Context and Culture
and I only have the one…
Context is everything in heritage conservation. As any of my former students could tell you, it is the key to determining the significance of a site. Context includes issues like rarity, authenticity, historical impact, artistic value, etc. If I have hundreds of walled cities in China – as once existed, only those that were exceptionally intact or beautiful or impactful would be considered significant. If, however, I have only one walled city surviving, its significance immediately becomes global.
Context is also important in terms of culture. There is a Belgian village in Japan which is sort of like a cultural amusement park, but we can successfully argue that it does not have authenticity because, well, it ain’t Belgium. Any cultural significance it has is related to the how and why of creating it and visiting it. Yes, Disneyland has significance, but that significance – THE CONTEXT – is America in the 1950s and not how pirates lived in the Caribbean. Continue Reading