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Current Realities, Idealised Pasts: Archaeology, Values and Indigenous Heritage Management in Central Australia
Author(s) -
Thorley Peter
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1834-4461
pISSN - 0029-8077
DOI - 10.1002/j.1834-4461.2002.tb01632.x
Subject(s) - indigenous , interpretation (philosophy) , cultural heritage , cultural heritage management , legislation , archaeology , value (mathematics) , industrial heritage , values , property (philosophy) , relation (database) , history , sociology , geography , environmental ethics , ethnology , epistemology , law , political science , linguistics , philosophy , ecology , database , machine learning , computer science , biology
This paper addresses the inter‐cultural meanings and assumptions which have arisen in the interpretation of heritage and its conservation in central Australia. Conflicting views of heritage conservation are grounded in particular constructions of the past which are adapted and redefined in relation to the present. In central Australia, Indigenous notions of time and property have stressed the symbolic value of objects in terms of the Dreaming and their active role in exchange. The definition of objects as personal effects and their enhancement of social values through exchange have been at odds with archaeological understandings of the same objects as artefacts and attempts to conserve them as items of heritage significance. Specific examples discussed include the use of artefacts in economic exchanges, interpretation of archaeological sequences, and the application of concepts of significance through land rights and heritage legislation.