D. Fairchild Ruggles is a professor of landscape architecture whose research explores the visual culture and built environment of the Islamic world. Ruggles also is co-director, with anthropology and landscape architecture professor Helaine Silverman, of a new interdisciplinary collaborative at Illinois called Cultural Heritage and Museum Practices. She was interviewed by News Bureau arts editor Melissa Mitchell.
The cover story of Newsweek’s April 10-17, 2006, international edition focused on the world’s most endangered “wonders of the world,” among them, ancient Babylonian ruins in Iraq, Peru’s Machu Piccu and the Great Wall of China. Some of the world’s cultural treasures are threatened by war, others by throngs of well intentioned tourists.
Is it really possible for tourism and preservation to coexist?
Tourism and preservation both emerge from the idea that history, embodied in its sites, is something that is owned, although there is considerable disagreement as to whether ownership belongs to the world as a whole, the nation, or the local community. Tourists consume the experience of the site – they want to go to the actual place, take photos, read the book, eat in the cafe and purchase a souvenir to commemorate and embody the pilgrimage they have made. These are small but meaningful acts of taking possession. But they are sometimes accompanied by graffiti and pilfering, which are transgressive forms of possession. While preservationists genuinely want to protect monuments, they are compelled to prepare them for this touristic consumption. But I don’t want to condemn tourism; it can be a powerful tool for learning about history, geography, and cultural difference through personal experience. Personally, I love to travel.
Tourism isn’t the only threat to cultural heritage sites and cities; wars, pollution, natural disasters, even global warming can lead to their destruction. Which of the world’s sites are at greatest risk today?
Those in Iraq (and any place at war). The recent damage to buildings and museum collections in Iraq are material symptoms of an even greater social trauma, and yet the destruction is not simply war’s side effect; it is a calculated strategy of violence that destroys the external markers of social and religious identity. Who can forget the 1993 Croat bombardment of the 16th-century Ottoman bridge in Mostar?
Sometimes the views of international communities and organizations regarding cultural heritage protection clash with those of individual states where heritage sites are located. One notable example of this occurred in 2001 when the Taliban destroyed the giant Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan. Who ultimately defines and controls cultural heritage?
The sovereign nation supposedly protects heritage, but this failed in Afghanistan where the Taliban imposed control without forming a legitimate government. Thus, the destruction of the Buddhas was an act of pure lawlessness. Elsewhere, the national government may be an inadequate or even repressive steward, as some Native American/First Nation groups would argue. Instead of asking whether the nation, community or agency controls (or ought to control) cultural heritage, I prefer to focus on the mechanisms through which the articulation and protection of heritage are negotiated. This occurs not only in the offices of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations ) but in the public arena of the news media, courts, legislature, classroom, Internet, neighborhood association and street.
In the past, UNESCO has focused on protecting physical artifacts, monuments, museums and other sites, but in 2003 it approved a new international convention to protect “intangible cultural heritage.” What does that refer to?
UNESCO defines intangible heritage as “the practices, representations, expressions, as well as the knowledge and skills, that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage.” I predict that “intangible” is going to be a difficult definition to work with because it represents a shift from the measurable and datable material object to the human body, which is ephemeral and subjective. Helaine Silverman and I are going to explore this in the 2007 CHAMP workshop by focusing on the themes of voice, memory, movement, and the human landscape.
