Heritage is important to folklorists. After all, many of our students will become heritage workers, be it as recorders and conservers of the traditional arts, or as workers in heritage tourism and other heritage-related areas. The book under review is part of the British series, Understanding Global Heritage, and it deals primarily with tangible heritage, specifically monuments, buildings, and landscapes. It does, however, have chapters on intangible heritage, and the general discussion of heritage, whether of the tangible or intangible variety, is most useful. The volume seeks to problematize heritage, to explore authorized heritage discourse (AHD) (Smith 2006) and its interplay with the bottom-up (what one might call folk) efforts to memorialize meaningful places. UNESCO definitions of cultural heritage are important to this book and chapter 5 traces the history of these definitions in some detail. There are eight chapters in all, and each begins with a theoretical discussion and then proceeds to one or more case studies. Most of the case studies are drawn from the United Kingdom or areas that had been under British rule. The book is very well done. The chapters coordinate with each other and refer to each other. The editor and the authors have been careful to work together to produce a meaningful unit. They have also provided each chapter with a list of books for further reading, in addition to a bibliography, making this a most useful collection of essays.
Chapter 1 seeks to add memory to the heritage discussion and examines various forms and types of memory. Memory, especially personal memory, may go against authorized heritage discourse, recalling a past different from the one approved by those in power. Memories survive best when shared with others and, in this sense, all memory is social (Halbwachs 1980). Memory is often linked to place, especially in a modern society where tradition is not recreated through ritual and poetry. After this introduction by Benton, chapter 1 presents a case study by Clementine Cecil who looks at tours of Constructivist architecture in contemporary Moscow. Constructivist buildings, once seen as the physical embodiment of a new and revolutionary way of life, were later devalued and are now being demolished to make way for new buildings. Yet for many Moscow residents they trigger important memories. In response, Sergei Nikitin, a journalist, has organized cultural walks that tour Constructivist sites, allowing those in the group to speak and share their memories as they walk from place to place.
Starting with chapter 2, the book goes in something resembling chronological order, and this chapter looks at monuments to the First World War. Here Benton, now writing with Penelope Curtis, discusses the nature of public commemoration and then examines specific instances. The most successful monument is the Whitehall Cenotaph, an abstract, block-like structure, first quickly built in wood, that captured public sentiment so well it was recreated in stone. More realistic monuments, especially those depicting specific individuals, were less successful both because it was difficult to agree on how a person should be represented and because attitudes changed over time and military leaders, once lauded for their heroism, came to be seen as men who sent soldiers to their deaths.
Karl Hack’s chapter on contentious heritage examines commemoration of the Second World War and Japanese occupation in Malaysia and Singapore. In both countries, there was a need to shake off the colonial past. Both countries also had to deal with recognizing and accommodating major ethnic groups within the state. Malaysia and Singapore have adopted differing solutions, with Singapore seeking an integrationist approach and erecting a monument to “common” civilian suffering. Malaysia, on the other hand, has chosen to favor Malays in its official monuments, while allowing “dissonant” commemorative expression on a private level within other ethnic groups.
Continuing with the Second World War and its aftermath, Benton, in the next chapter, looks at Nazi and Fascist buildings and monuments. When an ideology has been discredited, he asks, what happens to structures meant to embody an ideal? Iconography tends to be removed, he finds, while buildings adapt to regime change more easily, though many are modified.
Chapter 5, in addition to looking at UNESCO rulings, looks at multiculturalism. It examines various ways that societies have dealt with the co-presence of a number of groups. One of its case studies is Australia where the role of indigenous peoples in the development of modern Australia has been overlooked in favor of a narrative that focuses on the struggles of English settlers. The other is Cape Town, South Africa, where the black component of the history of District Six has been erased until recently when a District Six museum was opened.
Memory is tied not only to constructed heritage but also to natural landscapes, and these are the subject of chapter 6. The discussion here deals again with UNESCO proclamations regarding cultural landscapes and short examinations of heritage parks and the revival of traditional farming practices in the Philippines. The case study in this chapter is the Matobo Hills of Zimbabwe. These are an important spiritual site for the indigenous population and a site of a concentration of rock art. They are also beautiful and important in terms of the animals that live in the area. Cecil Rhodes chose to be buried in the Matobo Hills. Should this act be seen as an indication of his love of the landscape or an attempt to assert white dominance in tangible form?
Chapter 7 talks about intangible heritage and is the most "folkloric" of the chapters in the book. Again UNESCO proclamations are cited, and there are short discussions about body painting and the Mexican Day of the Dead. The case study is again Australia. Here the author, Deborah Rose, talks about the worldview of aboriginals and argues its complexity. Local peoples see an interplay of life and ascribe sentience to things that Westerners do not see as alive. While the complexity that Rose argues for is important, it can never be legislated. Any legislation, including that which protects complex heritage, must be a code. Coding requires simplification, and this virtually precludes a legal articulation of the aboriginal point of view. This chapter was eye-opening for this reviewer in other ways. We take it as a given that cultural creations must be preserved. These, according to UNESCO, are part of world heritage and we must preserve them so that all the peoples of the world can benefit from experiencing these treasures. But Australian aboriginals do not want their art preserved. To them, the art, a manifestation of the Dreamings, must decay and disappear. The disappearance of a pictorial representation means that the Dreamings have wandered elsewhere. Does UNESCO legislation, aimed at supporting cultural diversity, actually violate aboriginal culture? Does preservation "imprison" the Dreamings and do violence to the very worldview it is meant to support?
The final chapter deals with post-modernity, the rapidity of change, the speed with which something becomes a heritage object, and finally with Second Life. This is an online, digital world where real places can be represented and imaginary places created. Second Life shows how nostalgia for things past can maintain an object, and it also shows how the past can be used for roleplay and to understand real life and the relationships within it. It is a way of reflecting on the real.
This book is enjoyable reading and, while not specifically about folklore, most useful to folklorists. Throughout the book, whether the discussion is about intangible culture heritage or about buildings and monuments, the power of the people comes through. No matter what may be imposed from above, it is the folk who determine what is meaningful. Sometimes AHD responds to folk desire. When it does not, the folk create their own lore and express their collective memories.
WORKS CITED
Smith, Laurajane. 2006. Uses of Heritage. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Halbwachs, Maurice. 1980. The Collective Memory. Translated by F. J. Ditter and V. Y. Ditter. New York: Harper and Row.
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[Review length: 1329 words • Review posted on September 29, 2010]