Transcending the Culture–Nature Divide in Cultural Heritage : Views from the Asia–Pacific region

Abstract

terra australis 36Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present. Dewey Number: 363.69091823 List of volumes in Terra AustralisVolumeCopyright of the text remains with the contributors/authors, 2011. This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. This volume began life as a session at the 2010 Australian Archaeological Conference on the cultural heritage of protected areas in the Asia-Pacific region. Our particular concern was with the proposition that the discourse of nature conservation was predisposed to a vision of protected areas (in the form of national parks and other 'nature' reserves) as pristine nature. According to such a vision, protected areas represent wildernesses that, having escaped the ravages of human exploitation, had now to be preserved as the last reservoirs of biodiversity on a planet threatened with ecological disaster. To what extent, we asked, did such a mindset eclipse the history and heritage of protected areas as human habitats, not to mention effacing the contemporary presence in them of living human cultures?These questions engage the much larger issue of the culture-nature divide as an ontological marker of Western modernity. This divide should more properly be described as a 'duality' or a 'dyad', terms that have been used to describe a habit of thought which developed in the West from the seventeenth century but with older antecedents. This habit of thought also produced the distinctive mind/body split which is particularly identified with the Cartesian worldview. In recent years there has been increasing interest in the real world ramifications of the culturenature duality from those working in fields ranging from sociology (for example, Latour 1993) and anthropology (Ingold 2000; Haraway 2006), to geography (Whatmore 2006;Head 2007). In Australia it has occupied the attention of Debbie Rose (1996Rose ( , 2011 and others in the Ecological Humanities group. 1 There has been a growing consciousness of the extent to which culture-nature dualism is foundational to Western modernity and thus seminal to the West's encounter with the non-Western world.In modern Western thought, society (or culture) has been understood to be not just radically separate from nature but situated in a hierarchical relationship of dominance to it. This ontological model facilitated the vastl...

Rediscovering the Idea of Cultural Heritage and the Relationship with Nature: Four Schools of Essential Thought of the Ancient Han Chinese

“…The understanding of cultural heritage value consequently tended toward historical, artistic and scientific values that could more readily reflect the material. Including the influence from international practice, i.e., World Heritage Convention and charters, the issue of reification (i.e., focusing on the material), along with the related issue of division between people (i.e., living community), nature and the material have been criticised in the recent decades [3,12]. As Taylor and Lennon noted:…”

“…With a case study of Huaqing Palace of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), the research is expected to be the first attempt to rediscover that the four schools of thought, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and I Ching, had jointly formed a "wisdom" system of the ancient Han Chinese in shaping the idea of cultural heritage, as well as the idea of heritage conservation, which were inherited by modern Chinese without knowing and recognising it. The paper, therefore, argues that without understanding and acknowledging the significance of the ancient Han Chinese's particular view on nature and the universe formed by the four schools of thought behind the material, it is not likely to protect and promote comprehensively their heritage value, such that the importance of cultural diversity will be just rhetoric.Heritage 2019, 2 1813 between nature and culture is a sustained issue and concern in heritage conservation [12,13]. In recent years, due to the emergence of non-Western conservation perspectives, as well as the advocacy of pluralism in conservation, the connections between nature, heritage and people have gradually been regained [12,14,15].…”

“…The paper, therefore, argues that without understanding and acknowledging the significance of the ancient Han Chinese's particular view on nature and the universe formed by the four schools of thought behind the material, it is not likely to protect and promote comprehensively their heritage value, such that the importance of cultural diversity will be just rhetoric.Heritage 2019, 2 1813 between nature and culture is a sustained issue and concern in heritage conservation [12,13]. In recent years, due to the emergence of non-Western conservation perspectives, as well as the advocacy of pluralism in conservation, the connections between nature, heritage and people have gradually been regained [12,14,15]. As such, the process of the development of modern heritage conservation can be understood as starting from heritage, then with the inclusion of people and eventually to the inclusion of nature, for achieving comprehensiveness and harmony in understanding and conservation.…”

“…Heritage 2019, 2 1813 between nature and culture is a sustained issue and concern in heritage conservation [12,13]. In recent years, due to the emergence of non-Western conservation perspectives, as well as the advocacy of pluralism in conservation, the connections between nature, heritage and people have gradually been regained [12,14,15].…”

Historical Archaeologies of the American West

“…Significant historical archaeological contributions will be those that strike a balance between cultural and natural resource management and that integrate tribal collaborations, traditional ecological knowledge, and colonial histories in order to present lessons and case studies focused on issues such as adaptation, resilience, and sustainability in the American West (e.g., Bowser and Zedeño 2009;Carter et al 2005;Cassell 2005;Fawcett and Lewelling 2000;Fowler 2000;Lightfoot 2005;Mason et al 2012;McDonald et al 1991;Nevers and Rucks 2011;Stoffle et al 2001;Weisiger 2004;Zedeño 2007). There also are models to follow by looking at advances in Australian cultural heritage, where responsibilities for and decisions about land and resources management are being returned to traditional owners so that indigenous people are ''equal partners in land management decision making'' (Brockwell et al 2013;Ross and Pickering 2002; see also Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies 2000; Burke and Smith 2010;Guilfoyle et al 2009;Patterson 1993).…”