Reconciling Nature and Culture in a Global Context? - Rainforest ...

Sandra Pannellruins to symbolise Macau not just as a World Heritage site, but as an area in its own right.For example, at the opening ceremony of the 4 th East Asia Games on the 29 October 2005,an illuminated and larger-than-life reproduction of St Paul’s Ruins formed the centrepiece ofthe celebrations and ‘the dazzling displays” (Macau Sunday Morning Post 30 October 2005).Notwithstanding the religious history of the ruins, and present-day signs reminding visitors ofthis association, it is clear that this Catholic edifice has been secularised in the service of theMacau tourism industry. It thus represents a form of ‘neutral’ urban space, stripped of thetraditional conventions and observances associated with the handful of ‘working’ churchesand chapels within the World Heritage area. While some of these churches still function asplaces of worship, most have been transformed into religious museums and touristattractions (Figure 17). This apparent secularisation of religious places is perhaps areflection of the fact that today less than five percent of the 490,000 people who inhabit thepeninsula identify as Catholics (Macau Government Tourist Office 2002). The Catholiclegacy of the Portuguese is thus more readily apparent in the many heritage classifiedchapels and churches that comprise the Historic Centre of Macau, than it is in thecontemporary religious observances of the local population.While the Macau Government Tourist Office identifies the Historic Centre of Macau as a“living representation of the city’s historic settlement” (Macau Government Tourist Office2005: 2), this representation is dominated by a monument-based vision of cultural heritage.This focus upon ‘quaint old buildings’ functions to distract visitors to the Historic Centre fromquestioning or pursuing the other histories hidden behind these facades. Like so many otherlisted historic centres, Macau “offers the perfection of the restoration as a remedy for theimperfections of the past” (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998: 9).While not a ‘historic centre’ itself, recent events at the World Heritage site of Stonehengeepitomise the way restoration, driven by ideas about authenticity and integrity, attempts toconceal the imperfections of the past. Listed in 1986, the megaliths of Stonehenge andAvebury, together with a number of associated Neolithic sites, are surrounded by theaccretions of more than five thousand years of human history. Over the centuries, some ofthe stones of the Stonehenge monument have fallen down, others have been carried away tobe used for building purposes or to repair farm tracks, while visitors to the site have effectedtheir own modifications. As stated on the English Heritage website, in the recent past “it wasquite normal to hire a hammer from the blacksmith in Amesbury and come to Stonehenge tochip bits off”. A similar fate befell the stones comprising the circle of Avebury. Many of thesestones were broken down during the seventeenth century to use as building materials for theexpansion of the village. As these observations indicate, the material forms we identify asStonehenge and Avebury today are the products of quite varied historical use. This usereflects the shifting significance accorded these two stone complexes by local communities inthe past. It also reflects the fact that the idea of heritage, and the associated ethos ofpreservation, is a recent phenomenon. As Lord Chorley, Chairman of The National Trust forPlaces of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, observes:Until the twentieth century, the survival of these monuments [Britain’s WorldHeritage sites] in the face of Viking invasions, civil war, enemy bombardment,periods of rapid industrial development and profound demographic change,has been largely a matter of chance (1992: 356).Perhaps nowhere else in the United Kingdom is this observation most apparent than atStonehenge (Figure 18a). Today, Stonehenge stands in a sheep paddock criss-crossed withfences and hemmed in by two major roads, the A303 and the A344 (Figure 18b), while thestone circle of Avebury is enclosed within a village dating back to Saxon times, and likeStonehenge, is surrounded by roads and traffic. In 1993, the British Parliament’s House ofCommons Public Accounts Committee described the situation at Stonehenge as ‘a nationaldisgrace’. Responding to political outcry and public concern, the 2000 Stonehenge World54