Cultural heritage

About: Cultural heritage is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 28201 publications have been published within this topic receiving 273875 citations. The topic is also known as: cultural assets & cultural goods.

Values and Heritage Conservation

Abstract: The notion of heritage and the practice of conservation have changed significantly since the 1964 Charter of Venice stipulated that the intent of conservation was “to safeguard…[monuments]… no less as works of art than as historical evidence” and that the aim of restoration was “to preserve and reveal the aesthetic and historic value of the monument … based on respect for original material and authentic documents.” Since then the scope of heritage has expanded, both in terms of type and scale, and in relation to the time interval between creation and preservation. The characteristics and contexts of different types of heritage places have necessitated the revision of conservation principles and guidelines.Today conservation is understood to encompass any action designed to maintain the cultural significance of a heritage object or place, and is a process that starts at the moment a place is attributed cultural values and singled out for protection. In this complex environment, the protection of va...

Museums and the making of "ourselves" : the role of objects in national identity

Abstract: IntroductionThe revolutionary movements which are often the basis for nation-state formation frequently assert the uniqueness of one or more ethnic groups within such states. In attempting to preserve their cultural heritage, culturally and historically significant collections and sites, that were formerly the property of elites, are transferred into public hands as a national legacy. That legacy is then made available in museums for the enrichment, education and collective identity of the citzenry. Two kinds of basic resources are customarily collected, conserved and displayed in museums: objects, meaning the "things" of culture, belonging to the material world, that have been made, altered or utilized by human beings; and specimens or phenomena of the natural world. Writ large, these resources include monuments, architecture and sites, as well as living collections from nature, like arboretums, zoos, geological phenomena, gardens and their social constructions. Sometimes change is less dramatic than revolution, but is still the result of contested access to means of publicly defining self and nation, cultural and national identity and ambitions.This book presents the histories and case studies of some of the ways in which national cultural heritage was and is still being created, transformed and shaped into collective views of the state, its regions, municipalities, constituent groups, values and ideas. Museums and the Making of "Ourselves" calls attention to museums as social institutions. It treats museums as a potent force in forging self consciousness, within specific historical contexts and as part of a political process of democratization. The spread of museums in the 19th century was apparently spurred by burgeoning science and capitalism in the West; and in the 20th century, by industrialization, change and the demise of colonialism.The book chronicles some of the ways in which collections have played important roles in creating national identity and in promoting national agendas. It also provides examples in which an object or objects, themselves, stand for the nation-state, and embody the "idea" of the state for a people -- for example, the Old Testament Bible for Israel (Broshi, Chapter 3), and Iroquois wampum for some North American Indians (Abrams, Chapter 5). Other collections and objects are being rediscovered and reinterpreted elsewhere (Kaeppler, Chapter 1).

Developing a framework for indicators of authenticity: the place and space of cultural and heritage tourism

Abstract: The authenticity of tourism destinations, sites, events, cultures and experiences is of concern to practitioners and researchers involved in the planning, marketing, and management of heritage and cultural tourism. We address authenticity under three dimensions – the objective (real), the constructed (sociopolitical) and the personal (phenomenological) – and two aspects that contextualize authenticity: space and time. Indicators for addressing the object and experience of place, as well as “sense of place,” are discussed within this framework. This shows how authenticity integrally involves situating the object within a place and space that constitute the lived experience of both tourists and residents. An example of aboriginal cultural sites illustrates how the politics of authenticity is also the politics of space, identity and ethnicity (lived heritage). The paper argues for a theoretical and practically useful framework to guide research and practice. The framework and indicator-based application of t...