Heritopia investigates the meanings of the past in the present, focusing on Abu Simbel in Egypt and other World Heritage sites. It explores and resolves a number of paradoxes: the past is impossible to preserve for eternity; all preservation implies change; preservation of one site normally means destruction of others; threats are important in the creation of heritage, but at the same time heritage may become a threat and threats can become heritage themselves; heritage stands in contrast to modernity and is at the same time part of it; both the increase and the decrease of modernity create heritage; and finally, heritage may be global and local at the same time. Heritopia will appeal to students and professionals in heritage studies and related subjects such as archaeology, history, ethnology and museology.
An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
'Heritopia is an outstanding and thought-provoking book that not only offers rich accounts and concepts but makes an original contribution to debates around uneasy relations between World Heritage and modernity.'
Michal Pawleta, Antiquity
1 The past is everywhere
2 Truth, beauty, and goodness
3 Chronic nostalgia
4 The faces of modernity
5 Heritage in the present
6 Destination World Heritage
7 World Heritage and modernity
Index
Heritopia investigates the meanings of the past in the present, focusing on Abu Simbel in Egypt and other World Heritage sites. It explores and resolves a number of paradoxes: the past is impossible to preserve for eternity; all preservation implies change; preservation of one site normally means destruction of others; threats are important in the creation of heritage, but at the same time heritage may become a threat and threats can become heritage themselves; heritage stands in contrast to modernity and is at the same time part of it; both the increase and the decrease of modernity create heritage; and finally, heritage may be global and local at the same time. Heritopia will appeal to students and professionals in heritage studies and related subjects such as archaeology, history, ethnology and museology.
An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
'Heritopia is an outstanding and thought-provoking book that not only offers rich accounts and concepts but makes an original contribution to debates around uneasy relations between World Heritage and modernity.'
Michal Pawleta, Antiquity
1 The past is everywhere
2 Truth, beauty, and goodness
3 Chronic nostalgia
4 The faces of modernity
5 Heritage in the present
6 Destination World Heritage
7 World Heritage and modernity
Index