"Culture in Peril will point followers towards the latest reports of heritage issues in the world today and provide insight into why and how these issues are--and must be--a concern to every individual. Irrespective of age, gender, race, religion, or beliefs, human beings are linked by a common heritage and cultural legacy. The aim of Culture in Peril is thus to explain why damage to and destruction of cultural property (both tangible and intangible) affects us all. It is an underlying premise of Culture in Peril that the loss of this shared heritage is, ultimately, a serious hindrance to the mutual understanding and acceptance of world cultures. A Kenyan Proverb goes: "Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children." In much the same way, cultural heritage is not only about showing respect for the present; we must respect the past as well so that it is available in the future."
The new blog considers ("subjectively") a pleasingly broader scope of "heritage" than my rather more narrow anti-antiquitist approach here, so worth a look to see what is happening in other areas of the debate.
I note though a somewhat controversial (from an archaeological point of view) text entitled
Subsistence Digging Is (Not) Looting? which seems a rather naive attempt to place the blame for looting on the archaeologists waging some kind of a class war. What's that all about? I can see the ACCG bloggers being frequent visitors over on Mr Merkelson's site.... [Meanwhile I will hold off on putting a link in the sidebars, I'm not sure whether Mr Merkelson will be going into the list of good guys at the top, in the middle or in my bottom list].
Another new arrival is Nora Mattern's classy looking "Loot" blogspot started in January this year, devoted as the name suggests to the artefactual side of the issue, apparently mainly those in museum collections and with a fairly obvious US focus. So far she has mainly been posting news items culled from the press, but I was gratified to see the Amber Room, one of my 'treasure hunting conspiracy theory' favourites discussed.
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2 comments:
Paul--
Thanks for plugging my blog, Culture in Peril. By the looks of yours you appear to be very prolific and well informed on cultural heritage issues. I hope you decide to leave comments on future posts given your archaeological perspective.
For the record, I've practiced field archaeology as well (excavated in Koobi Fora in 2007 and Murcia, Spain in 2008) and I can completely empathize with your "anti-antiquitist" viewpoint. Perhaps in my view though, as you may have inferred from the sorts of stories I highlight in Culture in Peril, cultural traditions should be considered "antiquities" in their own right and are thus equally worthy of consideration and conservation. I suppose you're right--it is a broader scope of "heritage", one that extends beyond mere materiality.
So, consider me a good guy, an advocate for archaeological ethnography. Would you now be willing to link to Culture in Peril?
Hi,
I have nothing against treating non-material cultural traits as heritage, no problems with that.
There was only one post on your blog about a strictly archaeological topic when I looked, and quite frankly, I found it disturbing. I have severe problems with what you wrote about so-called "subsistence diggers" and your consequent suggested general "solution" to the looting problem. I really do not believe you have thought this through. What you wrote could just as well have been written one of the ACCG muffins. Indeed, I expect to see it being quoted as the opinion of a "non-radical-archaeologist" by them soon.
There is of course already a link to your blog on mine, as for another one, please keep writing...
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