Colonial heritage in Latin America : Damnatio Memoriae or transcultural dialogue?

• Autor(a) principal: Polónia, Amélia
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Costa, Cátia Miriam
• Tipo de documento: Livro
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/119882
• topic: Geografia humana; Human geography

How the past is appropriated by contemporary actors is subject to multiple dynamics, involving different stakeholders and contested interpretations. e emergence of a heritage industry adds a variety of actors to the debate, including decision-makers, archaeologists, social and cultural academics, businesspeople and entrepreneurs, each one with a different perspective (FALSER & JUNEJA, 2013: 1). More recently, local communities were added to these debates as some projects involving heritage sites were contested or even failed altogether. A considerable part of the heritage projects was associated with touristic plans and imposed massive numbers of visitors to some places seen as essential to the identities of such local communities, at times disregarding their memories, symbolic meanings or past interpretations. Some authors have pointed out diverse issues around colonial heritage, mainly seen as the aftermath of a colonial system (STOLER, 2013: 2). Discourses based on colonial perspectives, and the fact that some institutions and material heritage are still associated with oppression and foreign domination, (MCATACKNEY & PALMER, 2016: 473) exacerbate this process. The result is a difficult assimilation of some sites or components of that heritage by today's communities, calling for the recognition of autochthone identities and values. One of the reasons for refusing to accept this heritage is that the concept of keeping and preserving is rather different from the western concept of heritage preservation. e former includes, e.g., the invasion of heritage sites by nature (e.g., forest overgrowing built-up areas), that can be accepted as a natural ending of a built patrimony which lost its functions and makes room for new practical uses, including recovering the uses of that territory in pre-colonial times (LUCO, 2013: 256).