Synopses & Reviews
Drawing on anthropological fieldwork, this book presents case studies illustrating the invention or re-conceptualization of heritages and traditions in selected locations in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. The authors review the importance of oral traditions as markers of identity and consider competing narratives of heritage in post-colonial societies. In recent times, the heritage industry has developed significant economic potential and several contributors query the impact of the commodification of heritage on the integrity of custodians and their cultural traditions.
Synopsis
Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Cultural Heritages: Process, Power, Commodification; M.Nic Craith Reflexive Traditions and Heritage Production; U.Kockel Tradition As Development Strategy; G.E.Aspraki This is Our Story: Performing, Recording and Archiving Yolngu Cultural Heritage; F.Magowan Tradition as Reflexive Project in Norway and Malaysia: Witch, Whore, Madonna and Heroine; A.K.Larsen Challenging Heritage in the South African Countryside; A.Bohlin Heritage and the Production of Locality in North Namibia; I.Fairweather The Changing Role of British Cultural Heritage in South Africa; H.Novotn The Transmission of Islamic Heritage in Northern Ireland; G.Marranci Heritage Narratives on the Slovenian Coast: The Lion and the Attic; I.Weber Globalizing Heritage: Marketing the Prehistoric Built Environment in Ireland; K.A.Costa Culture, Heritage and Commodification; H.Gill-Robinson Heritage as a Commodity: Are We Devaluing Our Heritage by Making it Available to the Highest Bidder via the Internet?; B.R.Hewitt Index
About the Author
ULLRICH KOCKEL has worked in Higher Education in Britain, Germany and Ireland since 1984. He currently holds the Chair of Ethnology and Folk Life at the University of Ulster, UK, and is a Visiting Professor at the University of the West of England, Bristol. His research ranges across the field of European ethnology, with special focus on cultural encounters (
Borderline Cases: the Ethnic Frontiers of European Integration), and on culture and economy (
Regional Culture and Economic Development: Explorations in European Ethnology). In 2003 he was elected to the United Kingdom's Academy for the Social Sciences.
MÁIRÉAD NIC CRAITH is Director of the Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages at the University of Ulster, UK, where she holds the Chair in Irish Culture and Language. She has previously been attached to the University of Liverpool and University Colleges, Dublin and Cork. She is author and editor of several books including Europe and the Politics of Language (2006) and Culture and Identity Politics in Northern Ireland (2004). Her research interests include culture and identity politics, European integration and regional cultures, and European ethnology. She was joint winner of the 2004 Ruth Michaelis Jena Ratcliff research prize for folklife.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements * Notes on Contributors * Cultural Heritages: Process, Power, Commodification--
M.Nic Craith * Reflexive Traditions and Heritage Production--
U.Kockel * Tradition As Development Strategy--
G.E.Aspraki * This is Our Story: Performing, Recording and Archiving Yolngu Cultural Heritage--
F.Magowan * Tradition as Reflexive Project in Norway and Malaysia: Witch, Whore, Madonna and Heroine--
A.K.Larsen * Challenging Heritage in the South African Countryside;
A.Bohlin * Heritage and the Production of Locality in North Namibia--
I.Fairweather * The Changing Role of British Cultural Heritage in South Africa--
H.Novotná * The Transmission of Islamic Heritage in Northern Ireland--
G.Marranci * Heritage Narratives on the Slovenian Coast: The Lion and the Attic--
I.Weber * Globalizing Heritage: Marketing the Prehistoric Built Environment in Ireland--
K.A.Costa * Culture, Heritage and Commodification--
H.Gill-Robinson * Heritage as a Commodity: Are We Devaluing Our Heritage by Making it Available to the Highest Bidder via the Internet?--
B.R.Hewitt * Index