CULTURE AND CULTURAL HERITAGE MANAGEMENT

Introduction

According to Cultural heritage refers to the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group of society that inherited them from past generations, maintained them in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. Cultural heritage appreciation varies both in time and space. For example, where Europeans values monumentality, Africans disregards it over the associated sacred values hence the European perspective that African heritage as barbaric. The most important factors about a culture are however always preserved such as language. The vocation of managing this heritage is known as Cultural heritage management and is a branch of Cultural Resource Management.

Valuing Cultural Heritage

As we discuss the importance of the past to our educational system, as a basis for our contemporary identity, cultural creativity, and community development, we sometimes take its benefits for granted. Usually, people say; those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it"; that "the past is the foundation for modern identity"; that "our heritage is what we cherish and must pass on to future generations." We earnestly repeat these statements, often without stopping to reflect seriously on whether they are really true or even what they really mean.

As a result, our shared heritage of historic buildings and archaeological sites, sacred shrines and forests, traditions, and folklore are all too often seen by political leaders and budget cutters as valuable perhaps, but not among the most pressing public priorities. And in times of economic contraction as was the Zimbabwean case around the late nineties, budgets for cultural heritage management and research are among the first to be cut.

Heritage is thus important because it helps researchers understand;

Identity / Through its conservation and commemoration, heritage helps foster a sense of modern identity among individuals and communities? It helps shape our behavior regarding issues such as educational policies, social, and economic behavior, political perspective etc.
Culture / Our cultural heritage defines our present laws and policies of cultural heritage management. This helps us define "mainstream" or majority heritage from minority. Commemoration of the past facilitates the coexistence of distinct cultures, rather than emphasize the historical and cultural boundaries between them? As such, heritage related initiatives actually help preserve the fabric of disintegrating cultures and communities.
Economics / Cultural heritage such as our monuments and traditions of the past can be viable resources for local economic development. Economically, societies can benefit through heritage tourism. Though it can economically empower communities, there are hidden costs to a community and in most cases, the investment-return ratio for heritage development does not favour them. As such, heritage managers could develop alternative economic activities and benchmarks for the benefit of the local communities whilst protecting the heritage safely.
Ecology / Recognition of heritage can also help us reflect on the past hence helping us maintain a balance between intergenerational rights and responsibilities. How do we maintain a sustainable balance between appreciation of the past and awareness of the challenges of the future? heritage managers have to capitalise on the link between the guiding principles of the environmental movement and sustainable heritage management thus we dismantle the artificial partition between “Nature” and “Culture”
Civil Society / Culture impacts heavily on heritage policies, encouraging all sectors, stakeholders, and communities to participate in heritage planning and commemoration, have a positive social effect? Democratization" of heritage participation also encourages democratic public discourse. Heritage also enables policies and projects to be designed in such ways that enhance community identity, sustainable cultures, and local economies and serve as tools for the wider cause of social development and positive social change?

How is culture manifested?

Physical or Tangible heritage

This refers to those materials that one can touch, see because they are enshrined in some physical form which everybody could voluntarily confirm on. Such materials would include buildings, architectural designs, historic places, monuments, cultural landscapes, ecofacts, artifacts etc

Intangible heritage

This refers to those aspects of a culture which cannot be touched or stored within a museum environment but can only be observed and protected through reinterpretation by the people who observe them such as sacred values, myths and taboos. These are argued to only exist in the mindset of the community that recognizes them. This explains the diversity of cultures on the African continent. The management of this form of heritage is most difficult as it requires the consideration of the lives and living conditions of local communities, an aspect most overlooked by legislations of African countries.

KEY TERMS

Culture an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning’.

a set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterize an organization or group/community’ and existing at all levels of a society. i.e. in the home, village, regional, national level etc. This also explains why it is a variable factor

Cultural Heritage the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group of society that inherited them from past generations, maintained them in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations.

Cultural Resources Management (CRM) is the vocation and practice of managing cultural resources, such as the arts and heritage. It incorporates Cultural Heritage Management which is concerned with traditional and historic culture. It also delves into the material culture of archaeology. Cultural resources management encompasses current culture, including progressive and innovative culture, such as urban culture, rather than simply preserving and presenting traditional forms of culture.

Heritage commonly used to refer to our cultural inheritance from past that this is the evidence of human activity.

Cultural Significance Means aesthetic, historic, scientific, social/spiritual value of past, present and future generations.

Cultural Landscape have been defined by the World Heritage Committee as distinct geographical areas or properties uniquely "..represent[ing] the combined work of nature and of man..". This concept has been adapted and developed within international heritage arenas (UNESCO) as part of an international effort to reconcile "..one of the most pervasive dualisms in Western thought - that of nature and culture."

The World Heritage Committee identified and adopted three categories of cultural landscape, ranging from:

(i) "a landscape designed and created intentionally by man";
(ii) an "organically evolved landscape" which may be a "relict (or fossil) landscape" or a "continuing landscape";
(iii) an "associative cultural landscape" which may be valued because of the "religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element"

Are natural environments that have been fashioned by man as a member of a cultural group. In this context, culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium and the cultural landscape is the result. For example, the Ziwa cultural landscape, good example of a community that harnessed a hostile environment and established a thriving community through terracing the highlands for agricultural practice. The same setting is still visible in rural areas of Nyanga such as the Nyakomba and Nyamaropa.

Artifact anything made and used by mankind which gives information about the culture that shaped it, its creator and its users.

Ecofacts natural materials that have been used by humans as part of their culture, for example the remains of plants and animals. Such materials are useful in the study of ancient environments and ecology. Examples include animal bones, seeds, fruits shells, pollen etc.

Manuports these are natural objects which have been removed from their original context by human agency but otherwise remain unmodified. Example; rounded stone or shells moved from coastal or riverine areas

Archaeology is the study of past human societies through systematic recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data which they left behind. This would include artifacts, architecture, Ecofacts, cultural landscapes

Rescue archaeology, sometimes called "preventive" or "salvage" archaeology, is archaeological survey and excavation carried out in areas threatened by, or revealed by, construction or other development. These conditions could include, but are not limited to, the building of dams where sites of interest might exist in the flood plain, highway projects, major construction, or even before the onset of war operations. Unlike traditional survey and excavation, rescue archaeology must be undertaken at speed. Rescue archaeology is included in the broader category of "Cultural resource management (CRM)".

Ethnography a research strategy employed for getting empirical information on human societies/cultures and often collected through participant observation, interviews and questionnaires.

Ethno archaeology is the archaeological study of living people in order to improve analogs which can be used to interpret archaeological findings.

Site a place in which evidence of past societal activity is preserved and represents part of the archaeological record

Monument refers to a physical site that has evidence of human habitation of use for its socio-economic or political benefit. It is not necessarily a built site but retains evidence through artifacts

Preservation maintaining a structure in its existing state and preventing further deterioration

Restoration refers to the returning of a structure to a known earlier state by repair of existing fabric without the introduction of new materials.

Reconstruction refers to the returning of a structure to a known earlier state by introduction on new material into any remaining fabric.

Taboos Sacred rules (dos and don’ts) that control social behavior of members of the community in their interaction with important aspects of their culture. They are always followed by a predefined punishment from the gods if one breaks them.

Myths imaginary stories reinforced through acts such as stories, songs, and poems etc which are supposed to work hand in hand with taboos to control behavior of community members.

Relics deposit, object or material evidence of human past.

Antique any movable object (not including a monument or relic) of aesthetic, historical, archaeological or scientific value or interest, the whole or part or valuable portion of it which has been in Southern Africa for more than a century.

National Monument any natural or human modified area or land having a distinct or beautiful scenery or geological formation with rare or distinct flora and fauna or containing objects of archaeological, historic, sacred, aesthetic, religious or scientific value or interest eg buildings, avenue of trees, waterfall, grotto etc.

The development of Cultural Resource Management

Cultural resource management can trace its beginning to the environment/conservational movement in the 1960s and 1970s. During this time, there was growth in legislation concerning the protection of cultural resources. The Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act of 1974, commonly known as the Moss-Bennett Act, helped to fuel the creation of CRM, while creating “growth in archaeological jobs in the federal government, academia, and private sector.” Federal legislation had passed earlier in 1906 under the ,Antiquities Act but it was not until the 1970s when the term “cultural resources” was coined by the National Park Services. This term came into more popular usage after two meetings in 1974: the Cultural Resource Management conference and the Airlie House conference. Following these conferences, the National Park Service (NPS) defined cultural resources in the Cultural Resource Management Guidelines as being:

“Those tangible and intangible aspects of cultural systems, both living and dead, that are valued by or representative of a given culture or that contain information about a culture…[They] include but are not limited to sites, structures, districts, objects, and historic documents associated with or representative of peoples, cultures, and human activities and events, either in the present or in the past. Cultural resources also can include primary written and verbal data for interpretation and understanding of those tangible resources.”

Cultural resources management in the heritage context is mainly concerned with the investigation of sites with archaeological potential, the preservation and interpretation of historic sites and artifacts, and the culture of indigenous people. The subject developed from initiatives in rescue archaeology, sensitivities to the treatment of indigenous people, and subsequent legislation to protect cultural heritage.

In the 1970s, archaeologists created the term "cultural resource management" as a parallel to natural resource management to address the following resources:

·  Historic properties (as listed or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places)

·  Older properties that may have cultural value, but may or may not be eligible for the National Register

·  Historic properties that have cultural value beyond their historicity

·  Native American graves and cultural items

·  Shipwrecks

·  Museum collections

·  Historical documents

·  Religious sites

·  Religious practices

·  Cultural use of natural resources

·  Folklife, tradition, and other social institutions

·  Theater groups, orchestras, and other community cultural amenities

A significant proportion of the archaeological investigation in countries that have heritage management legislation including the USA and UK is conducted on sites under threat of development. In the US, such investigations are now done by private companies on a consulting basis, and a national organization exists to support the practice of CRM. Museums, besides being popular tourist attractions, often play roles in conservation of, and research on, threatened sites, including as repositories for collections from sites slated for destruction.

National Register eligibility

One common task in Cultural Resource Management is to determine whether specific properties are eligible for listing as a National Heritage Site on the National Register of Historic Places. Reasons for listing are often to enhance public awareness or for conservation.

In the US, in order to classify and protect something on the National Register as a cultural resource, there are many laws and regulators to look to:

·  Authorities for all types of cultural resources:

·  The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

·  Historic Preservation Authorities:

·  The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA)

·  Historic Sites Act (HAS)

·  Archaeological Authorities:

·  The Antiquities Act of 1906

·  The Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA)