Learning from cultural engagements in community-based heritage scholarship

ABSTRACT

This article explores the intellectual and methodological values of cross-cultural and institutional engagements in community-based heritage initiatives, specifically a cultural exchange and university training program. The initiatives were situated in the Belizean villages of Crooked Tree and Biscayne. The cultural exchange took place between people of African Kriol and Mopan Maya descent who shared histories of engagements with archaeologists and community efforts to manage local environmental and cultural heritage resources. The university training example highlights engagements in an international community-based public history field experience. By discussing these case-studies and situating them in relevant disciplinary literatures, I demonstrate how interactions between groups embedded in community-based heritage initiatives provide valuable learning opportunities for a range of stakeholders and contribute to heritage scholarship. I discuss considerations in implementing cultural exchanges, share details about the process and results of community, academic, and institutional engagements in heritage projects in Belize, and conclude with some learned lessons about community-based heritage scholarship.

KEYWORDS:

• Community-based research
• cultural exchange
• public archaeology
• Belize
• university education

Acknowledgments

Crooked Tree and Biscayne Villages and Government Schools and Santa Cruz villagers provided extensive support for the projects discussed in this article. Institutional support came from the Belize Institute for Social and Cultural Research, Belize Audubon Society, Museum of Belize, and Belize Archives and Records Service. Funding was provided by North Carolina State University (NC State), InHerit and the Alliance for Heritage Conservation, and University of New Hampshire (UNH). Project collaborators include Kristina Baines (City University of New York, Guttman Community College), Hannah Scruggs and Lisa Withers (NC State), Eleanor Harrison-Buck, Grace Dietz, and Katherine Pendleton (UNH), Elissa Waight and Arrian Dougal (Galen University), Satoru Murata, and Alex Gantos.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. I define heritage as the myriad ways individuals, groups, institutions, and states engage with and utilize manifestations of the past (including, but not limited to, cultural sites, objects, traditions, stories, and ideas) to make meaning in and of the present (sensu Smith 2006).

2. My collaborator, Kristina Baines, and I did not develop the cultural exchange with collecting ethnographic data as a primary goal. Rather, this initiative was developed as an applied project. As such, although I took fieldnotes about the exchange, I did not audio record activities, nor did I conduct formal interviews. In this paper I provide quotes and paraphrased comments, indicating the speaker when this information was in my notes.

3. I use pseudonyms when quoting and referencing specific research participants.

4. Due to space constraints, I do not discuss the archaeological components of the field experience in this article. For more information see, Harrison-Buck et al. (2017) and McGill (2018).

5. This damage occurred after the CHAP ceased working at Chau Hiix and likely took place because there was knowledge that the CHAP kept equipment in the storehouse. Unfortunately, the perpetrators were never identified, and no resolution was reached. Though Crooked Tree residents may have known who damaged the storehouse, people overlooked this because of their collective frustration about the lack of heritage management and site development.

6. In a recent publication (McGill 2018), I draw from student fieldnotes and ethnographic data from community interactions to evaluate the students’ experiences and community reactions to the field experience.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by North Carolina State University [Department of History faculty travel funds, a Faculty Research and Development Grant, and a Scholarship and Research Award]; InHerit and the Alliance for Heritage Conservation [a Bi-directional Knowledge Exchange grant]; and University of New Hampshire [a Public Humanities Grant and a Student International Service Initiative grant].

Notes on contributors

Alicia Ebbitt McGill

Alicia Ebbitt McGill is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at North Carolina State University, where she contributes heritage studies and cultural resource management courses to the public history graduate programs. Her research in Belize focuses on how heritage constructions are promoted through public venues (e.g. tourism, education, archaeology) and the ways cultural actors like teachers and youth negotiate heritage constructions and navigate colonial legacies and cultural politics. In her scholarship she brings a historical lens to examinations of heritage practices and ethnographic approaches to heritage studies and public history.