The Nature of Heritage

The New South Africa

Meskell, Lynn

1. Auflage Oktober 2011
272 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd

ISBN: 978-0-470-67071-2

John Wiley & Sons

Kurzbeschreibung

This text is a groundbreaking work by archaeologist Lynn Meskell that examines the conflicts inherent in natural vs. cultural heritage. The author brings archaeological and ethnographic evidence to bear on a holistic understanding of one nation's self-identification by developing its protected areas and cultural heritage sites. The case study of Kruger National Park vividly demonstrates this process through both cultural and natural resource development. Meskell argues that cultural heritage has emerged as secondary to the conservation of nature, but that the idea of heritage as therapy provides a valuable ongoing strategy for socioeconomic empowerment and development.

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The Nature of Heritage: The New South Africa is unique in revealing the conflicts inherent in preserving both natural and cultural heritage, by examining the archaeological, ethnographic and economic evidence of a nation's attempts to master its past and its future.
* Provides a classic example of how nations attempt to overcome a negative heritage through past mastering of their histories
* Evaluates the continuing dominance of nature and conservation over concerns for cultural heritage
* Employs ethnographic and archaeological methodologies to reveal how the past is processed into a new national heritage
* Identifies heritage as therapy, exemplified in the strategy for repairing legacies of racial and ethnic difference in post-apartheid South Africa
* Highlights the role of archaeological heritage sites, national parks and protected areas in economic development and social empowerment
* Explores how nature trumps culture and the global implications of the new configurations of heritage

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Past Mastering in the New South Africa
1.Naturalizing Cultural Heritage
2.Making Heritage Pay in the Rainbow Nation
3. It's Mine, It's Yours: Excavating Park Histories
4. Why Biodiversity Trumps Culture
5.Archaeologies of Failure
6.Thulamela: the Donors, the Archaeologist, his Gold,and the Flood
7. Kruger is a Gold Rock: Parastatal and Private Visionsof the Good
Conclusions: Future Perfect
References
Index

"Lynn Meskell's book is carefully researched and engagingly written, and is essential reading for anyone interested in archaeology and heritage in South Africa." (South African Archaeological Bulletin, 1 October 2013)

Lynn Meskell is Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University (USA) and Honorary Professor at the Rock Art Research Institute in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). She is the founder and editor of the Journal of Social Archaeology, and the author and editor of several books, including A Companion to Social Archaeology (Wiley-Blackwell), Archaeologies of Materiality (Wiley-Blackwell), and Cosmopolitan Archaeologies.

L. Meskell, Stanford University, USA