The Nature of Heritage

<i>The Nature of Heritage: The New South Africa</i> is unique in revealing the conflicts inherent in preserving both natural and cultural heritage, by examining the archaeological, ethnographic and economic evidence of a nation’s attempts to master its past and its future. <ul type=”disc”> <li>Provides a classic example of how nations attempt to overcome a negative heritage through past mastering of their histories</li> <li>Evaluates the continuing dominance of nature and conservation over concerns for cultural heritage</li> <li>Employs ethnographic and archaeological methodologies to reveal how the past is processed into a new national heritage</li> <li>Identifies heritage as therapy, exemplified in the strategy for repairing legacies of racial and ethnic difference in post-apartheid South Africa</li> <li>Highlights the role of archaeological heritage sites, national parks and protected areas in economic development and social empowerment</li> <li>Explores how nature trumps culture and the global implications of the new configurations of heritage</li> </ul>