Lowenthal Fabricating Heritage

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Lowenthal Fabricating Heritage
2
Discussion

• 1. Lowenthal gives a case study as an example of
  'fabricating heritage'.
• Give comparable examples from your knowledge and
  discuss the following
• the heritage myth itself
• the occasion at which its origin can be traced
• infer the purposes
• what individuals/institutions are promulgating
  this myth
• what are the mechanisms by which this myth is
  recycled within popular imagination
• the changes that it has undergone over time
• your sources

3
Discussion

• 2. If heritage today has the nature of popular
  cult, with unwavering public devotion in spite of
  realities that show its contradictions, what are
  the vehicles by which it is maintained?
• How does this process differ from say medieval
  cults of relics (of which Lowenthal gives an
  example)?

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Discussion

• 3. What are the benefits of heritage myths for
  societies? What are the dangers? Who are the
  potential myth debunkers in the society?
• 4. What is the role of the memory institutions in
  relation to myth-building (fabrication)? Give
  examples that show how the worship of the past
  may become a secular religion in the society and
  the role of these institutions in maintaining
  such legacies. Is it possible for memory
  institutions to avoid "morality" in interpreting
  the past?

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Discussion

• 5. "Heritage thrives on historical error!" //
  "Tribulations are crucial to identity" //
  (Lowenthal, p. 11). Explain these paradoxes!
• 6. "We want the Smithsonian to reflect real
  America and not something that a historian
  dreamed up." (Lowenthal, 11). How does this
  statement relate to building library collections,
  archival practices, and the museum work.

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Discussion

• 7. "Time makes liars of all of us!" (Lowenthal,
  16).
• Do you agree? How does this statement relate to
  the role of memory institutions in society? How
  does this relate to how they manage the relation
  of records and memory access to written past?
• 8. Heritage and history are both built upon the
  knowledge of the past. The readings and
  misreadings of the past, the correct and the
  false knowledge of the past are integral to both,
  but what is the difference in the process? You
  may use the example of Biblical textual tradition
  / scholarship to discuss this distinction, or use
  a comparable example.

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Discussion

• 9. Lowenthal identifies six points that
  distinguish heritage as a phenomenon
• HERITAGE IS NOT HISTORY (how heritage differs
  from history)
• FABRICATION ESSENTIAL TO FEALTY (why heritage
  needs error and invention)
• MODES OF FABRICATION (how heritage reshapes the
  past upgrades, updates, jumbles, selectively
  forgets, contrives genealogies, claims
  precedence)
• PUBLIC ENDORSEMENT (public approval of
  fabrication)
• HERITAGE AND LIFE HISTORY (autobiographical
  analogies)
• WHY HERITAGE MUST BE 'OURS' (need to own our
  own heritage)
• Briefly explain each of these aspects of
  'heritage' and give your own examples that either
  agree or contradict Lowenthal's position.

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Global Culture, Modern Heritage Remembering the
Chinese Imperial Collections(Hamlish 2000)
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Discussion

• Chinese Imperial Collections and the Palace
  Museum (Beijing)
• construction of collective memory in the Palace
  Museum
• typical of the conceptual structure of museums
• museums present polysemic possibilities
  (constructing various narratives from single
  collections)
• visitors journey (controlled movement) along two
  pathways YUAN ZHUANG CHENLIE (period rooms)
  ZHUAN TI CHENLIE (exhibit halls)

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Discussion

• YUAN ZHUANG CHENLIE (period rooms) functional
  grouping of objects reconstruction only of Qing
  Ming Dynasty period visitors response
  appropriation palace intrigue, gossip, everyday
  life, popular imagery extension of tourist trade
  and sensationalized accounts
• ZHUAN TI CHENLIE (exhibit halls) objects grouped
  by type subdivided by chronology to demonstrate
  historical development in technology
  aesthetics

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Discussion

• How are these two displays complementary? How
  does each display contribute to the construction
  of the imperial past?
• What is the function of collective
  representations? How is memory related to
  political legitimacy on the global and the local
  level (p. 150)?
• What is the meaning of break dancers and their
  appropriation of the public space in Liu Yirans
  short story, Rocking Tiananmen?
• What are the implications of the existence of
  UNESCOs World Heritage Center for
  conceptualizing heritage at the global/local
  level? In that context, discuss the notion of
  universalizing rhetoric or erasure of difference
  (p. 157)?