Between Home and History Managing the interface between preservation and development of living historic places (original) (raw)

‘Some Remarks on the Motives behind Cultural Heritage Conservation’

There are various explanations for social and cultural dimensions of conserving historical and cultural heritage and multiple viewpoints concerning the past. Industrialization, modernization, collective nostalgia, tourism, the ideology of nationalism, and aesthetic concerns might be implicit factors. I argue that the social and cultural dynamics in historical and cultural heritage preservation in a certain community could be investigated by focusing on discourses about how individuals and institutions describe, legitimize and give meaning to cultural heritage preservation. Official discourses extensively argue that, with well-preserved cultural heritage artifacts, the connection between past and present is strongly established; hence, individuals’ belonging to their culture and society are positively affected. On the other hand, it is a known fact that cultural heritage has been increasingly employed in reinforcing and constituting social and cultural identities in contemporary societies. Heritage conservation has always been related to the nationalistic or religious sentiments. Moreover, because of the economic value of cultural heritage, the issue of conservation has also become an area for financial investment. With the increase in heritage tourism activities, cultural heritage has extensively become a means to foster tourism relations and large numbers of civil and public authorities have invested resources to protect and display their cultural artifacts for that purpose. Yet the concept of heritage is controversial, for the meaning of cultural change is fluid and it can change from one section of society to another. Social and cultural differences play a major role in representation and interpretation of cultural heritage, the viewpoints about the past, and of the heritage production and consumption practices. In this paper, I will investigate the dominant determining factors in cultural heritage preservation practices with reference to Beypazarı, a popular town in Ankara which is famous with its well-preserved cultural and historical artifacts.

The Politics of Preservation: Privileging One Heritage over Another

International Journal of Cultural Property, 2013

Heritage preservation is distinctly political, often presenting a privileged elitist interpretation of historic sites, while denigrating or even destroying later significant built environments. Structures that are the emanation of subsequent cultures, but similarly tied to the place, are often undervalued, underinterpreted, and even purposely obliterated from the landscape. This article considers the politics of heritage related to privileging one type of historic structure to the complete detriment of the other. The example of Gurna, in Egypt, serves as a powerful case study for the loss of a living historic built environment solely for the simplified or "flattened" interpretation of a place. In highlighting the preferential protection and presentation of the World Heritage Site of the Theban Necropolis and ultimate demise of the historic hamlets of Gurna, the article builds on previous work in the field on interpretation, the impact of tourism, and the conflicting identities of historic sites. [It] is not until a building has assumed this character, till it has been entrusted with the fame, and hallowed by the deeds of men, till its walls have been witnesses of suffering, and its pillars rise out of the shadows of death, that its existence, more lasting as it is than that of the natural objects of the world around it, can be gifted with even so much as these possess, of language and of life.-John Ruskin

Retaining character: heritage conservation and the logic of continuity

Social Anthropology, 2018

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After conservation : let building tell its own story

ABSTRACT: Every building has its own story. In the case of conservation we have to find a new function to keep the building alive, but it’s observed that, some new functions given to the buildings can never fit the existing building. The facades can be perfect in details but the prob- lem is with the harmony of planning and the programme of the existing building and the addi- tions. It should has been questioned that ‘why do we conserve the historical buildings?’ So we have to turn back to the beginning of the conservation. The other important question is based on to remember the principles of the conservation, ‘How shall we conserve?’ With all the answers of the questions above, in the paper two examples of conservated buildings from Istanbul, are compared with each other and the selected buildings are examined due to the functions given to them.

Problems with preservation in situ

"Preservation in situ has developed into a central dogma of western archaeological heritage management. This paper examines assumptions underlying that dogma and the way in which it works out in practice, both in western and non-western contexts. Bureaucratization and commercialization are seen as important drives behind its rise as a dominating concept in heritage policy. While surely useful and important in some situations, preservation in situ is too problematic in several ways to be acceptable as an ethical principle with broad validity."

Introduction—What is Preservation?

Review of Middle East Studies, Volume 51, Issue 2, August 2017 , pp. 177-182 Tangible “heritage” (artifacts, buildings, and sites) has always played key roles in identity and nation-building in the Middle East. As countries in the Middle East face unprecedented disorder and violence we lack more nuanced answers to what preservation was, is, and what it can be in the future. This roundtable—initiated as a session at the Middle East Studies Association's annual meeting in 2016—offers a much-needed perspective and critical voice in a debate that has become increasingly monolithic. In other words, current notions of what “cultural heritage” is and how it should be preserved are limited and often dismiss the limitations, complexities and ironies of iconoclasm. Objects seen as valuable by some but “idolatrous” to others, for example, have sometimes been destroyed precisely because they were considered worthy of preservation by opposing parties. Further, preservation and destruction were rarely exclusive binaries, but rather connected and identified in crucial ways. They are, in other words, two sides of the same coin: Archaeological excavation has destroyed buildings and deposits in strata above selected layers or artifacts, often removing sites that are meaningful in other ways, such as Islamic shrines.