging. Chinese national identity seems to be a quintessential case to investigate, given nation-building is central to the development of dark heritage tourism in China. However, there is a lack of systematic and in-depth understanding of the factors associated with the construction of national identity among visitors. Drawing on self-categorisation theory, this paper explores visitors' perception of national identity in a dark heritage context of natural disasters. Built on the analysis of 83 semi-structured interviews from two different dark heritage sites in China, a conceptual model illustrating the salience of national identity was developed. The model indicates that Chinese national identity could be facilitated by external stimuli and national identity attributes. The salient national identity is accompanied by emotional reactions and positive evaluation of the national group. The findings might provide managerial insights into nation-building practice and endeavours through dark heritage of natural disasters.

Promoting the thrills: a study of emotional reactions to advertisements for fright tourism heritage attractions

ABSTRACT The paper examines emotions generated in potential visitors through the promotional imagery used in fright tourism, a form of dark heritage tourism. In fright tourism, an unusual combination of human emotions of fun and fear are experienced by tourists through activities such as haunted house visits and ghost tours. A modified model, based on Russell’s [1980. A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(6), 1161–1178] Circumplex Model of Affect, was developed to measure emotions in fright tourism advertising. The model was constructed with empirical data from the United States and New Zealand. The data were obtained through interviews with business owners of fright tourism attractions, focus groups, and a questionnaire of potential visitors. Findings indicated statistically significant correlations exist between human emotions in different quadrants of the model (positive/pleasant and negative/unpleasant). The findings suggest, contrary to the application of the Circumplex Model in more conventional tourism settings, that fright tourism business’ advertisements induce contradictory emotions. The study challenges current understandings of visitor experiences and contributes to knowledge about how fright tourism heritage experiences may best be promoted.

Darkling Ventures: Conserving and Recasting War Heritage in Japan

This article investigates aspects of heritage and atrocity by bringing the Japanese case into focus. The dissonant nature of such dark cultural heritage has gained greater attention since the late 1990s in Japan and around the world, though scholarship has been largely limited to the European context. While locating the Japanese making of dark heritage in the context of the decomposition of the Cold War in Asia, I will first examine the process by which specific sites of past violence are transformed into war heritage in Japan. Second, I will explore how changing values and attitudes toward war-related sites causes changes in strategic planning for heritage management. These two themes will be demonstrated through an examination of civic activities to conserve the remains of underground warehouses built during the Second World War in Nagano and Osaka.

You May Destroy This Village, But You Cannot Destroy the Power Which Created It

AbstractTo develop a historical archaeology of hope, post-medieval European archaeology should shift the focus beyond dark heritage to sites and events opposed to daily destruction and alienation. This case study of an antinuclear protest camp in 1980s Germany shows that cracks in capitalism formed when people protested for something; as they experimented with alternative lifeways and envisioned an alternative future. Archaeological intervention can help to reveal these fault lines in capitalism as we remember these heritage sites of hope, but intervention also reveals a cautionary tale of how these blurry pictures of an alternative future can so easily be concealed.

A Comparative Study on the Value Representation of Museums and How to Use ‘Dark Heritage’ : Focusing on ‘The War Memorial of Korea’ and France's ‘Historial de la Grande Guerre’

A Comparative Study on the Value Representation of Museums and How to Use ‘Dark Heritage’ : Focusing on ‘The War Memorial of Korea’ and France's ‘Historial de la Grande Guerre’

For a Legal Protection of Places of Hurtful Memory of the Military Dictatorship in Juiz de Fora, Brazil (1964-1985)

Objective: The indication of the places of memory of the military dictatorship in Brazil is still incipient in this country. Thus, this work intends to indicate such places in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, protagonist of the 1964 coup to democracy, not only because General Mourão Filho’s troops were stationed there a materialization of what was already planned in the barracks; but because it was the headquarters of the Military Region, where its audit collected hearings from witnesses and organized trials, and civilian and military facilities were used as spaces for torture and serving sentences. Methodology: Through concepts such as “dark heritage” and “places of sensitive memory”, we will try to demonstrate how silencing is preponderant in local public policies, whether in the non-identification of these places, or in the listing processes that privilege aesthetic and stylistic aspects to the detriment of memories of the dictatorship. Originality: Since the places discussed in this article are not object of public policies in favour of collective memory, this work will indicate buildings that were places of State violence and generally go unnoticed in the city’s landscape. Conclusions: The erasure of the dictatorial past in Juiz de Fora, and in Brazil in general, is a strategy of covering up responsibilities.

An examination of tourists’ national identity, place attachment and loyalty at a dark tourist destination

PurposeThe question of whether tourist destinations established in the aftermath of a disaster will attract visitors remains unanswered. This study attempts to answer this question by examining the effect of nation identity on tourists' loyalty in dark heritage tourism through place attachment using the social identity and attachment theory.Design/methodology/approachIn this quantitative study, data were collected from 622 tourists through a survey method at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, India. Data analysis was performed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling.FindingsThe findings of the study suggest that tourists' national identity is a very important variable, not only in retaining the tourists at a destination but also in increasing their attachment towards that particular destination. Place attachment is found to be a predictor of tourist loyalty at a dark tourist destination. Finally, results of the mediation analysis show that place attachment mediates the relationship between national identity and tourist loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the study contribute to the research knowledge about a dark heritage tourist destination by exploring the role of national identity in explaining the place attachment and tourist loyalty towards a dark heritage tourist destination. The practical implications for site managers have also been discussed.Originality/valueThe study used the social identity theory and attachment theory to come up with an empirical model of place attachment for a dark heritage tourist destination. This study adds value to understanding national identity, place attachment and tourists' loyalty by exploring their inter-relationship. The focus on diverse characteristics of place attachment is what makes this study unique.

Peculiarities of Sustainable Cultural Development: A Case of Dark Tourism in Lithuania

The aim of this article is to reveal the connection and significance of the concepts of dark tourism and sustainable tourism for the sustainable development of tourism, especially for regional tourism growth. The article discusses the theoretical aspects of dark tourism and details the aspects of this tourism industry as part of cultural tourism. The article also analyses principles and models of sustainable tourism development, with a stronger focus on the integrated development paradigm. As a relatively significant part of the research and analysis of sustainable tourism is more focused on the challenges posed by global mass tourism, this article focuses on the issues of sustainable development of niche tourism in relation to regional tourism. The article presents the analysis of Lithuanian dark tourism resources, presents the most common dark (dissonant) heritage objects, as well as the evaluation of resources according to the spectrum of dark tourism and the comparative analysis of the country’s most popular dark tourism objects from the point of view of sustainable tourism. A qualitative study revealed that regional tourism in Lithuania (especially niche, such as dark tourism) lacks integrity among different stakeholders, especially in involving the local community in the processes of cultural heritage protection and cultural tourism development and in developing more intensive links with the private sector. On the other hand, the analysis also revealed that there is an ambiguous public opinion regarding the dark heritage, which does not contribute to the sustainable development of tourism and the actualization of such heritage. The article also discusses the models of sustainable development of dark tourism and invites to discuss how to encourage greater public involvement in the development of dark tourism as part of cultural tourism, so that the principle of sustainable tourism does not remain an empty declaration.