Year: 2009
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: i archaeology and the fortress of rationalityIf environmental conservation conjures its own global spatial universe out of a deliberate focus on the needs of biodiversity rather than the needs of people living in or near protected areas (Hughes 2005: 157; Tsing 2000), archaeological heritage conservation might be said to conjure a global spatial universe of its own.This latter is an order of space defined by the discourses of archaeology and heritage.It exists in the imaginary of national and international archaeology and heritage practice and is largely unknown to local people despite the fact that they dwell in it.It is unknown to them insofar as the old objects and places that populate this space-the equivalent of nature conservation's biodiversity-are known to them in other terms.Practitioners of archaeology and heritage conservation who are committed to a cosmopolitan view seek to accommodate these local realities via a " values approach" that endeavors to canvass, document, and assess the multiple meanings that old objects and places can have (e.g., Avrami et al. 2000; Byrne 2008) using such value categories as the scientific, the social, the aesthetic, and the historical.A parallel values approach is employed by many nature conservationists who reject the "fortress conservation" approach (Borrini-Feyerabend et al. 2004; Brockington 2002 Brockington , 2004;; Colchester 2004: 94; Harmon and Putney 2003).As the name implies, fortress conservation seeks to protect national parks from local people, who frequently become the subject of expulsion and forced resettlement (see chapter 4 by Meskell, this volume; Phillips 2003: 12). 1 They join the ranks of the world's "conservation refugees." 2 My geographic focus here is Southeast Asia, a region where forced resettlement of people from archaeological conservation zones is by no means unknown today.There is, however, another dimension to fortress conservation in the Southeast Asian heritage field that, though less traumatic for those on its receiving end, is far more pervasive.
Source: Duke University Press eBooks
Author: Denis Byrne
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2271084264