Heritage, Environment and Society

An ancient architectural-style archway contrasts with the modern buildings behind it.The beginning of the 21st century is characterised by profound fears about the loss of irreplaceable cultures and natures. Billions of dollars are spent preserving languages, archaeological remains, ecoreserves, indigenous knowledges, historic cities and so forth. At the same time, the 'revenge of nature' is calling into question the Western-derived notion that civilisation marks humanity's triumph over the limits imposed by nature. Much that is now happening in areas of environmental concern - from climate change, to land degradation, to the genetic modification of organisms - exposes the deceptive fantasy that upholds the divide of culture from nature. The issue of the human relation to the nonhuman world is clearly one of great public concern across global/local scales of institutional and daily life.

The problematisation of the nature/culture divide shatters the logic of any definitive specification: not only of environment but also of culture. It is no longer immediately evident whether 'the environment' names a set of well-defined entities and relations, or a shifting network that produces novel questions about contemporary life in relation to nature and material cultures inherited from the past. There is equally no easy recourse to an idea of the autonomous human who exercises an absolute right of control or stewardship over the non-human world. While countless environments - both cultural and natural - are facing unprecedented threats, the rise of the modern heritage movement means that the impetus to revive and safeguard is stronger than ever. But in the arena of heritage, the boundaries between the social/physical, human/non-human, material/non-material are thoroughly porous, so that conserving culture-natures is now tied to questions of identity, tradition, memory, environmentalism, sustainability and so forth.

The 'developing world' faces particularly intense challenges in these areas. In fast changing regions like Asia, as societies look forward and embrace modernity competing forces ensure they increasingly re-visit their pasts. While for some heritage has become an effective means for protecting landscapes, rituals, artifacts or tradition-based practices and values, for others it has emerged as a valuable resource for achieving wider goals such as poverty alleviation, the legitimization of narratives of place and past, nation building or the cultural profiling of citizens. And in certain instances, a language of conservation represents an obstacle inhibiting progress, national unification, or the shedding of unwanted memories.

Events held under the Heritage, Environment and Society theme

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