Overview

This book explores the sociopolitical contexts of heritage landscapes, paying special attention to sites with deep indigenous histories – Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and the Burrup Peninsula along the Pilbara Coast in Australia, the Altai Mountains of northwestern Mongolia, and Prince William Sound in Alaska. For many communities, landscapes such as these have long been associated with cultural identity and memories of important and difficult events, as well as political struggles related to nation-state boundaries, sovereignty, and knowledge claims. ,br> Drawing on the emerging field of critical heritage theory and the concept of “resource frontiers,” Melissa Baird shows how these landscapes are sites of power and control and are increasingly used in development and extractive projects. As a result, heritage landscapes face social and ecological crises such as environmental degradation, ecological disasters, and structural violence. She describes how heritage experts, industries, government representatives, and descendant groups negotiate the contours and boundaries of these contested sites, and recommends ways such conversations can better incorporate a critical engagement with indigenous knowledge and agency.

Full Product Details

9780813056562

Table of Contents

Reviews

Offers surprising insights into the implications of cultural landscape as heritage. . . . And raises fundamental questions about the ethics and objectivity--behind the scenes and open--of cultural landscape as heritage. --Anthropology Book Forum Packed full of illustrative cases. . . . [Critical Theory and the Anthropology of Heritage Landscapes] provides an excellent introduction to how heritage landscapes, and the groups invested in them, contribute to contemporary sociopolitics. --Historical Archaeology

Offers surprising insights into the implications of cultural landscape as heritage. . . . And raises fundamental questions about the ethics and objectivity--behind the scenes and open--of cultural landscape as heritage. --Anthropology Book Forum Packed full of illustrative cases. . . . [Critical Theory and the Anthropology of Heritage Landscapes] provides an excellent introduction to how heritage landscapes, and the groups invested in them, contribute to contemporary sociopolitics. --Society for Historical Archaeology

""Offers surprising insights into the implications of cultural landscape as heritage. . . . And raises fundamental questions about the ethics and objectivity--behind the scenes and open--of cultural landscape as heritage.""--Anthropology Book Forum ""Packed full of illustrative cases. . . . [Critical Theory and the Anthropology of Heritage Landscapes] provides an excellent introduction to how heritage landscapes, and the groups invested in them, contribute to contemporary sociopolitics.""--Historical Archaeology

Author Information

Melissa F. Baird is assistant professor of anthropology at Michigan Technological University.

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