Pluralising Pasts , livre ebook

PLURALISING PASTS
Pluralising Pasts
Heritage, Identity and Place in Multicultural Societies
G. J. Ashworth, Brian Graham and J. E. Tunbridge
First published 2007 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © G. J. Ashworth, Brian Graham and J. E. Tunbridge 2007
The right of G. J. Ashworth, Brian Graham and J. E. Tunbridge to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Hardback
ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2286 5
ISBN-10 0 7453 2286 7
Paperback
ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2285 8
ISBN-10 0 7453 2285 9
ePub
ISBN-13 978 1 7837 1611 1
Mobi
ISBN-13 978 1 7837 1612 8
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1
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Printed and bound in the European Union by
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CONTENTS

List of figures

Acknowledgements

Preface
1.
Introduction: heritage and plurality

Heritage

Identity and place

Heritage, identity and place

The complicating of heritage

Structure of the book
Part I   The conceptual context
2.
Culture and plural identities

Plural identities and multiculturalism

The contradictions and criticisms of multiculturalism

Migration and hybridity

Beyond multiculturalism

Plurality, culture and power

Summary
3.
Towards pluralising pasts: theories and concepts of heritage

A world of heritage: heritage in the world

The uses of heritage

Multiple nature of heritage

Towards pluralising pasts?
4.
Place, identity and heritage

The boundedness of identity

Territoriality and landscape: does place identity matter?

The creation and management of place identity: the Belvedere programme

Synthesis
Part II   A typology of plural societies
5.
Nature and types of plural society

Assimilatory, integrationist or single-core models

Melting pot models

Core+ models

Pillar models

Salad bowl/rainbow/mosaic models

Limits and uses of a typology of models
Part III   Heritage in plural societies
6.
Heritage in assimilation models

Assimilation policies

The heritage instruments

The treatment of non-core heritage

Conclusions
7.
Heritage in melting pot models

Settler societies

Postcolonial melting pot experiments

The melting pot as social engineering

Change and stability
8.
Heritage in core+ models

A classification of core+ models

Core+ models in long-established societies

Core+ models in postcolonial nation-building

Change
9.
Heritage in pillar models

The archetypal case of the Netherlands

Apartheid South Africa

The temporary case of Canada

Belgium: the case of a ‘reluctant’ pillarisation

Pillar models as potential solutions to ethnic conflict

Conclusions
10.   
Heritage in salad bowl models

Variations in meanings

Cases of official policies

A global salad bowl?
11.
Conclusion: the future of pluralising the past

References

Subject index

Index of places
LIST OF FIGURES
5.1
The models of policy in plural societies
6.1
Bloemfontein, S.Africa: Women’s Memorial. Deaths in each Anglo-Boer War concentration camp are recorded on pathside markers (2006)
6.2
Bloemfontein: Women’s Memorial. ‘Volk’ representation of departing soldier, wife and child (2006)
6.3
Malbork Castle, Poland; formerly Marienburg of the Teutonic Knights, German East Prussia (1992)
6.4
Valletta, Malta: martyrs’ monument (in Maltese) by Grandmaster’s/Governor’s Palace (English plaques) (2003)
7.1
Wellington, New Zealand: Maori symbolism of peaceful boundary, on old shoreline, by Parliament (2005)
7.2
New Lanark, upper Clydeside, Scotland: model industrial community (1989)
8.1
Melaka (Malacca), Malaysia: Malay heritage motifs dominating main road access (2005)
8.2
Melaka: Dutch central townscape (with added windmill) (2005)
8.3
George Town, Pinang (Penang), Malaysia: Eastern and Oriental Hotel, restored British heritage (2005)
8.4
Cameron Highlands, Malaysia: Smokehouse Hotel. 1930s British hill-station architecture (2005)
8.5
Singapore: central area
8.6
Singapore: Palm Court, Raffles Hotel. From ‘cockroach alley’ (1975) to super-rich enclave (2005)
8.7
Singapore River: revitalised Clarke Quay (2005)
8.8
Singapore: multiracial historical re-creation on city-centre riverside walk (2005)
9.1
Kimberley, South Africa: Rhodes’ statue still in place (2006)
9.2
Cape Town, South Africa: Bo-Kaap, Cape Malay quarter, on slope above city centre (2006)
10.1
Ottawa, Canada: central area
10.2
Ottawa: Aboriginal War Veterans’ Memorial, Confederation Park (2002)
10.3
Halifax, Nova Scotia: Little Dutch Church (2005)
10.4
Halifax: Pier 21, in centre; historic ship, harbour walk in foreground (2005)
10.5
St. John’s, Newfoundland: historic centre overlooked by The Rooms museum and Basilica (2005)
10.6
Uncle Tom’s Cabin historic site, SW Ontario (2004)
10.7
Ballarat, Victoria, Australia: Chinese prayer house at Sovereign Hill gold-mining theme park (2005)
10.8
Ballarat: Eureka Stockade monument and museum (2005)
10.9
Cape Town, South Africa: Nelson Mandela Gateway museum at Robben Island boat terminal (2006)
10.10
Cape Town: Nobel Square at ‘V and A’ Waterfront; city and Table Mountain in distance (2006)
10.11
Talana, South Africa: Wall of (racial/ethnic) Peace and Reconciliation, Anglo-Boer War battlefield (2006)
10.12
Blood River, South Africa: Boer wagon-laager monument with Zulu museum on battlefield (2006)
10.13
Blood River: Ncome (Zulu) museum and curator (2006)
All photographs are by John Tunbridge and remain valid at time of publication.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to express our gratitude to Kilian McDaid and Nigel McDowell of the University of Ulster for their invaluable help in preparing the figures for publication. Figure 8.5 is based with permission on an original diagram published by Roy Jones and Brian Shaw and we are indebted to them for their help. Figure 10.1 is based on a map published in Tunbridge and Ashworth (1996) and acknowledgement is due to C. Earl, Carleton University, Ottawa.
PREFACE
In our earlier book, A Geography of Heritage: Place, Culture and Economy (Arnold, 2000), we raised the topic of the ways in which societies use heritage in the creation and management of collective identity. This is expressed through the shaping of senses of belonging as defined and described through representations of place. We had then, however, neither the space nor indeed the detailed knowledge of practice to pursue this idea at the depth its importance to contemporary society deserves. In particular we have become increasingly aware of the growing diversity and fragmentation of the societies in which we live and work, and the search for policies that reflect such diversity as well as mitigate its perceived shortcomings. This is endowing heritage with a new set of tasks and responsibilities, few of which can be easily reconciled. We wished to investigate the ways in which plural representations of the past are mirrored in the creation of plural heritages and place identities, in the service of various policy models and aspirations of plural societies, through a range of case studies drawn from societies around the world.
As to global coverage, the authors are fortunate not only in living and working in three different countries in two continents but also in that our longstanding research interests have extended over diverse parts of the world. However, we are aware that some regions and countries have inevitably received scant or no consideration. A reader from such a place may feel slighted by such neglect, but also, we would hope, be stimulated to fill these omissions by suggesting different and maybe more apposite applications of our models or variations upon them. If this occurs we would be gratified and feel our intentions had been fulfilled.
It might also be reasonable to enquire where we stand on the issues we raise, and even which model we favour or reject. However, our investigation into the relationships between heritage, identity and place have not been resolved into a Manichean division between best and worst practice. The tensions and conflicts inherent within heritage policy and practice in plural societies are a force for fragmentation as much as cohesion, a cause of alienation and exclusion as much as unity and inclusion. The term ‘multicultural heritage(s)’ is one that is used frequently in the discussion, but multiculturalism is seen as being a distinct form of plurality and one that does not define it. The book is concerned, too, with models of society that are neither liberal nor democratic and with models of social integration that can be regressive as well as progressive. Hence, much of the body of heritage practice and policy that is discussed would not be called ‘multicultural’ by those favouring or opposing multicultural policies. In foregrounding heritage, however, the book considers it as a profoundly important element in the articulation of multiculturalism and pluralism while a global understanding of the relationship between heritage and plurality also helps understand the constraints to multiculturalism and the resistances that it provokes.
Therefore it is not only unlikely that a consensus exists among us, but also, and more important, each of us would answer that the ‘best-buy’ model depends upon the place, time and intention of the society applying it. We did not set out either to warn against or to proselytise for any particular vision of society. Our