Universal heritage meets local livelihoods: ‘awkward engagements’ at the world cultural heritage listing in Bali

In 2012 the UNESCO World Heritage Committee added to its World Heritage List the ‘Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: the subak system as a manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy’. Barely a year later, UNESCO had become sufficiently concerned about reports of various problems that it advised the Government of Indonesia of these concerns. Through ethnographic study of the initial implementation of the listing, this article reveals problems of uncontrolled development, and disputes over the allocation of benefits to local communities, and challenges to effective governance. It focuses on two key locations of the site, offering an analysis of problems, their causes and effects. Beginning with the premise that the gulf of understanding between the global World Heritage system and local communities often creates a range of unintended consequences, this article reveals the many ‘awkward engagements’ that have emerged ‘on the ground’ in Bali as local agencies of government are left to their own devices to manage the World Heritage site.     

Sustaining popular music’s material culture in community archives and museums

This article examines the challenges of sustainability faced by community archives and museums that are concerned with the preservation and display of the material culture of popular music’s recent past. The sustainability of grassroots sites of popular music heritage is of great concern due to their role in making accessible cultural artefacts that have limited representation in the collections of more prestigious institutions. Drawing on three sites that have ceased operation – Jazz Museum Bix Eiben Hamburg, Mutant Sounds and Holy Warbles – the article highlights difficulties faced by the founders and volunteers of physical and online archives in sustaining their ‘do-it-yourself’ heritage practices in the medium- to long-term.     

Geophysical Methods for Wreck‐Site Monitoring: the Rapid Archaeological Site Surveying and Evaluation (RASSE) programme

Rapid advances in geophysical techniques over the past decade have provided the maritime archaeological community with significant opportunities for re‐defining the procedures for wreck‐site mapping, evaluation and monitoring. The techniques which offer most potential for high‐resolution survey are acoustic‐based and include sidescan sonar, swath‐bathymetry sonar and multibeam sonar. These techniques were tested on an artificial test‐site in Plymouth Sound and over the wreck of the Stirling Castle. Results demonstrate that the techniques can provide the maritime archaeologist with the opportunity to rapidly and cost‐effectively map and monitor small, centimetric changes on sites, with the potential for long‐term monitoring and management. © 2009 The Authors     

周恩来与文物保护事业

周恩来一贯重视我国的文化建设事业 ,强调经济建设和文化建设必须同步地协调地发展。他在抓经济建设的同时 ,对我国的文化建设事业倾注了大量的心血 ;他十分重视保护和继承民族优秀文化遗产 ,他在指导文物保护方面所从事的卓有成效的工作和所阐述的深邃思想 ,对于继承祖国文化遗产起到了极其重要的作用 ;他利用一切可能的条件 ,发挥文物的作用 ,对我国的文物保护事业作出了不朽的贡献     

非物质文化遗产的主体与保护主体之解析

非物质文化遗产保护是一项全人类、全社会卷入的公共文化事业,需要各方面主动扮演相应的角色、发挥各自的优势、承担特定的责任。把各个方面建构成积极有为的身份,就成为非遗保护的一项颇有建设价值的理论工作。其中,以"主体"身份看待相关的各个方面,是一项有益的尝试。界定非遗的主体与非遗保护的主体,实际上也是探索建立非遗保护这项公共文化事业的分工合作的身份框架。     

The heritage ‘NGO’: a case study on the role of grass roots heritage societies in Iran and their perception of cultural heritage

This paper examines the activities of a group of heritage enthusiasts in Iran. Grass roots heritage activism is a relatively recent phenomenon that appeared in Iran since the late 1990s. They are increasingly operating collectively as cultural or heritage NGOs. They have diverse socio-economic origins and political views. However, as this paper argues, they share a common ground in their activities; one that maintains an ambivalent and critical relationship with the state and official definitions of heritage and identity. Referring to interview and other data collected during fieldwork in Iran, this paper traces and analyses the contours of that common ground and argues that there is a nascent heritage movement in the country. The impact and contribution of these emerging and self-reflective heritage movements to Iranian identity, which is reflected in their embracing of diversity and the notion of historical continuity, reveal the dynamism and complexity of the cultural and political landscape of contemporary Iranian society. They also reveal the importance of generating further scholarship in the field of Iranian cultural heritage. In conceptualising the characteristics of a nascent heritage movement in Iran, the paper makes a new contribution to the approach of existing scholarship in the broader field of heritage studies.