The construction of political power has always implied the need to generate a continuous flow of artefacts and actions. This matter is brilliantly analysed by Burke in The Fabrication of Louis XIV (1992). The construction of the king’s public image, linked to a sacred dimension, was the result of an unceasing collective production by painters, sculptors, engravers, poets, choreographers, masters of ceremonies, musicians, architects and tailors, among many others (all of them coordinated in a complex system organised by several ministers).
"A Theory of Cultural Heritage. Beyond The Intangible" by Salvador Muñoz-Viñas (Routledge, 2023).
If you are interested in having an overview of what it is and how to define what we call "cultural heritage", I recommend this book by my colleague Salvador Muñoz Viñas.
"Museums, Heritage, Culture: Into the Conflict Zone" by Kavita Singh (2015).
"But think for a moment of the history of museums. Think of the way their collections have been built, and the purposes they have served. Think of the violent encounters that often lay behind the collecting of curiosities in the age of exploration; or think of the museums built by missionaries to display pagan gods wrenched away from natives. Think of the vast collections built (and the ways these were built) during the age of colonialism, with entire monuments transported across the seas and re-erected in museum galleries. Think of the nations transformed by revolutions, where treasures were violently wrested away from the church and presented as desacralized avatars in museums".
"Bombing of Gaza has damaged or destroyed more than 100 heritage sites, NGO report reveals" by Sarvy Geranpayeh (The Art Newspaper).
"The human cost of the bombardment of the Gaza Strip in the war with Israel is well documented. What is less well known is how many historic buildings and sites have also been destroyed."
"Several of Gaza’s museums have also been destroyed or damaged. Rafah Museum, located in southern Gaza, published two videos on its Facebook page showing that the building has partially collapsed. Yasin says Palestinian officials have also received reports of significant damage caused to Al Qarara Cultural Museum and Deir Al Balah museum."
"NARRATING HERITAGE. Rights, Abuses and Cultural Resistance" by Veysel Apaydin (Bloomsbury, 2023).
"Drawing on over ten years of research and ethnographic fieldwork based on six complex case studies from Turkey and comparing them with case studies from across the world, the book explores a variety of social, political, cultural and economic heritage discourses, making explicit the relationship between cultural and natural heritage. This book expands on these discourses by examining the role of violence in heritage, expanding on the concepts of both direct and slow violence. It situates heritage discourse within the sphere of human rights and lays out redistribution, recognition and representation as dimensions of social justice in a heritage context."
"The Uncomfortable Oxford, the tour that tells the dark side of the University" by María Ramírez (eldiario.es; Spanish)
"The tours have been so successful that the group started with one, but now offers several in Oxford, Cambridge and York as well as lectures and other courses. In pandemic, the tours continued virtually, and now the not-for-profit enterprise is sustainable.
Durand comments that the success of his tours reveals "a clear appetite for complex and nuanced discussions of the past and cultural heritage." He believes that history education, heritage and tourism are three sectors that can be brought together in the public space in a fruitful way".
Heritage Dynamics. Understanding and adapting to change in diverse heritage contexts by Kalliopi Fouseki (UCL Press, 2022). #OpenAccess
"Kalliopi Fouseki develops a theoretical and methodological framework of ‘heritage dynamics’, which is used as the analytical thread of six heritage contexts: heritage-led transformation in historic urban places; decision-making on energy efficiency and heritage conservation in ‘everyday heritage’ residential buildings; lifecycles of heritage collections; exhibition dynamics and the impact of participation with emphasis of ‘difficult heritage’; dynamics of dissonance on contested museums and the dynamics of ‘intangible heritage’ with emphasis on flamenco."
"The Identity Politics of Heritage.
Decommunization, Decolonization, and Derussification of Kyiv Monuments after Russia’s Full Scale Invasion of Ukraine" by Olena Betlii (2022).
"Russia’s war against Ukraine has shown not only how the Kremlin has weaponized history, but also how the victim can fight back by breaking historical ties with the aggressor. Since March 2022, Ukraine has been developing new identity politics of heritage. The article focuses on decisions made by the Kyiv City Council, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, and the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory regarding material objects associated with Russian or Soviet heritage. It also shows how Kyiv opinionmakers and experts have reacted to changes that will eventually result in the reshaping of the city’s memory landscape".
DIGITAL ARCHIVES AND COLLECTIONS
CREATING ONLINE ACCESS TO CULTURAL HERITAGE by Katja Müller (2021) (Made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license).
"Museums and archives all over the world digitize their collections and provide online access to heritage material. But what factors determine the content, structure and use of these online inventories? This book turns to India and Europe to answer this question. It explains how museums and archives envision, decide and conduct digitization and online dissemination. It also sheds light on born-digital, community-based archives, which have established themselves as new actors in the field".
📖 In the journal Culture. Society. Economy. Politics, Leonor Sá published a paper where she presents three interdisciplinary and community-serving projects carried out by the Portuguese Judiciary Police Museum, all related to the protection of #CulturalHeritage.
3D RESEARCH CHALLENGES IN CULTURAL HERITAGE III by Marinos Ioannides and Petros Patias (editors, Springer, 2023).
An interesting #OpenAccess#Book containing an article of the Antikythera Mechanism.
"This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access. Explores 3D technologies used in the domain of cultural heritage. Originates from a unique study on 3D digitisation of tangible cultural heritage. Study launched by the European Commission."
THEFTS EXPOSE BRITISH MUSEUM’S ‘RIDICULOUS’ STANCE ON RETURN OF ARTEFACTS, SAYS MP by David Batty and Mark Brown
"Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, believes the 1963 law preventing the return of objects such as the Parthenon marbles and the Benin bronzes should be changed.
The museum has been at the centre of an escalating storm that on Friday led to the resignation of its director, Hartwig Fischer. It followed the revelation that as many as 2,000 items from the museum collection had been found to be “missing, stolen or damaged” and that police were investigating."
👉 An interesting point of view from Dan Hicks (curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum): "'The last remaining argument against restitution has now been lost'
Huge #DigitalHumanities, #EarlyMusic, #BookHistory and #CulturalHeritage news! “The Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission” project, led by Dr. Jennifer Bain, just received a $2.5-million Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant!
Huge #DigitalHumanities, #EarlyMusic, #BookHistory and #CulturalHeritage news! “The Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission” project, led by Dr. Jennifer Bain, just received a $2.5-million Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant!
I am so excited to be one of the Co-Investigators of this grant as Co-Lead of the Manuscripts and Aretefacts Research Axis! 🤩
FICTIONAL AND FICTIONALISED RELIGIONS AS HERITAGE? REFLECTIONS ON THE OBJECT OF CRITICAL HERITAGE STUDIES by Mathilde van Dijk (International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2023).
"Heritage discourses and fictional narratives are not as far from each other as seems obvious. Rather, they operate on a sliding scale. Fans of certain media, whether they become adherents of a fiction-based religion or whether the fictions are meaningful to them in another way, visit the sites in which their favourite series or film were shot, use phrases from their favourite films or series, attend role-playing events and so on and so forth. Some fans do this individually; others gather in communities, on the internet, physically or both. Their favourite fictions become a building block of their identities".
COMMUNITIES AND MUSEUMS IN THE 21ST CENTURY. EDITED ByKaren Brown, Alissandra Cummins, Ana S. González Rueda (Routledge, 2023, CC BY-NC-ND).
"Communities and Museums in the 21st Century brings together innovative, multidisciplinary perspectives on contemporary museology and participatory museum practice that contribute to wider debates on museum communities, heritage, and sustainability."
"With its focus on global societal challenges, this book will appeal to museologists and museum practitioners, as well as those working in heritage studies, cultural studies, memory studies, art history, gender studies, and sustainable development."
International conference (call for papers): VENICE CHARTER [RE]FRAMED: NEW HERITAGE CHALLENGES (27-30 May 2024).
"Our aim is to engage in interdisciplinary discussions, exchange knowledge, and propose innovative approaches to address the complexities of heritage conservation."
"We encourage scholars, researchers, professionals, and policymakers to join us in this enriching and thought-provoking conference, exploring the intersections of heritage, society, inclusivity, resilience and sustainability."
MAJOR THEMATIC HEADLINES:
1️⃣ Authenticity and integrity
2️⃣ Sustainable conservation and management
3️⃣ Identity and transculturality
4️⃣ Climate change
5️⃣ Digital technologies
6️⃣ Other heritage(s)
Hi fellow #histodons! Since I’m moving towards mastodon I thought I’d introduce myself properly.
I’m a cultural historian of music and books, with a particular focus on the relationships between music, worship, and identities in times of upheaval.
My current Marie Skłodowska-Curie project investigates how musical saints’ cults connected Lutherans and Catholics despite the rupture of the #Reformation.
AMERICA’S BIGGEST MUSEUMS FAIL TO RETURN NATIVE AMERICAN HUMAN REMAINS (ProPublica, by Logan Jaffe, Mary Hudetz and Ash Ngu, 2023).
"As the United States pushed Native Americans from their lands to make way for westward expansion throughout the 1800s, museums and the federal government encouraged the looting of Indigenous remains, funerary objects and cultural items. Many of the institutions continue to hold these today — and in some cases resist their return despite the 1990 passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act."
A very interesting source of information on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) are the minutes of the Review Committee Meetings. They are available on this website:
"‘This is barbarism’: shock at Russian strike on Odesa cathedral" by Shaun Walker.
"This was the second time that the vast, sand-yellow Transfiguration Cathedral, which sits in the heart of Odesa’s Unesco-listed historic centre, had been attacked: in the 1930s, it was torn down during Joseph Stalin’s atheism drive. On Sunday morning, the rebuilt version was hit during a Russian airstrike on the city. A missile blew a large hole in the roof, collapsed the altar and left several walls charred by fire."
"Even by the standards of Russia’s ruthless war strategy, a missile strike on a historic cathedral – one that was consecrated by the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, no less – was a shocking development. The priests at the scene were dumbfounded."
"HOW THE HINDU RIGHT-WING IN INDIA IS UNDERMINING MUSLIM IDENTITY THROUGH HERITAGE" by Maitri Dore.
"In service of the myth of a Hindu golden age, the Hindu right-wing is contorting historical facts and attempting to cleanse the built environment of Muslim heritage. Their meddlesomeness is proof of the pudding that heritage is more than simply brick and mortar. It is about the selection and use of these for political purposes. In this scheme then, architecture–by way of claims to mosques, and public space–through its renaming, are merely convenient props that hold up the cherry-picked narrative."