Dark Heritage Research Articles

Affective Infrastructures of Re-emergence? Exploring Modalities of Heritage Practices in Nantes

ABSTRACT The French city of Nantes has been heralded for both its creative and complex engagements with the dark heritage of its history as France's main slave port. In this article we examine the ways in which the colonial heritage has been dealt with in Nantes, arguing that we find here various processes and initiatives which can be understood as expressing or combining what we suggest are four main modes of colonial heritage practice: Repression, Removal, Reframing and Re-emergence. We discuss how the city authorities and local organizations with a focus on colonial heritage have ended the silent repression of the city's slave trading heritage, and to some extent entirely reframed the city as a center of avant-garde art and culture, e.g., through the 2012 construction of Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery. Finally, we critically analyze the domesticating effect of this reframing as well as practices of removal which, by contrast, have been used to reintroduce decolonial antagonism and oppositional struggle into the public space in Nantes. Finally we investigate whether street performances of Royal de Luxe might hold what we term potential for re-emergence; a heritage practice entailing both a reemergent aesthetics able to engage the audience at a bodily and affective level, a re-emergent history able to both articulate the past and energize contemporary struggles, and the re-emergence of a broader field of voices and subjects.

Sites related to death and disaster in cultural an tourism geography – a theoretical perspective

Research into tourism, a relatively new discipline, is developing, using theories and approaches from other disciplines. Extensive research is underway in Latvia on sites related to tragic historical events and death, including the use of Holocaust sites in tourism. In order to comprehensively study these dark heritage sites, previous studies related to cemeteries and death sites have been analysed. The aim of this article is to identify death sites as special places and as elements of the cultural landscape. The attitude of locals towards dark heritage sites cannot be understood without understanding the attitude towards death sites and cemeteries in the cultural context. This article gives an overview of existing research in necrography, summarising the geographical approaches used to characterise these particular sites. The studies already conducted in Latvia have been reviewed and the most relevant definitions of dark tourism and thanatourism have been identified. The main problems faced in including places of death and tragedy in tourism product promotions have been described, especially if they are related to tragic events such as the Holocaust. In conclusion, the main aspects and approaches to be used for further research into the use of Holocaust sites in tourism have been identified.

Difficult Heritage of the 20th Century from the Perspective of the Biography of Things

This paper discusses the concept of difficult/dark heritage from a theoretical perspective known as the biography of things. First, I analyse Polish archaeological research on difficult/dark heritage. Second, I describe in greater detail the biography of things as a tool for studying relationships between people, things and places. The last part of the paper is a case study presenting the biographies of three objects found in the grounds of a prisoner-of-war camp in Czersk. I aim to prove the following theses: 1) archaeologies of the recent past cannot be understood simply as the archaeology of martyrdom; 2) material culture from the recent past allows us to create different kinds of narratives connected with dark heritage.

Who visits the apartheid museum and why? An exploratory study of the motivations to visit a dark tourism site in South Africa

PurposeThis paper attempts to fill the gap that exists in research regarding visitor motivations at dark heritage sites. The purpose of this paper is to explore the motivations of visitors to the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum (HPMM) as an iconic dark site in South Africa to identify what motivates visitation and which demographic variables may have an influence on these motivators.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the goal of this research, 205 participants completed a self-administered questionnaire using a random sampling technique at the HPMM. A statistical analysis through the use of factor analysis revealed seven motivational factors.FindingsNovelty and knowledge seeking, remembrance and curiosity were identified as the three main motives for visiting HPMM. Novelty and knowledge seeking was found to be the main motive that contradicted similar research done in other parts of the globe. Escape and relaxation, which is usually found to be one of the main motivators to heritage sites, was revealed to be one of the least motivators for this study. The results also identified significant relationships between demographic and motivator variables.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study revealed that people visit the HPMM primarily for novelty and knowledge seeking, remembrance and respect for victims and curiosity. From the results, it is clear that visitors are driven to visit the site for different motives and that these motives, although common amongst visitors, differ from person to person subject to demographic differences. This study provides an improved understanding of dark tourism demand, which is essential for the sustainable development and promotion of sites in South Africa and globally commemorating people’s struggle against injustice and for democracy.Social implicationsSouth Africa is a country with a cosmopolitan history; however, the history associated with apartheid has only recently become topic of tourism research. This study provides a basis to better understand the type of tourist visiting these sites of historical sites, thus leading to better provision of services to visit such attractions.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to delve into understanding the motivational typology of tourists to a tourism attraction in South Africa associated with the country’s Apartheid-era heritage. It provides an insight into enhancing the current fragmented understanding of dark tourism demand.

Impossible is nothing (unless otherwise stated): Balancing between memory and art in Parko Eleftherias and the Polytechneio

This article explores Parko Eleftherias (‘Liberty Park’) and Athens Polytechnic (Polytechneio), two historical places linked with the period of the Greek military Junta (1967–74), and their position in the urban life of contemporary Athens. Focus is placed on the limits of artistic expression tolerated in those two historical places, examining different attitudes towards them. We discuss the so-called public programmes organized in the framework of documenta 14 (d14) in Parko Eleftherias, aiming to an extent to bring the dark heritage of the EAT-ESA (Eidiko Anakritiko Tmima – Elliniki Stratiotiki Astynomia = Special Interrogation Centre – Greek Military Police) into light. In the second part, we contrast that case, where all performances were conducted freely and under legal permission, with the 2015 Polytechneio graffiti incident, when artists covered overnight the southwestern façade of the neoclassical building with a gigantic oeuvre of street art that was removed by the authorities, given the illegal nature of the action. This contrast reveals the dynamic relationship between art narratives and attitudes towards monuments, which have followed different pathways of development after the Junta regime ended.

Living Next to the Bodies of the Dead: Sense of Ancestry Through Dark Heritage in Quillagua, Atacama Desert, Chile

ABSTRACT This article addresses the relationship between heritage and ancestry. It aims to understand the manner in which human remains from different periods and cultures become relevant symbols for a community. The territory of Quillagua was studied, an oasis of the Loa River in the Atacama Desert, combining ethnographic, cartographic, and historiographic techniques. Two relevant findings can be pointed out. First, sense of ancestry plays an essential role in heritage formation, even more so than sense of place and sense of belonging. Second, sense of ancestry is not homogenous; rather, it is diverse and contradictory because it is constructed through clashes from interests such as economic and scientific interests, memories of difficult and violent pasts, failures in intercultural recognition, and environmental sacrifice policies with negative social consequences. Despite its contradictory nature, the concept of sense of ancestry can be understood as a heritage emotion that causes affirmation and empowerment, especially for those rural Mestizo and Indigenous communities whose cultural and territorial rights have been violated.

Dismantling a world: France’s monumental military heritage in Sidi-Bel-Abbès, Algeria

ABSTRACT The history of France’s war memorials is a much-studied domain of scholarly inquiry. According to historian Antoine Prost, constructing monuments on a grand scale to commemorate wars was a response to the staggering number of 1,300,000 French dead in World War I. Among those who fought for France in 1914–18 were 343,000 conscripted and mobilised Algerians divided according to colonial categories between French citizens and indigènes, the latter drafted as French subjects. So widespread was the ‘cult of the monument’ that the term ‘statuomania’ was coined by historian Maurice Agulhon to account for 36,000 war memorials erected in the interwar period throughout France and its overseas territories, especially in Algeria, which was integrated as France’s southernmost province. The significance of French colonists implanting statues was well understood by the native Algerian population who linked a colonial Algeria known for a plethora of monuments to the visible and materialised expressions of colonial power and occupation. Analysing how the formerly colonised of Algeria address the enduring material presence of statues, steles, monuments, and other effigies of the colonial past, this essay draws on concepts such as ‘dark heritage’ and ‘difficult heritage’. My case study is the town of Sidi-Bel-Abbès, headquarters and cradle of the French Foreign Legion until 1962 and the different fates of its two war memorials after Algeria’s 1962 independence from France.

The Dark Geocultural Heritage of Volcanoes: Combining Cultural and Geoheritage Perspectives for Mutual Benefit

It is now widely accepted that vulnerability to natural hazards is dependent on cultural and historical factors. Similarly, geoheritage cannot be readily disentangled from cultural values and cultural heritage. The assignment of value to a given geosite is conducted in the present, and many, if not most geosites, are also sites of culture-historical significance. Conversely, most tangible cultural heritage also contains elements of geoheritage. To merge aspects of geoheritage and of cultural heritage, the notion of geocultural heritage has been proposed; we build on this and argue that the viewpoints of geoheritage and of cultural heritage—here especially of dark heritage—can be brought further together for mutual benefit. We begin by demonstrating through a bibliometric analysis that the two fields are at present unduly disjointed. We then illustrate how geoheritage and dark cultural heritage can be brought together through four case studies of past volcanism and their complex human entanglements. In conclusion, we encourage heritage workers to be more fully interdisciplinary, to read more widely outside their own fields and to disseminate their research more broadly for mutual benefits of geoheritage valorisation, conservation and risk reduction.

Witchcraft Belief, Representation and Memory in Modern Ireland

ABSTRACTThis micro study of Islandmagee, Co. Antrim, the site of Ireland’s last witch trial in 1711, offers new insight into the understudied area of modern Irish witchcraft. It suggests that popular belief in witchcraft continued in Ireland up until the twentieth century and was shaped at a local level by the social memory of historic trials transmitted culturally via oral tradition and informal ‘dark heritage’ sites. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Irish writers produced a variety of ideologically charged and gendered readings of the 1711 case that created an accepted narrative of Irish witchcraft, which at once questioned its reality and distanced Ireland from the legacy of early modern-European witch-hunting. Along with controversy created over twenty-first century commemoration, this highlights a longstanding, discursive avoidance of Ireland’s witch-hunting past.

Visitors’ Experiences and Reactions to a Dark Heritage Site: The Case of the Cape Coast Castle (2010–2015)

This study investigates how different visitors experienced a dark heritage site (Cape Coast Slave Castle). Two main groups of people studied are those with historic links to the site and those without. Those with historic links include descendants of victims of the slave trade, people from countries, which participated in that dark heritage, and those whose ancestors may have collaborated. This study of 3,452 comments using directed content analysis found that recognition of the darkness of the heritage is universal, but experiences of the darkness are diverse. The different experiences highlight the complexity of reactions to, as well as contested meanings of, slavery and its enduring effects. The study also shows that the sense of "ownership" of the site is not defined by citizenship in the country of its location. One implication of this is that Cape Coast Slave Castle curators have a responsibility that goes beyond Ghana’s borders.

Domestic tourists to Elmina Castle, Ghana: motivation, tourism impacts, place attachment, and satisfaction

Current research on dark tourism lacks an in-depth investigation of the relationships between the various psychological factors that influence tourist satisfaction. Using the cognitive-affective-behavior system, this paper evaluates a theoretical model that postulates relationships between four constructs, namely: motivation, perceptions of tourism impacts, place attachment, and satisfaction. The study extends the tourism literature on cultural sustainability by showing the psychological connections of domestic tourists to a dark heritage site, and the implications for perceptions of tourism impacts on this heritage. Based on a sample of 414 domestic tourists at a dark heritage site in Elmina, Ghana, PLS-SEM confirmed several inter-relationships among the four constructs. Motivation had a positive relationship with perceptions of positive and negative tourism impacts, suggesting that the tourists who were more motivated to visit the site for cultural/learning experiences were also more inclined to perceive both positive and negative tourism impacts. Implications for dark tourism and how heritage site management can influence tourists’ perceptions of impacts are offered.

Radioactive Heritage: The Universal Value of Chernobyl as a Dark Heritage Site

In 1986, the world witnessed the worst nuclear power accident in history at Chernobyl. Today, Chernobyl has become a popular site for dark tourism. This autoethnographic study seeks to determine whether Chernobyl has an outstanding universal value to merit designation as a UNESCO heritage site. Precedents for dark heritage sites include Auschwitz-Birkenau and Hiroshima. Their common elements are historic tragedy, the expression of strength and hope of humanity, and a symbol for change. Chernobyl is a historic tragedy. The heroism among first responders and liquidators provides hope in humanity. Chernobyl has led us to ponder the pros and cons of nuclear power. Chernobyl meets the criteria as a potential UNESCO dark heritage site, but would require the financial support of the Ukrainian government and a commitment to ensuring a safe and valuable tourism experience.

100 years later: the dark heritage of the Great War at a prisoner-of-war camp in Czersk, Poland

Abstract

군함도, 산업유산과 지옥관광 사이에서

This paper examines the processes and stories in which the island of Hashima (also known as the Battleship Island) was enlisted as one of the sites in the World Heritage List of the UNESCO in 2015. The memories of the Battleship Island has become increasingly liquid; and the various stories on the island are currently competing with each other. These stories can be categorized into four, that is, the story of industrial heritage, shameful heritage, dark heritage, and dark tourism. While probing into the four stories, this paper argues that a new story of the island is in need and the new story needs to convey the ideals and values of poetic justice, democracy, and hope.

Re-using ‘uncomfortable heritage’: the case of the 1933 building, Shanghai

This paper opens up a discussion over the processes of forgetting and remembering that occur in the adaptive reuse of quite commonplace buildings that, nevertheless, have been classified as ‘heritage’. For most buildings survival depends upon finding a new economic use once original use has ceased. At this point decisions are also made about what stories are carried forward from the building’s past. The principal case study discussed in this paper is the former Shanghai Municipal Abattoir, a modernist concrete sculpture now branded 1933 Shanghai. The paper delineates how a process of ‘strategic forgetting and selective remembrance’ has been undertaken, negotiating the bloody nature of the building’s past, in its reuse as an upscale commercial venue. Reuse is further considered within the wider frames of a 1920–1930s Shanghai urban branding ‘imaginary’ and as a ‘building of control and reform’ – a category of buildings developed from the eighteenth-century European Enlightenment-thinking. In reflecting upon this negotiation in the heritage making process with potentially difficult past events, we propose the category of ‘uncomfortable heritage’, as part of a wider spectrum of ‘dark heritage’, and conclude with a final reflection upon 1933 Shanghai as a heterotopic space.

From fighting against death to commemorating the dead at Tangshan Earthquake heritage sites

ABSTRACTWhile previous studies have emphasized the social construction aspect in man-made disasters, this study applies this framework to natural disasters. By focusing on three different commemorative heritage sites of the 1976 Great Tangshan Earthquake, constructed over the years in China, we argue that similar to man-made disasters, the construction of natural disaster dark heritage is also influenced by political, social and cultural factors. From fighting against death to celebrating life, the representations of death in dark heritage sites are always changing, particularly in transitional China, and tourism has played a role in this dynamic process. Some of the key features of natural disaster dark heritage sites are also discussed.

Soft power and dark heritage: multiple potentialities

While positively connoted tangible cultural heritage is widely recognized as an asset to states in their exercise of soft power, the value of sites of ‘dark heritage’ in the context of soft power strategies has not yet been fully explored. This article offers a theoretical framework for the analysis of the multiple soft power potentialities inherent in the management and presentation of sites of past violence and atrocity, demonstrating how the value of these sites can be developed in terms of place branding, cultural diplomacy and state-level diplomacy. The relationship between dark heritage, soft power and the search for ‘ontological security’ is also explored, highlighting how difficult pasts can be mobilized in order to frame positive contemporary roles for states in the international system. Drawing on this theoretical framework, the article offers an analysis of the case of the Soča valley in Slovenia and the presentation of the site of the First World War battle of Kobarid in a dedicated museum. Through this case study, the article underlines the particular role of dark heritage for the national self-projection of a new and small state in the context of European integration.

A Study on the Status and Utilization of Dark Tourism Heritage in Vietnam - Focusing on the Elements of War Heritage in Ho Chi Minh Region -

A Study on the Status and Utilization of Dark Tourism Heritage in Vietnam - Focusing on the Elements of War Heritage in Ho Chi Minh Region -

Commemorative events at destination memorials – a dark (heritage) tourism context

In the past, sites and events related to war and atrocities were viewed in the wider context of heritage tourism. The term ‘dark’ was added with the aim of recognising heritage sites closely related to death and suffering. Given that commemorative events as part of dark heritage are not prevalent in heritage and tourism literature, there is a need to understand the behaviour of visitors involved in visiting these sites or attending this type of event, which presents a special challenge. Public commemorations, especially those that mark particularly disturbing occurrences, such as ‘The Great School Hour’ – an event which is presented in the artistic form of a ‘school class’ – are unique form of tourist activity that has not been thoroughly investigated previously. Thus, the aim of the study is to explore the influence of the main motivators on revisit intention and willingness to recommend for those who attended the commemorative event ‘The Great School Hour’ in Kragujevac, Serbia, with a particular focus on younger people. The results suggest that learning, emotional response and uniqueness have a significant positive effect on revisit intention, while emotional response and uniqueness have a significant positive effect on willingness to recommend.

Interpreting Terrorism: Learning from Children's Visitor Comments

Thousands of children visit memorials and other dark heritage sites each year, yet researchers have rarely studied their experiences. Faced with limited prior research, interpreters at terrorism-related sites grapple with especially serious and unanswered questions about how best to engage young visitors. To address these concerns, the staff of the Flight 93 National Memorial, erected at the crash site of an airline hijacked on September 11, 2001, partnered with an interdisciplinary team of researchers. The team studied children's post-visit comments at the Memorial, adapting the content analysis methods of prior researchers who studied visitor comments, logs, and books. Children exhibited patriotism, grateful remembrance, emotional realizations, and a sense of place as they struggled to make meaning of the events. These findings led to relevant and understandable interpretive activities, which now comprise the Junior Ranger program for young visitors. The paper suggests implications for future research on interpreting terrorism-related events.