Dissonant Heritage

The past, its conserved artefacts and remembered personalities, symbols and associations, is increasingly being turned into a heritage commodity to serve modern demands. The past is thereby being used as a resource in a major modern history as well as underpinning social, cultural and political identities of individuals, groups, places and states. An extensive theoretical discussion of highlights dissonant heritage: the conflicts and disharmonies that inevitably occur as a result of the relationship between the past and its contemporary users; the growth of dissonant heritage with the general heritage phenomenon; its roots in the fundamental process of recognizing, marketing and using heritage; its powerful association with the cultural, social and political aspects of human diversity which determine whose heritage is being commodified; and its climax in the contention of the heritage over atrocity. These general issues are then exemplified in detail by a consideration of heritage dissonance and its management in Central Europe (an old world of emerging nations), Canada (a new world of European settlement), and the recent post-colonial and post-apartheid case of Southern Africa.

J. E. Tunbridge ＆ G. J. Ashworth