Rodney Harrison

The coauthors of this theoretically innovative work explore the relationships among anthropological fieldwork, museum collecting and display, and social governance in the early twentieth century in Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, and the United States. With case studies ranging from the Musée de l'Homme's 1930s fieldwork missions in French Indo-China to the influence of Franz Boas's culture concept on the development of American museums, the authors illuminate recent debates about postwar forms of multicultural governance, cultural conceptions of difference, and postcolonial policy and practice in museums. Collecting, Ordering, Governing is essential reading for scholars and students of anthropology, museum studies, cultural studies, and indigenous studies as well as museum and heritage professionals. The introductory chapter is available to download at dukeupress.edu/Assets/PubMaterials/978-0-8223-6268-5_601.pdf

It has been clear for many years that the ways in which archaeology is practised have been a direct product of a particular set of social, cultural, and historical circumstances-archaeology is always carried out in the present. More recently, however, many have begun to consider how archaeological techniques might be used to reflect more directly on the contemporary world itself: how we might undertake archaeologies of, as well as in the present. This Handbook is the first comprehensive survey of an exciting and rapidly expanding sub-field and provides an authoritative overview of the newly emerging focus on the archaeology of the present and recent past. In addition to detailed archaeological case studies, it includes essays by scholars working on the relationships of different disciplines to the archaeology of the contemporary world, including anthropology, psychology, philosophy, historical geography, science and technology studies, communications and media, ethnoarchaeology, forensic archaeology, sociology, film, performance, and contemporary art. This volume seeks to explore the boundaries of an emerging sub-discipline, to develop a tool-kit of concepts and methods which are applicable to this new field, and to suggest important future trajectories for research. It makes a significant intervention by drawing together scholars working on a broad range of themes, approaches, methods, and case studies from diverse contexts in different parts of the world, which have not previously been considered collectively.

Historic sites, memorials, national parks, museums…we live in an age in which heritage is ever-present. But what does it mean to live amongst the spectral traces of the past, the heterogeneous piling up of historic materials in the present? How did heritage grow from the concern of a handful of enthusiasts and specialists in one part of the world to something which is considered to be universally cherished? And what concepts and approaches are necessary to understanding this global obsession?

Over the decades, since the adoption of the World Heritage Convention, various ‘crises’ of definition have significantly influenced the ways in which heritage is classified, perceived and managed in contemporary global societies. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the many tangible and intangible ‘things’ now defined as heritage, this book attempts simultaneously to account for this global phenomenon and the industry which has grown up around it, as well as to develop a ‘toolkit of concepts’ with which it might be studied. In doing so, it provides a critical account of the emergence of heritage studies as an interdisciplinary field of academic study. This is presented as part of a broader examination of the function of heritage in late modern societies, with a particular focus on the changes which have resulted from the globalisation of heritage during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Developing new theoretical approaches and innovative models for more dialogically democratic heritage decision making processes, Heritage: Critical Approaches unravels the relationship between heritage and the experience of late modernity, whilst reorienting heritage so that it might be more productively connected with other pressing social, economic, political and environmental issues of our time.

Reassembling the Collection presents innovative approaches to the study of historical and contemporary engagements between museums and the various individuals and communities who were (and are) involved in their production and consumption. Reassembling the Collection is interdisciplinary in scope and international in coverage. It addresses fundamental questions about the nature, value, and efficacy of museum collections in a postcolonial world, and the entangled agencies of those who have made, traded, received, collected, curated, worked with, researched, viewed, and experienced them in the past and present. In moving beyond the concerns of the politics of representation that have dominated critical museum studies, Reassembling the Collection considers the material networks and affective qualities of “things” alongside their representational role within the museum and explores the ways in which concepts of agency and indigeneity need to be reconfigured in light of the study of these concepts within the museum context. The contributors explore key concepts including the idea of museums as “meshworks” of material and social assemblages; how an “archaeological sensibility” might inform approaches to understanding past and present relationships between people, “things,” and institutions in relation to museums; and the “weight of things” and sense of “curatorial responsibility,” which arises from a reconsideration of the nature of museum objects.

This book summarizes archaeological approaches to the contemporary past, and suggests a new agenda for the archaeology of late modern societies. The principal focus is the archaeology of developed, de-industrialized societies during the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. This period encompasses the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the 'internet age', a period which sits firmly within what we would recognize to be a period of 'lived and living memory'. Rodney Harrison and John Schofield explore how archaeology can inform the study of this time period and the study of our own society through detailed case studies and an in-depth summary of the existing literature. Their book draws together cross-disciplinary perspectives on contemporary material culture studies, and develops a new agenda for the study of the materiality of late modern societies.

"…if the black fellas weren’t there, they wouldn’t have been able to do it… where the cattle went, they went."

The heritage of the pastoral industry stands as an integral symbol of identity for rural communities − both black and white − in New South Wales. Modern changes in pastoral land management, infrastructure and technology, combined with broader land-use changes and increased community interest in the conservation and rehabilitation of former grazing lands, has meant that many former pastoral properties have been abandoned or acquired for other uses. Tracking the history of these land-use changes, Shared Landscapes presents new ways of understanding historic heritage in settler societies through cross-disciplinary case studies that examine the heritage of the pastoral industry in two national parks.

Assessing its current state of interpretation and management in New South Wales, Rodney Harrison shows that pastoral heritage is more than just ‘woolsheds and homesteads’, the showpieces of white, male, settler-colonial economies. Pastoral heritage is the product of the mutual histories of Aboriginal and settler Australians. It is a form of heritage that is both in, and a part of the landscape. His ‘archaeological’ approach to the heritage of the pastoral industry involves both recording sites and revealing attachments to community heritage, demonstrating that writing shared histories and celebrating shared heritage has the creative power to reconcile Aboriginal and settler Australians in powerful and positive ways.

Extensively illustrated with over 200 plates, maps and line drawings, this book represents a major intervention in the practice of cultural heritage management and historical archaeology in Australia, while engaging with broader issues of history, race, place and identity.

Museum collections are often perceived as static entities hidden away in storerooms or trapped behind glass cases. By focusing on the dynamic histories of museum collections, new research reveals their pivotal role in shaping a wide range of social relations.  Over time and across space the interactions between these artefacts and  the  people and institutions who made, traded, collected, researched and  exhibited them have generated complex networks of material and social agency.

In this innovative volume, the contributors draw on a broad range of source materials to explore the cross-cultural interactions which have created museum collections. These case studies contribute significantly to the development of new theoretical frameworks to  examine broader questions of materiality, agency, and identity in the past and present.

Grounded in case studies from individual objects and museum  collections from North America, Europe, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Australia, this truly international volume juxtaposes historical,  geographical, and cross-cultural studies.

This work will be of great interest to archaeologists and anthropologists studying material culture, as well as researchers in museum studies and cultural heritage management.

Events ranging from the formation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by the government of South Africa to the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan by the Taliban have much to say about heritage - that heritage may be less about upholding truth or authenticity, and more about delivering political objectives.

This book questions the view within most Western societies that heritage is necessarily 'good', and uncovers the ways in which heritage embodies relationships of power and subjugation, inclusion and exclusion, remembering and forgetting. It considers who is represented by heritage and who heritage has neglected to mention.  Heritage is shown to be both a versatile concept and a powerful tool, for the ownership of heritage objects, places and practices can bestow political power as well as stimulate political struggle.

The book's principal focus is the relationship between heritage, globalisation, nationalism and grass roots heritage movements. International case studies are used to illustrate the ways in which the politics of the past are mediated in the present, including how notions of identity, social class, and nationhood may be woven into the provision of official heritage. The book highlights the influence of the World Heritage Convention and World Heritage List on heritage management in various global societies. 

With its firmly interdisciplinary and global approach, Understanding the politics of heritage will be of interest not only to students of heritage studies, but also to students and professionals in the fields of archaeology, art history, anthropology, sociology, history, human geography, religious studies, museum studies, cultural studies, natural heritage management, and leisure and tourism studies.

This resource is a much-needed support to the few textbooks in the field and offers an excellent introduction and overview to the established principles and new thinking in cultural heritage management.

Leading experts in the field from Europe, North America and Australia, bring together recent and innovative works in the field. With geographically and thematically diverse case studies, they examine the theoretical framework for heritage resource management.

Setting significant new thinking within the framework of more established views and ideas on heritage management, this reader re-publishes texts of the past decade with an overview of earlier literature and essays that fill the gaps in between, providing students of all stages with a clear picture of new and older literature.

A helpful introduction sets out key issues and debates, and individual chapter introductions and reading lists give a background collection of key works that offer ideas for the development of thought and study.

With good coverage of major issues and solutions in Britain, the USA and Australia, The Heritage Reader will appeal to students internationally across the English-speaking world, and will stand proud as a key guide to the study and practice of this major archaeological sector.

The original papers collected in this pioneering volume address the historical archaeology of Aboriginal Australia and its application in researching the shared history of Aboriginal and settler Australians. The authors draw on case studies from across the continent to show how archaeology can illuminate the continuum of responses by indigenous Australians to European settlement and colonization. Taking an innovative approach to the relationship between archaeological theory and contemporary Australian history, the book also examines the role of archaeology in current debates over Aboriginal land rights and the role of "post-contact" archaeology in cultural heritage management. An introduction by the series editors places the Australian material in the context of indigenous archaeological studies worldwide. The volume will be of interest to academic and public archaeologists, indigenous people, anthropologists, historians, and heritage managers who deal with indigenous communities.

La lutte contre le changement climatique exige une créativité radicale et de nouvelles formes de relations, d'institutions et de pratiques. Reimagining Museums for Climate Action a été lancé le 18 mai 2020, à l'occasion de la Journée internationale des musées 2020, sous la forme d'un concours international d'idées et de design visant à (re)imaginer et à (re)concevoir radicalement l'institution muséale, afin de contribuer à un avenir plus équitable et plus durable à l'ère du changement climatique. Le concours a suscité un intérêt considérable, avec 264 contributions de 48 pays. Huit lauréats ont reçu chacun 2 500 £ pour transformer leurs idées en expositions qui seront présentées au Centre scientifique de Glasgow avant et pendant la COP26. L'exposition présente également un large éventail d'idées parmi les soumissions, visant à fournir au secteur des musées et à la société une source d'innovation et d'inspiration pour atteindre les objectifs de...

I am extremely sympathetic to the authors’ critique of the term ‘contact archaeology’ and their argument that it detracts from the real inequalities and cultural and spatial dynamics of Indigenous and non-Indigenous colonial lifeworlds. It was precisely this concern that led me and several others during the late 1990s and 2000s, working with Indigenous collaborators and in dialogue with newly emergent perspectives on postcolonial and Indigenous histories, to argue for a range of alternative frameworks for writing about and practising archaeology in Australia. This body of work addressed the significant discursive erasure of Indigenous Australians in colonial contexts through narratives that placed emphasis on deep prehistory on the one hand (e.g. Byrne 2011), and that seemed focussed primarily on the agency of settler Australians on the other. The book Shared Landscapes (Harrison 2004) was an attempt to provide more inclusive ways of using archaeology, archives, heritage and oral histories to tell stories of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian history and the places in which those histories had occurred, mindful of these significant entanglements and inequalities, and drawing on these new perspectives (see reflective discussion in Harrison 2014). My work, and the work of other authors on this topic in Australia at the time (e.g. see citations in Harrison 2014), much of which is not cited by the authors of the comment currently being discussed, was developed in dialogue with scholars in the United States and elsewhere (including Silliman 2005, 2016 and Jordan 2009, 2014 on whose work the authors of this paper mainly base their critique of the term ‘contact’). Silliman and Jordan also cited and drew on new concepts emerging from empirical work on historical Indigenous archaeology in Australasia. Although this exchange of ideas relating to the critique of the concept of ‘contact’ was happening much earlier – Torrence and Clarke (2000) themselves argued for the use of the term ‘entanglement’ in preference to ‘contact’ in their book The Archaeology of Difference: Negotiating Cross-Cultural Engagements in Oceania – it is exemplified in the volume Rethinking Colonial Pasts through Archaeology (Ferris et al. 2014) which I coedited with Neil Ferris and Michael Wilcox, in which the significant cross-fertilisation of ideas from ‘colonialism’ to ‘shared histories’ to ‘cross-cultural engagement’/’entanglement’ is directly reflected in Jordan’s (2014) chapter which the authors cite, alongside several others from authors from the United States and Australia. The critique of ‘contact archaeology’ which the authors make was always a significant part of these earlier discussions, and itself derived in part from work in Australia. My disagreement with this paper, then, is a historiographical one. The implication that these concepts have not already been discussed in the Australian archaeological literature, and the arguments they bring to bear on the term ‘contact archaeology’, have not been raised convincingly before in an Australian archaeological context, does not accurately reflect the historiography of the discipline as I see it. But I think what is important about the paper is perhaps not so much the originality of the critique, but the fact that it still needs to be made, more than 20 years on. What I sense really sits at the heart of the frustration the authors express is not the lack of existing frameworks within Australian archaeology to do the work for which they advocate, but rather, how limited the influence of these concepts and frameworks appear to have been on the ways in which archaeology has routinely been practised and written about in Australia over the intervening period. I would suggest a revival and re-reading of this earlier work is now more relevant than ever. If the word constraints on comments were less rigorous, I would provide an extensive reference list to assist with this process, and I hope readers will forgive me for what they might perceive as my own significant omissions and

It could be argued that many of the most important developments in critical heritage studies have occurred as a result of the particular nuances of heritage in colonial environments, and postcolonial responses to them. This chapter briefly introduces colonialism and postcolonialism in a historical context, prior to looking at the ways in which heritage functions within these settings. The chapter contains a detailed case study written by historian Lotte Hughes on heritage in postcolonial Kenya. This focuses on the ways in which heritage is employed in the official discourses of the National Museums of Kenya and in two community-led heritage initiatives, and compares their different perspectives. The chapter considers the relevance of colonialism and postcolonialism not only to ‘new world’ countries but also in terms of their influence on the nature of heritage and its politics globally.

This chapter explores the potential for a study of colonial curio dealers' catalogues in producing particular forms of colonial desire that contributed to the production of a market in ethnographic souvenirs in Britain and its colonies in the late nineteenth and early ...

Declaration I declare that this written submission represents my ideas in my own words and where others ideas or words have been included, I have adequately cited and referenced the original sources. I also declare that I have adhered to all principles of academic honesty and integrity and have not misrepresented or fabricated or falsified any idea/data/fact/source in my submission. I understand that any violation of the above will be cause for disciplinary action by the Institute and can also evoke penal action from the sources which have thus not been properly cited or from whom proper permission has not been taken when needed. iii Acknowledgement I would like to express my deep gratitude for my guide Prof. Sridhar Iyer, who has always been making things simple to understand. Without his deep insight into this domain and his valuable time for this project, it would not have been possible for me to move ahead properly. He has been remarkable in his attempt to keep me motivated in t...

In the previous chapter, we considered those methodologies that might be seen to characterize the archaeology of the contemporary past. One of the issues raised there was the extent to which an archaeology of the contemporary past is defined by, and is even reliant upon, working with and across a series of different academic disciplines and areas of subject specialisms. In this chapter, we will look in more detail at the relationship between the archaeology of the contemporary past and the various academic disciplines on which it draws and with which it overlaps. Rather than a field defined by a series of other academic disciplines, we argue that the archaeology of the contemporary past emerges from this review as a discipline characterized by a particular vision and approach to the material culture of the contemporary world. These issues are explored in relation to various examples which illustrate both the similarities and differences between an archaeology of the contemporary pas...

Este artigo traça a genealogia do subcampo que ficou conhecido como “arqueologia do passado contemporâneo” e argumenta por sua maior integração com o campo expandido da arqueologia histórica. Um dos desafios centrais da arqueologia nas próximas décadas será encontrar um modo de se engajar com fenômenos emergentes, contemporâneos e sócio materiais e, consequentemente, com questões – tanto contemporâneas quanto futuras – de interesse ecológico, social, político e econômico. Partindo do quadro de um novo projeto de pesquisa interdisciplinar, colaborativo e internacional – Futuros do Patrimônio – que procura compreender os processos material-discursivos do patrimônio e de outros campos similares como formas distintivas de práticas de construção de futuros (future-assembling) através da aplicação de um conjunto de métodos arqueológicos etnográficos, o artigo conclui que o potencial para um campo expandido da arqueologia histórica reside na sua habilidade de engajar-se com futuros emergen...

Archaeologists have long been interested in contemporary material culture, but only recently has a dedicated subfield of archaeology of the contemporary world begun to emerge. Although it is concerned mainly with the archaeology of the early to mid-twentieth and twenty-first centuries, in its explicit acknowledgment of the contemporary archaeological record as multi-temporal, the subfield is not defined by a focus on a specific time period so much as a particular disposition toward time, material things, the archaeological process, and its politics. This article considers how the subfield might be characterized by its approaches to particular sources and its current and emerging thematic foci. A significant point of debate concerns the role of archaeology as a discipline through which to explore ongoing, contemporary sociomaterial practices—is archaeology purely concerned with the abandoned and the ruined, or can it also provide a means by which to engage with and illuminate ongoing...

Historic sites, memorials, national parks, museums... We live in an age in which heritage is ever-present. But what does it mean to live amongst the spectral traces of the past, the heterogeneous piling up of historic materials in the present? How did heritage grow from the concern of a handful of enthusiasts and specialists in one part of the world to something which is considered to be universally cherished? And what concepts and approaches are necessary to understanding this global obsession? Over the decades, since the adoption of the World Heritage Convention, various 'crises' of definition have significantly influenced the ways in which heritage is classified, perceived and managed in contemporary global societies. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the many tangible and intangible 'things' now defined as heritage, this book attempts simultaneously to account for this global phenomenon and the industry which has grown up around it, as well as to develop a ...

About the book: The original papers collected in this pioneering volume address the historical archaeology of Aboriginal Australia and its application in researching the shared history of Aboriginal and settler Australians. The authors draw on case studies from across the continent to show how archaeology can illuminate the continuum of responses by indigenous Australians to European settlement and colonization. Taking an innovative approach to the relationship between archaeological theory and contemporary Australian history, the book also examines the role of archaeology in current debates over Aboriginal land rights and the role of "post-contact" archaeology in cultural heritage management. An introduction by the series editors places the Australian material in the context of indigenous archaeological studies worldwide. The volume will be of interest to academic and public archaeologists, indigenous people, anthropologists, historians, and heritage managers who deal wit...

List of figures Notes on contributors Preface List of abbreviations Introduction 1. What is heritage? (Rodney Harrison) 2. Critical approaches to heritage (Rodney Harrison and Audrey Linkman) 3. Heritage as a tool of government (Anne Laurence) 4. World Heritage (Ian Donnachie) 5. The politics of heritage (Rodney Harrison) 6. Heritage and nationalism (Richard Allen) 7. Heritage, colonialism and postcolonialism (Rodney Harrison and Lotte Hughes) 8. Heritage and class (Susie West) Appendix: Cultural heritage policy documents Glossary Acknowledgements Index

This paper presents the results and preliminary conclusions of the 2016 season of the Crowded Desert Project, aiming to find out about the nomadic occupation and its relations with the settled peoples in the region. Activities includes extensive and intensive surveys and excavations in the area delimited by the areas of Umm al-Mā’ and Mulayḥa in the North West desert of the Qatar Peninsula. Conclusions so far complement and expand the ideas developed during the pilot season of the project in 2015, but also provide finer chronological detail and a wider coverage of the area of research. The distribution of glass, metal and pottery recovered shows important chronological differences in the patterns of occupation of the landscape. The paper also presents observed differences of spatial distribution of features, showing how cairns (presumably pre-Islamic tombs), Islamic burials and cemeteries and mosques and places of prayer (sing. muṣallā, pl. muṣallayāt) are distributed with respect t...

This paper presents a perspective of an archaeological site gained through medium- to long-term community-based participatory research with one local Australian Aboriginal community. It is radically different from that which may have emerged from either a social or an archaeological significance assessment, had each been carried out in isolation. At the ruin of the former Dennawan Aboriginal Reserve in far northwestern New South Wales, the living and the dead interact through the humble physical remains of tin cans, broken bottles, and tumbled-down house frames. Drawing on oral accounts of community participants and fine-grained archaeological recording of the remains of the site, this paper reveals the complex relationship among archaeological “relics,” local communities, ancestors, and the role of archaeological sites in contemporary local identity building. The participation of community members in archaeological research provided an opportunity for the sensuous nature of local p...

Contact archaeology in Australia is emerging as an important tool in the independent 'Verification' of claimants' testimony regarding the post-sovereignty occupation and use of particular parts of the landscape in a continuous and 'traditional' manner. This paper reviews the literature on post-contact archaeology and material culture in Australia, and provides an assessment of the ways in which this evidence has been used in native title claims to date. The utility of post-contact artefact forms, both in terms of providing evidence of post-sovereignty use and occupation, as well as in demonstrating long-term continuities in claimant land-use patterns, is discussed, with reference both to knapped bottle glass artefacts, the most well known post-contact Aboriginal artefact type in Australia, as well as other post-contact artefact forms such as stone artefacts and modified metal tools. It is argued that an examination of a broader range of post-contact material cult...

After Modernity summarizes archaeological approaches to the contemporary past, and suggests a new agenda for the archaeology of late modern societies. The principal focus is the archaeology of developed, de-industrialized societies during the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. This period encompasses the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the 'internet age', a period which sits firmly within what we would recognize to be a period of 'lived and living memory'. Rodney Harrison and John Schofield explore how archaeology can inform the study of this time period and the study of our own society through detailed case studies and an in-depth summary of the existing literature. After Modernity draws together cross-disciplinary perspectives on contemporary material culture studies, and develops a new agenda for the study of the materiality of late modern societies.