Abstract
This volume began life as a session at the 2010 Australian Archaeological Conference on the cultural heritage of protected areas in the Asia-Pacific region. Our particular concern was with the proposition that the discourse of nature conservation was predisposed to a vision of protected areas (in the form of national parks and other ‘nature’ reserves) as pristine nature. According to such a vision, protected areas represent wildernesses that, having escaped the ravages of human exploitation, had now to be preserved as the last reservoirs of biodiversity on a planet threatened with ecological disaster. To what extent, we asked, did such a mindset eclipse the history and heritage of protected areas as human habitats, not to mention effacing the contemporary presence in them of living human cultures?
Original language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | Transcending the Culture-Nature Divide in Cultural Heritage: Views from the Asia-Pacific Region (Terra Australis 36) |
Editors | Sally Brockwell, Sue O'Connor & Denis Byrne |
Place of Publication | Canberra Australia |
Publisher | ANU ePress |
Pages | 1-11 |
Volume | 1 |
Edition | 1st |
ISBN (Print) | 9781922144058 |
Publication status | Published - 2013 |