The UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972 set the contemporary standard for cultural and natural conservation. Today, a place on the World Heritage List is much sought after for tourism promotion, development funding, and national prestige. Presenting case studies from across the globe, particularly from Africa and Asia, anthropologists with situated expertise in specific World Heritage sites explore the consequences of the World Heritage framework and the global spread of the UNESCO heritage regime. This book shows how local and national circumstances interact with the global institutional framework in complex and unexpected ways. Often, the communities around World Heritage sites are constrained by these heritage regimes rather than empowered by them.

The UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972 set the contemporary standard for cultural and natural conservation. Today, a place on the World Heritage List is much sought after for tourism promotion, development funding, and national prestige. Presenting case studies from across the globe, particularly from Africa and Asia, anthropologists with situated expertise in specific World Heritage sites explore the consequences of the World Heritage framework and the global spread of the UNESCO heritage regime. This book shows how local and national circumstances interact with the global institutional framework in complex and unexpected ways. Often, the communities around World Heritage sites are constrained by these heritage regimes rather than empowered by them.

List of Illustrations

Introduction: UNESCO World Heritage – Grounded?
Christoph Brumann and David Berliner

PART I: CITIES

Chapter 1. Affects and Senses in a World Heritage Site: People–House Relations in the Medina of Fez
Manon Istasse

Chapter 2. 'UNESCO is What?' World Heritage, Militant Islam and the Search for a Common Humanity in Mali
Charlotte Joy

Chapter 3. Heritage-making in Lijiang: Governance, Reconstruction and Local Naxi Life
Yujie Zhu

Chapter 4. Multiple Nostalgias: The Fabric of Heritage in Luang Prabang (Lao PDR)
David Berliner

PART II: ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

Chapter 5. Thinking Globally and Acting Locally in the Angkor World Heritage Site
Keiko Miura

Chapter 6. One List, a World of Difference? The Dynamics of Global Heritage at Two Neighbouring Properties
Noel B. Salazar

Chapter 7. Civilization and the Transformation of Xiaotun Village at Yin Xu Archaeological Site, China
Shu-Li Wang

Chapter 8. The Business of Wonder: Public Meets Private at the World Heritage Site of Chichén Itzá
Lisa Breglia

PART III: CULTURAL LANDSCAPES

Chapter 9. Decolonizing the Site: The Problems and Pragmatics of World Heritage in Italy, Libya and Tanzania
Jasper Chalcraft

Chapter 10. The Values of Exchange and the Issue of Control: Living with (World) Heritage in Osogbo, Nigeria
Peter Probst

Chapter 11. Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape: Extractive Economies and Endangerment on South Africa's Borders
Lynn Meskell

CODA

Conclusion: Imagining the Ground from Afar: Why the Sites are so Remote in World Heritage Committee Sessions
Christoph Brumann