Cultural Heritage Studies

History and Approaches to Heritage Studies explores the historical development of cultural heritage theory and practice, as well as current issues in the field. It brings together  archaeologists who are deeply engaged with a range of stakeholders in heritage management and training.

Exploring museums and cultural centers in New England that hold important meanings for Native American communities today, this illuminating book offers a much-needed critique of the collaborative work being done to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the region.

Drawing on material evidence from daily life in a coal-mining town, this book offers an up-close view of the political economy of the United States over the course of the twentieth century. This community’s story illustrates the great ironies of this era, showing how modernist progress and plenty were inseparable from the destructive cycles of capitalism.

Mapping out emerging areas for global cultural heritage, this book provides an anthropological perspective on the growing field of heritage studies. Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels adopts a dual focus—looking back on the anthropological foundations for cultural heritage research while looking forward to areas of practice that reach beyond national borders: economic development, climate action, democratic practice, heritage rights, and global justice. 

A revealing work of public history that shows how communities remember their pasts in different ways to fit specific narratives, Race, Place, and Memory charts the ebb and flow of racial tension in Wilmington, North Carolina, from the 1730s to the present day.

The Rosewood Massacre investigates the 1923 massacre that devastated the predominantly African American community of Rosewood, Florida. The town was burned to the ground by neighboring whites, and its citizens fled for their lives. None of the perpetrators were convicted. Very little documentation of the event and the ensuing court hearings survives today.

Bringing together high-profile cultural heritage sites from around the world, this volume shows how the term heritage has been used or understood by different groups of people over time. For some, the term has meant a celebration of a particular culture and history or the promotion of accessibility, tolerance, and inclusivity. But for others it has been connected with cultural privilege, social exclusion, or exploitation via the tourism industry.

This book explores the sociopolitical contexts of heritage landscapes, paying special attention to sites with deep Indigenous histories—Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and the Burrup Peninsula along the Pilbara Coast in Australia, the Altai Mountains of northwestern Mongolia, and Prince William Sound in Alaska. For many communities, landscapes such as these have long been associated with cultural identity and memories of important and difficult events, as well as political struggles related to nation-state boundaries, sovereignty, and knowledge claims. 

In Mythic Frontiers, Daniel Maher illustrates how aggrandized versions of the past, especially those of the "American frontier," have been used to turn a profit. These imagined historical sites have effectively silenced the violent, oppressive, colonizing forces of manifest destiny and elevated principal architects of it to mythic heights.