Additional Information

Course Number

ANTH 469T/464

Course Level

Course Description

Why is the past still so important today? In this course we will explore globally how the past is remade in the present, and the present remade in the past. We will examine western relationships to the past as intimately tied to property and the drive to plunder, collect, and catalogue. Still, connections to the past are not exclusively material, as heritage also includes the ‘intangibles’ of language, folklore, music, dance, festivals, and knowledge. Similarly, heritage infuses landscapes, from canyons to mountain peaks, cityscapes to pastures. In part this broadened definition of heritage honors the great diversity of present-day relations to the past. However, this diversity strains at the seams of heritage models organized around lists, definitions, conventions and international organizations, especially when coupled with the weight of historical inequality and injustice borne on certain communities. Heritage across the globe spans a much greater and more complicated mix of rights, identities, memories, ethics, redemptions, politics, and economies. Embedded in everyday life, heritage complicates what is past, over and done with, versus what continues to live on.

Syllabus Available

No

Taxonomies

RPA Codes & Standards

• Appropriate Dissemination of Research
• Archaeologist's Responsibility to the Public

CIfA Codes

• Principle 1: Adherence to ethical and responsible behaviour in archaeological affairs
• Principle 2: Responsibility for the conservation of the historic environment
• Principle 3: Responsibility for acquiring and recording reliable information of the past in archaeological research

Keywords & Terms

• Accountability
• Adequate and Responsible Reporting, Publication, and Dissemination
• Conservation
• Culturally Significant and/or Sacred Sites, Objects, and Places
• Impact on Communities - Local, Descendant, etc.
• Indigenous, Tribal, Aboriginal Rights
• International Law
• Looting, Collecting, and Illicit Trade of Cultural Property
• Management of Cultural Resources, Heritage, History
• Respect for and Responsibility to Affected Groups
• Stewardship

Topics & Issues

• Descendant, Resident, and Stakeholder Communities
• Destruction of Cultural Heritage
• Heritage Management
• Interpreting the Past
• Landscape Issues, Archaeology, and Ethics
• Politics and Archaeology
• Religion