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276 heritage
heritage, particularly but not solely in the Western
world. Many writers consider that this preoccupation
with the past is a response to the extent and
scale of social and environmental dislocation,
whereby the mass of people in post-industrial
societies have become separated from the continuous
traditions of the past. Modern society has
turned back to the past to understand how it has
arrived at the present. In rural societies, such as
predominate in many Third World countries
today, the past is not distinguished as a separate
realm but is continuously reproduced in the
everyday lives of the present. For modernised
societies, the breach with the past has meant that
history, devoid of its previous role as an active
constituent in informing the present, is seen as
completed and becomes a matter for nostalgia
and curiosity. All attempts to bring back the past
emphasise its separation from the present. This
break cannot be bridged because, just as the pace
of change has created the need for a sense of the
past, it has also removed any possibility of that
need being satisfied.
If the pace of change in recent times has created
a demand for the past, then tourism has often
supplied the product to meet that demand.
Globally, the heritage industry has become a very
significant tourism sector. In countries such as the
United Kingdom, France and Italy, heritage
has become the major focus of their entire tourism
industry. In Asian and Middle Eastern countries,
such as China, Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt
and Israel, the monuments of past civilisations are
major attractions for both near and far tourists. In
Central and South America the vanished civilisations
of the Aztecs, the Incas and the Mayas
constitute a nucleus for tourism. On a global basis,
the World Heritage Convention has also given very
significant impetus to natural heritage as a major
component of tourism. Thus the Serengeti Plains
of Africa, the Grand Canyon of the United
States, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and
many national parks which have received World
Heritage Site Listing have become recognised not
just as national symbols but as part of the global
heritage.
One of the conclusions drawn by those who
contend the putative death of the past and its
separation from present everyday life is that in
some Western societies heritage becomes little
more than a commodity, a sanitised package
offering a glorified version of the past for public
consumption at heritage shrines. Much tourism use
of heritage has been criticised as exploitative,
where commercial considerations outweigh historical
accuracy and where commoditisation
results in the static portrayal and production of
staged authenticity in village folk museums,
in pseudo-festivals and spurious events, in trivialisation,
in mass-produced handicrafts and artefacts
�so-called `airport art') and similar fabrications.
Invention, substitution, reconstruction, replication,
reproduction, simulation and permutation are
accepted and play havoc with the concept of
authenticity.
The counter-argument is probably best presented
by the World Heritage Convention, where
exacting standards attesting to the unique and
outstanding cultural and natural values of a site
must be verified before designation as a major
component of global heritage. Any site proposed
for listing must also be accompanied by a
management plan for the site's conservation
and presentation in which educational and scientific
values are paramount. Heritage as touristic
entertainment is not considered by the Word
Heritage Committee, although it may be tourism
which provides the economic underpinning for
preservation and conservation of the site.
Further reading
Bonniface, P. and Fowler, P. �1993) Heritage and
Tourism in the `Global Village', London: Routledge.
�Survey of heritage issues in the context of
tourism development and globalisation.)
Hewison, R. �1987) The Heritage Industry, London:
Methuen. �Generally critical of the commercialisation
of heritage.)
Merriman, N. �1991) Beyond the Glass Case, Leicester:
Leicester University Press. �Examines the role of
museums in heritage preservation and education.)
Tilden, J. �1977) Interpreting Our Heritage, 3rd edn,
Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina
Press. �Formulates principles of interpretation
and their application to heritage sites.)
Uzzell, D. �ed.) �1989) Heritage Interpretation, vol. 1,