Marketing Heritage

Archaeology and the Consumption of the Past

Edited by Yorke Rowan, Uzi Baram

Publication date:

27 August 2004

Length of book:

328 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780759103429

What are the implications of mass tourism and globalization for the field of archaeology? How does this change popular understandings of the past? Increasingly archaeological sites worldwide are being commodified for a growing tourist trade. At best, expansion of programs can aid in the protection and historic preservation of sites and strenghten community identities. However, unchecked commercial development may undermine the integrity of these same sites, replacing local interests with corporate ones, economically and culturally. Within this volume, original case studies from well-known sites in Cambodia, Israel, England, Mexico, and North America are presented to address the complex interaction between archaeology and nationalist, political, and commercial policies. This book should appeal to archaeologists, applied anthropologists, tourism and economic development specialists, and historic preservationists alike, as well others with an interest in the preservation of archaeological sites as historic locales.

Chapter 1 Preface
2 Section I: Introduction
3 Chapter 1 "Archaeology after Nationalism: Globalization and the Consumption of the Past"
4 Section II: The Legal and Historical Context for Marketing Heritage
5 Chapter 2 "International Conventions and Cultural Heritage Protection"
6 Chapter 3 "The Politics of Playing Fair, or, Who's Losing Their Marbles?"
7 Chapter 4 "From Lord Elgin to James Henry Breasted: The Politics of the Past in the First Era of Globalization"
8 Section III: Commodification of the Past
9 Chapter 5 "Conflating Past and Present: Marketing Archaeological Tourism? Advertising and the Appropriation of Culture"
10 Chapter 6 "Mementos of the Past: Material Culture of Tourism at Stonehenge and Avebury"
11 Chapter 7 "Where are the Maya in Ancient Maya Archaeological Tourism? Advertising and the Appropriation of Culture"
12 Section IV: Archaeology in the Global Age
13 Chapter 8 "Archaeological Research and Cultural Heritage Management in Cambodia's Mekong Delta: The Search for the 'Cradle of Khmer Civilization'"
14 Chapter 9 "Recovering the German Nation: Heritage Restoration and the Search for Unity"
15 Chapter 10 "Deep Dirt: Messing up the Past at Colonial Williamsburg"
16 Chapter 11 "Targeting Heritage: The Abuse of Symbolic Sites in Modern Conflicts"
17 Section V: Representing the Past
18 Chapter 12 "Tourism, the Ideology of Design and the Nationalized Past in Zippori/Sepphoris, an Israeli National Park"
19 Chapter 13 "The Roads to Ruins: Accessing Islamic Heritage in Jordan"
20 Chapter 14 "Re-Packaging the Pilgrimage: Visiting the Holy Land in Orlando"
21 Section VI: Conclusions: Archaeologists and the Marketing of Heritage
22 Chapter 15 "Is the medium the message? The art of interpreting archaeology in the U.S. National Parks"
23 Chapter 16 "Engaging with Heritage Issues: The Role of the World Archaeological Congress"
24 Chapter 17 "Making the Past Profitable in an Age of Globalization and National Ownership: contradictions and considerations"

This book will rightly make you question the social forces at play in marketing heritage, the politics of of representation apparent in particular pasts, and the way sin which commodification affects your own views about what you see and reach about heritage sites.