World Heritage on the Ground: Ethnographic Perspectives

337 Pages·2016·4.7 MB·English

by  Christoph Brumann, David Berliner

WORLD HERITAGE ON THE GROUND
EASA Series
Published in Association with the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)
Series Editor: Eeva Berglund, University of Helsinki
Social anthropology in Europe is growing, and the variety of work being done is expanding. This
series is intended to present the best of the work produced by members of the EASA, both in
monographs and in edited collections. The studies in this series describe societies, processes, and
institutions around the world and are intended for both scholarly and student readership.
1. LEARNING FIELDS 15. HEADLINES OF NATION, SUBTEXTS
Educational Histories of European Social OF CLASS
Anthropology Working Class Populism and the Return of the
Edited by Dorle Dracklé, Iain R. Edgar and Repressed in Neoliberal Europe
Thomas K. Schippers Edited by Don Kalb and Gabor Halmai
2. LEARNING FIELDS 16. ENCOUNTERS OF BODY AND SOUL
Current Policies and Practices in European IN CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS
Social Anthropology Education PRACTICES
Edited by Dorle Dracklé and Iain R. Edgar Anthropological Reflections
Edited by Anna Fedele and Ruy Llera Blanes
3. GRAMMARS OF IDENTITY/ALTERITY
A Structural Approach 17. CARING FOR THE ‘HOLY LAND’
Edited by Gerd Baumann and Andre Gingrich Filipina Domestic Workers in Israel
Claudia Liebelt
4. MULTIPLE MEDICAL REALITIES
Patients and Healers in Biomedical, Alternative 18. ORDINARY LIVES AND GRAND
and Traditional Medicine SCHEMES
Edited by Helle Johannessen and Imre Lázár An Anthropology of Everyday Religion
Edited by Samuli Schielke and Liza Debevec
5. FRACTURING RESEMBLANCES
Identity and Mimetic Conflict in Melanesia and 19. LANDSCAPES BEYOND LAND
the West Routes, Aesthetics, Narratives
Simon Harrison Edited by Arnar Árnason, Nicolas Ellison, Jo
Vergunst and Andrew Whitehouse
6. SKILLED VISIONS
Between Apprenticeship and Standards 20. CYBERIDENTITIES AT WAR
Edited by Cristina Grasseni The Moluccan Conflict on the Internet
Birgit Bräuchler
7. GOING FIRST CLASS?
New Approaches to Privileged Travel and 21. FAMILY UPHEAVAL
Movement Generation, Mobility and Relatedness Among
Edited by Vered Amit Pakistani Migrants in Denmark
Mikkel Rytter
8. EXPLORING REGIMES OF DISCIPLINE
The Dynamics of Restraint 22. PERIPHERAL VISION
Edited by Noel Dyck Politics, Technology, and Surveillance
Catarina Frois
9. KNOWING HOW TO KNOW
Fieldwork and the Ethnographic Present 23. BEING HUMAN, BEING MIGRANT
Edited by Narmala Halstead, Eric Hirsch and Senses of Self and Well-Being
Judith Okely Edited by Anne Sigfrid Grønseth
10. POSTSOCIALIST EUROPE 24. BEING A STATE AND STATES OF
Anthropological Perspectives from Home BEING IN HIGHLAND GEORGIA
Edited by László Kürti and Peter Skalník Florian Mühlfried
11. ETHNOGRAPHIC PRACTICE IN THE 25. FLEXIBLE CAPITALISM
PRESENT Exchange and Ambiguity at Work
Edited by Marit Melhuus, Jon P. Mitchell and Edited by Jens Kjaerulff
Helena Wulff
26. CONTEMPORARY PAGAN AND NA-
12. CULTURE WARS TIVE FAITH MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE
Context, Models and Anthropologists’ Colonialist and Nationalist Impulses
Accounts Edited by Kathryn Rountree
Edited by Deborah James, Evelyn Plaice and
Christina Toren 27. FIGURATION WORK
Student Participation, Democracy and University
13. POWER AND MAGIC IN ITALY Reform in a Global Knowledge Economy
Thomas Hauschild Gritt B. Nielsen
14. POLICY WORLDS 28. WORLD HERITAGE ON THE GROUND
Anthropology and Analysis of Contemporary Ethnographic Perspectives
Power Edited by Christoph Brumann
Edited by Cris Shore, Susan Wright and Davide and David Berliner
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W H
orld eritage
g
on tHe round
Ethnographic Perspectives
Edited by
Christoph Brumann and David Berliner
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
Published in 2016 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2016 Christoph Brumann and David Berliner
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Brumann, Christoph, editor. | Berliner, David, editor.
Title: World heritage on the ground : ethnographic perspectives /
edited by Christoph Brumann and David Berliner.
Description: New York : Berghahn Books, 2016. | Series: EASA
series ; v. 28 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015041486 (print) | LCCN 2016001155
(ebook) | ISBN 9781785330919 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781785330926 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: World Heritage areas—Social aspects. | Ethnology.
Classification: LCC G140.5 .W667 2016 (print) | LCC G140.5
(ebook) | DDC 363.6/9—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041486
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-78533-091-9 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-1-78533-092-6 (institutional ebook)
Contents
List of Figures vii
Introduction. UNESCO World Heritage – Grounded? 1
Christoph Brumann and David Berliner
PART I. CITIES
1. Affects and Senses in a World Heritage Site:
People-House Relations in the Medina of Fez 37
Manon Istasse
2. ‘UNESCO is What?’ World Heritage, Militant Islam
and the Search for a Common Humanity in Mali 60
Charlotte Joy
3. Heritage Making in Lijiang: Governance,
Reconstruction and Local Naxi Life 78
Yujie Zhu
4. Multiple Nostalgias: The Fabric of Heritage
in Luang Prabang (Lao PDR) 97
David Berliner
vi ◆ Contents
PART II. ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
5. Thinking Globally and Acting Locally in Angkor 125
Keiko Miura
6. One List, a World of Difference? The Dynamics
of Global Heritage at Two Neighbouring Properties 147
Noel B. Salazar
7. Civilization and the Transformation of Xiaotun
Village at Yin Xu Archaeological Site, China 171
Shu-Li Wang
8. The Business of Wonder: Public Meets Private
at the World Heritage Site of Chichén Itzá 193
Lisa Breglia
PART III. CULTURAL LANDSCAPES
9. Decolonizing the Site: The Problems and Pragmatics
of World Heritage in Italy, Libya and Tanzania 219
Jasper Chalcraft
10. Prickly Prestations: Living with (World)
Heritage in Osogbo, Nigeria 248
Peter Probst
11. Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape: Extractive
Economies and Endangerment on South Africa’s Borders 273
Lynn Meskell
Conclusion. Imagining the Ground from Afar:
Why the Sites Are so Remote in World
Heritage Committee Sessions 294
Christoph Brumann
Index 319
Figures
Figure 1.1. View of Fez from the Merinid tombs, 2011 40
Figure 1.2. Central courtyard in a guest house, a place
of high involvement for senses and affects, 2011 50
Figure 2.1. The Cultural Mission in Djenné 70
Figure 2.2. The Great Mosque of Djenné as a backdrop
on a market day 72
Figure 3.1. World Heritage emblem in the old town
of Lijiang 83
Figure 3.2. Bars in the old town of Lijiang 86
Figure 5.1. APSARA maintenance workers at the
Bayon Temple in Angkor Thom 133
Figure 5.2. The interrupted construction of a house
for a young couple in February 2010 139
Figure 6.1. Borobudur temple compounds 154
Figure 6.2. Prambanan temple compounds 159
Figure 7.1. Xiaotun village, 2010 177
Figure 7.2. Wushengmiao shrine, 2011 185
viii ◆ Figures
Figure 10.1. Inside the Osun grove, sculpture of Adebisi
Akanji and Susanne Wenger depicting the
deity of Iya Mapo 252
Figure 10.2. Votary maid with sacred calabash, Osun
Osogbo festival, 2003 262
Figure 12.1. World Heritage Committee in session,
Saint Petersburg 2012 297
Figure 12.2. Evening reception for the World Heritage
Committee at Peterhof Palace,
Saint Petersburg 2012 313
Introduction
UNESCO World Heritage – Grounded?
Christoph Brumann and David Berliner
In its 2014 session in Doha, Qatar, the World Heritage Committee in-
scribed the one thousandth site on the World Heritage List. This was
heralded as a mixed blessing, signalling the unanticipated success of an
international treaty with close to universal ratification (191 states) that
has created a highly coveted global distinction for cultural and natural
wonders but also the administrative challenge and risk of inflation
that a potentially endless listing exercise poses. In what, aside from
being a global clearinghouse for heritage valuation and conservation
standards, has become a breathless bureaucratic machinery, there is
often little time for asking fundamental questions. But if the oppor-
tunity arises, one issue is certain to draw attention: What does World
Heritage actually do on the ground of the World Heritage properties,
far away from the meeting halls where the Committee takes its deci-
sions? Does World Heritage deliver on its promise of conservation
and global curatorial responsibility or does it do other things, and
through and to whom exactly? Does World Heritage bring local situ-
ations under the standardizing influence of global forces, or do these
remain marginal to the social processes at and around World Heritage
sites? And what happens when the reverence for heritage collides with
other value orientations and livelihood needs?
This collection presents a set of nuanced answers to these questions,
based on the in-depth ethnographic exploration of selected sites on
the World Heritage List. Impact studies of World Heritage properties,
often with an applied interest, are by no means rare, and the World
Heritage organizations themselves have compiled a collection for the
fortieth anniversary of the convention (Galla 2012). In this volume,