Heritage Community Research Articles

Cemeteries as (un)wanted heritage of previous communities. An example of changes in the management of cemeteries and their social perception in Gdańsk, Poland

Cemeteries, despite the sacred values attributed to them, proving their inviolability and durability, undergo functional transformations in the dynamic structure of developing cities. This article focuses on the city of Gdańsk, which historically changed its statehood several times. Almost a full exchange of population from German to Polish took place after World War II. The main aim of the article is to compare the post-1945 attitudes of the new Gdańsk community and the authorities towards cemeteries being a legacy of their predecessors. During World War II and the three subsequent decades most of the unwanted (unrelated to the Polish community) necropolises were closed down and removed. 25 of the 101 inventoried cemeteries have survived until modern times. It has been shown that there are clear differences in the management of cemeteries after 1945, from the removing them in the communist times to the commemorating and revitalizing them during the maturing democracy. This is associated with the current social views, where the majority of residents object to changing the function of the sites of the former cemeteries and only allow converting them into greenery with commemoration of the history of the place.

Heritage Community Resilience: towards new approaches for urban resilience and sustainability

The value of cultural heritage and its transmission for “making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” is an integral part of the UN Agenda 2030 and the new international policy for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. Nonetheless, the role of culture for these important challenges is an issue that current scientific literature on resilience has not yet sufficiently investigated. Starting from the concept of Heritage Community, elaborated in the Council of Europe's Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Framework convention on the value of cultural heritage for society, 2005), along with the hypothesis of its role for Community Resilience, this study elaborates a conceptual framework in which “Heritage Community Resilience” is defined. It is both a target and a process in which cultural heritage supports the building of a community able to prevent, cope with and recover from disturbances and/ or disasters. Through a survey of several case studies on heritage-driven practices in Italian inner peripheral areas, the research aims to define the specific characteristics of Heritage Community Resilience as well as identify any critical actors and variables, strategies and governance mechanisms, which influence both Heritage Community and Community Resilience. It predicts the challenges and highlights the potential that culture and heritage can develop for Community Resilience, towards further perspectives of resilient circular city.

The dark side of cultural heritage protection

AbstractThis article introduces the concept of the dark side of cultural heritage protection. It points out how the many and mostly honorable efforts to protect cultural heritage against the harms of war and conflict sometimes contribute to make cultural heritage vulnerable or even to cause its destruction. The more we talk about cultural heritage and its value and the importance of protecting it, the more interesting it becomes for some groups to target it. This article argues that states, international organizations, and the heritage community need to recognize these negative side effects and make sure to consider them in future action.

Slow design‐driven innovation: A response to our future in the Anthropocene epoch

Human activities have changed the Earth System to the point where we are in a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. This is characterized as a climate crisis with the practices and meanings associated with innovation being challenged. ‘Slow Designers’, including those living in the most climatically vulnerable parts of the Earth, are innovating design practices by building on the heritage and history of local communities and using eco‐friendly materials. These craft‐inspired approaches could mitigate our over reliance on the Earth System. Slow design‐driven innovation (DDI), by translating communities' heritage, history and territorial importance, creates sustainable products that customers love and care for. We contribute to the theory of DDI by bringing together concepts from the Slow Food movement and DDI, coining the term ‘Slow Design‐Driven Innovation’. Slow DDI consists of four actions: envisaging the heritage, featuring the biodiversity in the product, translating traditional techniques into processes for innovative products and narrating a story about the products and their makers to promote new meanings. Managerially, this contributes to a model of responsible production that confronts current practices in today's climate crisis, as the products are long‐lasting, high quality and are created using local organic materials, thereby protecting biodiversity.

Remembering 1807: Lessons from the Archives

Abstract This article offers new perspectives on the commemorative events organized around the UK in 2007 to mark the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act (1807). Drawing from the resources contained in Remembering 1807, a digital archive of information about nearly 350 events and exhibitions held in 2007, it offers a closer look at the variety, diversity and creativity of projects organized by heritage organizations and community groups from all parts of the UK. While agreeing that much of the national narrative focused on the celebratory aspects of Britain’s role in abolition, we argue that many other projects gave voice to a wide range of concerns relating to transatlantic slavery, challenging participants to rethink the boundaries of slavery and abolition in Britain’s public history. This included highlighting the role of transatlantic slavery in hitherto unexplored areas of British history, in local stories and in broader narratives of Britain’s commercial, military, and imperial expansion. Other projects drew attention to the lasting legacies of slavery, emphasized stories of resistance or celebrated the Black presence in Britain. Recognizing these other perspectives within the commemorative impulse in 2007 can help us to (re)orientate future memory work around Britain’s role in transatlantic slavery.

A study of 1970s Hakkâri handmade shoes: An ethnography

This study examines the types of shoes that were worn in the 1970s in Hakkâri – a city and province in Turkey close to the Turkish–Iraqi border – and its surroundings, linking them to social status, choice and taste, as well as economic power and the original cultural heritage of the local community. The findings detailed herein are based on samples taken from fieldwork conducted in 32 localities. Severe winter conditions have an important place among the factors that shape the social life of the local people of Hakkâri. In winter, they used to wear snowshoes called ‘leken’ to walk comfortably on snow of 2 m depth. Unlike various types of shoes worn today, there were three types of shoes worn in Hakkâri and its surroundings in the past in addition to snowshoes. The first is the one made of goat hair called ‘reşik’; the second is called ‘lastik’, which has a tyre sole and has knitted sides made of goat’s hair yarn; the third is a shoe called ‘kalik’, made from cattle skin. The characteristics of these have close relations with the material, colour and shape of shoes and the class and status of the people who wore them as well as with traditions and culture of the community. As well as exploring the material and other features of these shoes, similar examples, redesigned and made in other nearby provinces, are compared and discussed. This study is significant in that these traditional handicrafts are at risk of vanishing, as are other handicrafts in other parts of the world, due to the influence of technology and industrialization. By considering the traditional methods of shoe-making in Hakkâri and contextualizing this amongst the practices of other nearby provinces, this study aims to contribute to the promotion of the culture and art of the region and add to the limited literature in this field.

A MODERN MUSEUM AS A SPACE OF MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATION: A REVIEW OF CASES OF RUSSIA AND THE UK

Author considers the issue of transforming the communicative strategy of the modern museum as a promising center for multicultural communication. multicultural communication is understood as a process of interaction between immigrants and the host society. In addition, the inconsistency and ambiguity of understanding the content and consequences of increased immigration, as well as the changes that occur with cultural institutions, also make this story relevant. The author of the article focuses on how a cultural institution such as a museum responds to the challenge of complicated intercultural and multicultural communications in the modern world. The methodological basis for the study is the concept of the «post-museum» and the achievements of the Leyster school of museology in the studies of the communicative and inclusive activities of modern museums. The article presents the author's classification of the levels of work of museums with immigrants and their multicultural communication. The first level is exhibiting and representing the cultural heritage of immigration communities, the second level is attracting immigrants to co-authorship, and the third one is the implementation of comprehensive inclusive work with all ethnic and cultural groups.The highlighted levels are confirmed by real examples and cases from the experience of Russian and British museums, information about which is available on their official websites. In the course of the study, the main conclusions were made. Firstly, to date, there has been a shift in the functional structure of the museum from its custody functions to communication, and the process of interacting with visitors has begun to build on the principle of participation. Secondly, the museum, as a social institution that collects and presents objects of cultural heritage and historical artifacts, works, first of all, with the phenomena of «cultural memory» and «identity», not only representing the latter, but also constructing it through the exposition and museum activity. And thirdly, it is this circumstance that allows museums to become an effective platform for building a multicultural dialogue and processes of social inclusion.

Heritage Management at the Local Level: Heritage Communities and Role of Local Authorities

Heritage management at the local level benefits heritage properties and serves the public interest. By using comparative and interpretative analyses, we argue for the use of the “heritage community” term in current heritage management, and analyse what this expression brings for the role of local authorities. We upgrade this definition with attributes that characterize heritage communities. The paper presents the evolution of the concept of participatory heritage management in the context of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. It tests the relevance of the participatory approach in the heritage field against the theory of social systems. Conclusions comprise principles defining the role of local authorities in facilitating direct participation of heritage communities in heritage management.

Dziedzictwo kulturowe wspólnot lokalnych w tradycji ustnej

Cultural Heritage of Local Communities in Oral History. The Base of Constructing the Social Memory 
 Local communities construct their own cultural heritage on the base of speaking traditions means as oral history. Each small community protects its own set of symbols and elements of tradition, including belief, dialect and private stories and anecdotes. The oral history performs a function of a part of social memory and sustains close social bonds among members of small communities. The article concerns the oral history’s role in preserving the cultural identity of small local communities.

Cooperation for Renewal of Local Cultural Heritage in Rural Communities: Case Study of the Night of Legends in Latvia

Abstract The aim of the paper is to describe the phenomenon of the Night of Legends in Latvia particularly focusing on the case of manors in Jelgava county. This event aims to preserve and promote local cultural heritage by active involvement of local community members and visitors (individuals, amateur groups, local businesses, schools, etc.). Thematic activities in manors and palaces are targeted to raise interest and cooperation, what in turn extends the tourist season. The event is organized by the Latvian Association of Castles, Palaces and Manors. The paper includes an analysis of the event’s offer in the context of preservation of cultural heritage as well as interviews with tourism specialists from Jelgava county, particularly involved in organizing the Night of Legends.

The loss of Sikh heritage: The missing manuscripts of Sikh Reference Library since June 1984

ABSTRACT This essays concerns the destruction of Sikh Reference Library during the Indian army’s invasion of the Golden Temple, Amritsar in June 1984. The Library built over several decades drew upon almost five centuries’ Sikh literature from various sources containing much of the most precious heritage of the Sikh community. Among its contents were priceless handwritten birs of Guru Granth; recensions of Dasam Granth, hukamnamas and early Sikh literature dating back from 16th century to many gifts deposited by the Sikh sovereign Maharajah Ranjit Singh and other Sikh princes during the 19th century. How the Library, alleged to have survived three days of intensive fighting, then caught fire with contentious claims that its contents were taken away by the army -some of these were returned by the government of India while much is yet unaccounted for, has led to almost continuous controversy since June 1984. The loss of much of Sikh Reference Library is now part of painful memory of India’s callous disregard for a community’s historical heritage with no resolution as to what happened to its contents.

Positioning human heritage at the center of conservation practice.

Conservation projects subscribing to a community‐based paradigm have predominated in the 21st century. We examined the context in which the phrase was coined and traced its growth over time. Community‐based conservation first appeared in the literature in the early 1990s; but grew little until after the 5th World Parks Congress in 2003. Thereafter, publications describing community‐based conservation approaches increased exponentially. The conference theme was Benefits Beyond Boundaries, and its goal was to provide an economic model based on revenue accrued from conservation fundraising and ecotourism to support ecosystems, wildlife, and people, particularly in the Global South. Such models tended not to incorporate, as a core principle, the heritage of local human communities. Human heritage varies substantially over time and space making generalization of conservation principles across scales challenging. Pitfalls that have grown out of the community‐based conservation approaches in the Global South include fortress conservation, conservation militarism, consumptive and nonconsumptive ecotourism, and whiz‐bang solutions. We propose 10 tenets in a human heritage‐centered conservation framework (e.g., engage in conservation practices using local languages, thoughtfully propose and apply solutions consistent with human heritage, provide clear professional development pathways for individuals from local communities, and promote alternative revenue‐generating programs centered in local communities, among others). Progressive philosophies can derive from authentic and ethical integration of local communities in conservation practice.

Dignity of the heritage and the heritage communities

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the reasons why the human rights-based approach should be used in the preservation of cultural heritage.Design/methodology/approachThe article is a combination of an essay and illustrative case studies. The thesis is based on experience in heritage protection on national and international level and the discussions of the “Heritage and Human Rights” training in Estonia 1.-6.05.2019.FindingsCultural heritage is the common good regardless of its ownership. The protection of something, especially in living environments, includes compromises in the rights of one or another counterpart. Restrictions are often ground for conflicts that can be settled with good communication, but sometimes just communication is not enough. In these cases, human rights-based approaches enable to identify the problems, scale the rights of different stakeholders and thus enable discussion to reach consensus.Practical implicationsThe research is useful for heritage conservationists, policy makers and urban planners with regards to management and implementation of human rights-based approach and community involvement in heritage protection on World Heritage, national and local levels.Originality/valueThe research is a part of a series of discussions, trainings and project reports of the Our Common Dignity – Rights Based Approaches (OCD-RBA) working group of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and contributes to the follow-up activities worldwide.

Biogeographies: Transcending anthropocentrism in the Anthropocene

Biogeographies: Transcending anthropocentrism in the Anthropocene

What is the role of the academic in community archaeology? The changing nature of volunteer participation at Caistor Roman town

ABSTRACT This paper charts the long-term development of a community archaeology project at the Roman town of Venta Icenorum (UK), which started as community participation in a university research project and has ultimately developed into a more equal partnership between academia and the voluntary sector. The paper describes the changing nature of community participation over the 13-year arc of the project to date, and looks at the relationship between academic research and voluntary participation in archaeology. It discusses the tensions between the needs of research and those of a successful community heritage project, particularly in light of the demands driven by the inclusion of ‘impact’ in the Research Excellence Framework (REF).

Destructive trends in contemporary armed conflicts and the overlooked aspect of intangible cultural heritage: A critical comparison of the protection of cultural heritage under IHL and the Islamic law of armed conflict

AbstractThe destruction of cultural heritage in armed conflicts has gained increasing political momentum and visibility over the last two decades. Syria, Iraq and Mali, among others, have witnessed the intentional destruction of their cultural heritage by non-State armed groups (NSAGs) that have invoked Islamic law and principles to legitimize their actions. The response of the international community has predominantly focused on the material aspect, to the detriment of the significant impact on the associated intangible manifestation of cultural heritage in local communities. This article argues that several Islamic legal rules and principles may, more adequately than international humanitarian law, safeguard the intangible dimension of cultural heritage in certain contemporary armed conflicts in Muslim contexts. It aims to demonstrate the importance of drawing from multiple legal traditions in order to enhance the protection of intangible cultural heritage in armed conflicts and to strengthen engagement with the relevant NSAGs.

TEMPORARY EMERGENCY SHELTER AGARIYAS: A CASE STUDY FROM THE FLOOD PRONE SITE OF KUMANO, JAPAN

Abstract. This study clarifies different issues associated with temporary emergency shelters called Agariyas during floods, in the Kumano, area along the Kumano River in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. The locations and features of Agariyas were identified through fieldwork. To collect and confirm the location and past existences of Agariyas, interviews were conducted with the elderly. Also, a measurement survey was used to collect data on the types, location, floor plan, and material use of Agariyas. The study confirmed that many Agariyas were built after the 1889 flood, the water level of which influenced their locations. However, currently, very few remain. They were mainly minimally furnished with one to two rooms, a storage space, and a small kitchen for a temporary evacuation period. They were built on terraces or mounded ground. Their architectural features differ depending on the owner, but they were most commonly built using wood, and the roof was covered with cedar bark and rounded stones. Younger generations do not know about Agariyas. To increase the local knowledge and awareness of flood disaster culture, it is important to re-evaluate the tangible and intangible heritage in local communities, which includes the effort and wisdom of ancestors related to local disasters. The Kumano-Hongu Shrine and pilgrimage route attract visitors today. However, addressing the experiences and knowledge of local disaster may add value to the World Heritage site.

The Digital Syriac Corpus: A Digital Repository for Syriac Texts

Abstract The Digital Syriac Corpus was launched publicly in May 2018. The goal of the corpus is to provide a venue for publishing digitized editions of Syriac texts. All of the texts in the Digital Syriac Corpus are open-access (CC BY 4.0) and freely available for anyone to use. The Digital Syriac Corpus includes texts that have been transcribed from print sources as well as manuscripts, and it also includes newly produced digital editions. The search feature, including advanced searching options, provides users the opportunity to analyze a large database of Syriac texts in ways that have never before been possible. It is hoped that as the project continues to develop, scholars and readers of Syriac texts will find new ways to use and analyze the data the Digital Syriac Corpus has collected and published. As an open-access digital repository, the Digital Syriac Corpus can also serve as a tool for the preservation of the Syriac language, not only for scholars who study the Syriac tradition, but also for the heritage communities who have preserved Syriac as a literary, liturgical, and spoken language for centuries.

9Memory and Masculinity at Stanford's Arboretum Chinese Quarters

AbstractUsing archival, archaeological, and oral historical evidence, I explore how Chinese men living at Stanford University's Arboretum Chinese Quarters navigated changing attitudes toward gender and race at the end of the nineteenth century. Artifacts helped prompt an intersubjective process of oral history and stories shared by descendants of Chinese employees at Stanford and other members of the local Chinese American community in California's San Francisco Bay Area. Based on these interviews and further research into documents and objects, I highlight two intertwined social spheres for the Chinese population at Stanford, including networks based on business, family, or fraternal organizations, and competitive games and athletics. I show how these men may have forged new ways to perform an emergent Chinese American masculinity by combining practices from both sides of the Pacific. Research conducted between 2016 and 2019 helped produce new senses of heritage for the Chinese American communities at Stanford and elsewhere in the Bay Area.

Maya of the Past, Present, and Future: Heritage, Anthropological Archaeology, and the Study of the Caste War of Yucatan

This paper examines the relationship between the past, present, and future of Maya heritage and archaeology. We trace some of the background of Maya archaeology and Maya heritage studies in order to understand the state of the field today. We examine and demonstrate how an integrated and collaborative community heritage project, based in Tihosuco, Quintana Roo, Mexico, has developed and changed over time in reaction to perceptions about heritage and identity within the local community. We also describe the many sub-programs of the Tihosuco Heritage and Community Development Project, showcasing our methods and outcomes, with the aim of presenting this as a model to be used by other anthropologists interested in collaborative heritage practice.