Cultural Heritage Management (Dissertation Sample)

Cultural Heritage Management:
An Annotated Bibliography
Acheson, J. M. (2006). Institutional Failure in Resource Management. Annual Review of Anthropology, 35(1), 117-134.
James Acheson's article focuses on the institutional failures that have led to global resources being in a state of disaster. He argues that the only way to solve the issues of world resources is by establishing strong institutions that protect and manage these resources. However, one challenge that remains is that these institutions are not known or well-established. His article further focuses on the failures of existing institutions toward resource management.
James begins by fortifying the argument that over the last five decades resources are at a state of catastrophe. Furthermore, he states that if the institutions in charge of these resources were well organized, then there would not be a such failure on a global scale. Nevertheless, despite institutional failures, he emphasizes that it is only through institutions that problems can be solved. Among such institutions, including government institutions, private property institutions, and local-level institutions and actors. He establishes that the common pool attribute of much of the world’s resources is the cause of many of the problems faced by institutions in resource management. This factor has two aspects, first, the resources are scarce and diminish in nature, or take too long to replenish, and second, everyone has an equal right to access them, despite capitalism. This leads to most natural resources being open to exploitation by many people, ultimately leading to depletion. Moreover, in solving the issues of resource depletion, institutions and individuals are faced with the problem of different opinions and conflicting interests, which is only elevated by private rights that let individuals, who can buy more than others, exploit. After exploring various issues regarding resource depletion and exploitation, James concludes that one cannot generalize in such a multi-faceted and complex intermesh of issues. The solutions that he proposes include the embrace of science and technology and have better rules.
Angelbeck, B., & Grier, C. (2014). From Paradigms to Practices: Pursuing Horizontal and Long-Term Relationships with Indigenous Peoples for Archaeological Heritage Management. Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 38, 519-540.
Angelbeck and Grier's article focuses on the relationships between indigenous communities and the archaeologists who serve them. They establish that throughout history relationships have been complex and multi-faceted. They also notice that there is a little guideline to how such collaborations should be forged and practiced. Subsequently, the article presents various ways to establish strong bonds with the indigenous communities for better management of archaeological practice and management.
By presenting two cases of collaboration, with Interior Salish and Coast Salish, the authors propose the following strategies: The need for professionals to establish horizontal relationships within nations that promote equality across all communities despite the highly bureaucratic and vertical systems; secondly, the need to build and maintain long-term relationships with these communities. The article begins by analyzing the state of past collaboration relationships between archaeology and indigenous communities. It identifies various challenges that have curbed such efforts of collaboration such as the lack of proper professional and academic capacity and the increase in actors and interest within the field of archaeology, which leads to researchers pursuing specific streamlined goals without the need to be too connected to the actors and interests including those of the aboriginal communities. According to the article, this leads to a colonial form of archaeology and anthropology. In the final sections, the author provides a detailed discussion of how to establish horizontal and long-term relationships with indigenous communities for the combined benefit of the actors and archaeology as a discipline.
Atalay, Sonya. “A Sustainable Archaeology” Community-Based Archaeology: Research with, by, and for Indigenous and Local Communities (1). Berkeley, US: University of California Press, 2012. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 29 November 2016. Copyright © 2012. University of California Press.
Sonya Atalay presents an interesting study on sustainable archaeology in her community-based archaeology research paper. The paper focuses on establishing the current efforts in archaeology toward building sustainable relationships with the indigenous communities that significantly contribute to the discipline. In the beginning, she argues that archaeology is at an interesting juncture where it is reconsidering the way scholars in the discipline have been relating to indigenous communities.
Indeed, the paper further presents that archaeology has been on the verge of change in almost all aspects of relating to the public. As Sonya explains, this is an event that is triggered by a growing interest, in the public, and the discipline. The numbers in tourism have gone higher, especially those targeted to archaeological sites. She quotes Mandala’s 2009 study that showed that over 78% of travelers in the United States participate in heritage activities. The public now pays attention to any heritage and monument information within their areas of interest. Towards this effect, she urges that archeology needs to focus on its future by looking at three problem areas: the issue regarding future relevance, the expected benefits, and the future audience. Something that she supports by the view that in fact, archeology to most is a luxury and not a necessity. After exploring various issues on archeology, complexities, relationships, and community-based participatory research (CBPR), she concludes that CBPR is the best way to ascertain a sustainable future of archaeology. Therefore, proper principles, tools, and techniques, regarding CBPR, need to be taught to students in the most pragmatic manner.