Culture Assimilation: Integration of Traditional Practices into Formal Heritage Laws as a Potential Way of Heritage Protection

Attitudes toward the past can be recognised in many different ways. European worldview in physical protection of cultural heritage, reflecting in the formal heritage laws, has frequently carved out social elements of such heritage rooted in indigenous societies, for example, the belief of sacredness. This research, therefore, focuses on problems that probably arose during the introduction of Western legal systems to protect cultural heritage in non-Western societies: Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Canada and Australia. From the study on sociology and history of law, it shows that European-based law when first introduced to the regions has very often excluded customary law which obtained social respect. This created a gap between legal comprehension and people who are the subject to law. Up to present day these European influences of the legal system regarding to heritage management can still be discerned in international conventions. To bridge this gap, two suggestions are given in this...Show moreAttitudes toward the past can be recognised in many different ways. European worldview in physical protection of cultural heritage, reflecting in the formal heritage laws, has frequently carved out social elements of such heritage rooted in indigenous societies, for example, the belief of sacredness. This research, therefore, focuses on problems that probably arose during the introduction of Western legal systems to protect cultural heritage in non-Western societies: Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Canada and Australia. From the study on sociology and history of law, it shows that European-based law when first introduced to the regions has very often excluded customary law which obtained social respect. This created a gap between legal comprehension and people who are the subject to law. Up to present day these European influences of the legal system regarding to heritage management can still be discerned in international conventions. To bridge this gap, two suggestions are given in this research: one to work cooperatively between the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage and the 2003 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Conventions; another to reinterpret in situ preservation in the 2001 UNESCO Underwater Cultural Heritage Convention as a way to treat the site with respect. The integration of traditional practices and heritage laws make it possible for indigenous and local people to gain more understanding of the heritage laws and thus to obey to these laws more easily. Hypothetically, the formal heritage laws become more effective.Show less

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Culture Assimilation: Integration of Traditional Practices into Formal Heritage Laws as a Potential Way of Heritage Protection