ANTH 3130 Archaeology & Society
Class notes 8 Nov 2007
Welcome back!
Plan for Class today...
Attendance sheet...
Announcements
Discussions: Parthenon Marbles... the Secret History of Ontario.... and on with Heritage Tourism and the questions of authenticity, renewability, 'real' knowledge...
After the break: part of... If Only I Were an Indian, york vid #4138. Getting deeper into "cultural tourism", appropriation, authenticity...
Homework for Today, Week of Nov 8: Rowan & Baram Ch 5, 6, 7. For class, be ready to compare the different examples of heritage tourism in Rowan & Baram Ch 5, 6, 7 and relate to any experiences you've had with historical sites. Also be prepared to comment on Holtorf's arguments about authenticity and renewability etc.
Week of Nov 15: PAPER IS DUE IN CLASS. ALSO THIS READING: Rowan & Baram Ch 11, 14, 16, 17. As you read, think about why, and by whom, some landmarks are restored, destroyed, replicated, and sold.
For Nov 22: No reading. Poster Party Day!
Issues from last week re: Parthenon marbles.
* Should we make our decisions for the past, present, or future?
* Should the people of 2500 years ago be considered to be the same as the people in the same area today?
* How do we avoid projecting modern ethnicities back onto the past? (Or should we?) [e.g. kings of Greece in the 1800s came directly from Bavaria and Denmark... not too distant from England's royalty]
* Is it possible to make a sensible decision about heritage in the modern day without an exhaustive knowledge of the history of a region? [e.g. Britain, Russia, and France liberated Greece from the Ottoman empire with military efforts starting in 1827…. and it’s arguable that they were able to raise the funds to do so BECAUSE of things like the Elgin Marbles, already in London]
* Restitution - how far should one go? Is it possible to right past wrongs?
* Should we simply abide by what is legal, or what was legal, or participate in forging new codes and new consensuses?
* Who is best qualified to care for something?
* What to do when heritage becomes a valuable pawn in games of political chess between nations?
* What is the best use of heritage in the present day -- use it in the service of internationalism, or nationalism?
* Do intentions matter — i.e., if one intends to honour heritage by keeping it in a gallery, do others have the right to feel offended?
* Should museums be protected/preserved (i.e. should these institutions themselves be treated as precious heritage) or should they be considered as institutions whose time is up?
Issues from last week re: Speakers for the Dead
National Film Board of Canada ; directed by Jennifer Holness, David Sutherland ; producer, Peter Starr. Publication info: [Montréal] : NFB, 2000. YORK Video #5913.
Abstract: The Old Durham Road Pioneer Cemetery in Priceville, Ontario, burial ground of the area's original black settlers, lay for many years hidden under a farmer's potato field. In the 1980's, descendants, both black and white, begin to restore the cemetery. As the work progresses, new evidence, resident's memories, and a decision to dig in the cemetery to search for grave stones, divide the community. Now everyone must come to terms with this hidden history.
FOR YOU TO THINK ABOUT AS YOU WATCH:
Did you know about this aspect of Ontario’s history? Why or why not? How does this make you feel?
Is the truth about Ontario’s history important? Why or why not? To whom?
How does this compare to other places where racism has played a role in official or ‘common-knowledge’ versions of history?
Can you see the steps involved in the suppression of real history? How hard is it to destroy monuments? How does the destruction of monuments affect community memory? What are the motivations people have for acting this way?
How does the treatment of the dead affect the living?
- a case of history being denied, covered up.... the physical remains of the past being significant as holders of memory, of evidence... of truth.
Heritage tourism: Consider your own experiences of being a tourist at a heritage site. What was it like? Why did you go? What did you learn?
Authenticity: what does it really mean to you? Does it matter whether something is real or a replica? Why or why not? Think about concrete examples from your own world.
Is the past a renewable resource? What do you think? What do Holtorf and Skeates each think? Why?
Heritage Tourism
David Lowenthal, from his book Possessed by the Past, 1996, p xi:
"In domesticating the past we enlist it for present causes. Legends of origin and endurance, of victory or calamity, project the present back, the past forward; they align us with forebears whose virtues we share and whose vices we shun. We are apt to call such communion history, but it is actually heritage. The distinction is vital. History explores and explains pasts grown ever more opaque over time; heritage clarifies pasts so as to infuse them with present purposes.
Critics who confuse the two enterpreises condemn heritage as a worthless sham, its credos as fallacious, even perverse. But heritage, no less than history, is essential to knowing and acting.... [but] Because heritage concerns are passionately partisan, they are also seamed with paradox.
Thus we mourn worlds known to be irrevocably lost -- yet more vividly felt, more lucid, more real than the murky and ambiguous present. We yearn for rooted legacies that enrich the paltry here and now with ancestral echoes, yet also encumber us with outworn relics and obsolete customs. We see what has happened as inalterable... and cleave to timeless tradition, yet we ever reshape what we inherit for current needs.... We acclaim heritage as a universal requisite, yet disdain and derogate legacies that differ or compete with our own. We avow concern for the sanctity of all heritage, yet strip it of context and debase its meaning."
Heritage Tourism in Ireland
Map: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ancientireland/journey_flash.html
Neolithic - Newgrange
Bronze Age - Emain Macha / Navan Fort
Iron Age / Celtic - Tara
(mound of the hostages)
Avebury
http://www.avebury-web.co.uk/avebury_map.html
http://www.kennet.gov.uk/avebury/aveburyvirtual/main_map/index.htm
http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/archcom/projects/summarys/html98_9/2257aveb.htm#a1