Heritage studies looks at the relationship between people and tangible and

intangible heritage An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. Int ...

through the use of social science research methods. The publication of the book by

David Lowenthal David Lowenthal (26 April 1923 – 15 September 2018) was an American historian and geographer, renowned for his work on heritage. He is credited with having made heritage studies a discipline in its own right. Biography David Lowenthal was b ...

, ''The Past is a Foreign Country'', in 1985 is credited with creating the field (Carman & Sørensen 2009). While related to the disciplines of

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

heritage conservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...

, and

historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...

, heritage studies is not necessarily concerned with the objective representation of the past. History is "the raw facts of the past" (Aitchison, MacLeod, & Shaw 2000, p. 96) while heritage is "history processed through mythology, ideology, nationalism, local pride, romantic ideas or just plain marketing" (Schouten 1995, p. 21). The meanings of heritage are therefore subjective and rooted in the present; these meanings are defined by social, cultural, and individual processes. In other words, the meanings of heritage can be understood through contemporary sociocultural and experiential values. Lowenthal (1985, p. 410) argues that in the realm of human experience, we create heritage; to most people, heritage is therefore more important than history and is a product of human invention and creativity.

Bibliography

* Aitchison, C.,MacLeod, N.E., Shaw, S.J. (2000). ''Leisure and tourism landscapes: Social and cultural geographies.'' London: Routledge. * Carman, J., & Sørensen, M. L. S. (2009). Heritage studies: An outline. In M. L. S. Sørensen & J. Carman (Eds.), ''Heritage studies: Methods and approaches'' (pp. 11–28). Routledge. * Lowenthal, D. (1985). ''The past is a foreign country.'' Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. * Schouten, F.F.J. (1995). Heritage as historical reality. In D. T. Herbert (ed.), ''Heritage, tourism and society.'' London: Mansell.

External links

Conserving the Human Environment

Association of Critical Heritage Studies

International Journal of Heritage Studies
Cultural heritage Cultural studies {{cultural-studies-stub

See also

Bibliography

External links