Towards a holistic approach to heritage values: a multidisciplinary and cosmopolitan approach

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we explore the ‘Preservation/Heritage Values/Management’ triptych, and we propose a new method for addressing the values attributed to cultural heritage sites. Combining multidisciplinary and cosmopolitan approaches, we propose a way of moving beyond the traditional lens of assessing significance within the imposed categorical framework of ‘aesthetic, historic, scientific, social or spiritual values’. We provide an example of our new approach through a worked case study in the Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site (South African section). Our case study concerns the values associated with the world famous San (Bushman) rock art of this mountain area. Through a thematic analysis of data collected in this area from 2009 to 2017, six cross-cultural interest points are identified and are discussed. Building upon the history of values-based heritage management, we argue that our multidisciplinary and cosmopolitan method is transferable and can be applied to heritage sites around the world. It can facilitate the construction of heritage management plans that are more in tune with local actors and that will therefore prove to be more effective and sustainable.

KEYWORDS:

• Cosmopolitan approach
• heritage values
• integrated heritage management
• rock art sites
• Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site
• South Africa

Acknowledgments

We thank Amafa aKwaZulu-Natali and Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife for allowing research within the UDP and granting Access Permits 2012/12 and W/2060/10 respectively. We received valuable critical input on this paper from Celeste Rossouw and the reviewers of this paper. We thank all people interviewed during this research (local people, tourists, local guides, Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife and Amafa staff). All errors and omissions are our own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Inscribed as the ‘uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park’ in 2000, the property has been renamed as the ‘Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site’ (MDP WHS) in 2013.

2. Echoing current studies on the subject and seeking to clarify the meaning of ‘local community’ (Ndlovu 2011b, 2016; Schmidt and Pikirayi 2016), the different persons encountered during field seasons in the MDP WHS show the great permeability of this notion, which varies in terms of several criteria: racial (whites/blacks), socio-economic (poor/rich population), topographic (within a given distance from the rock art site) and organisational (all of the persons impacted by the decisions made by the managers or UNESCO, and whose actions in turn have an impact on the protected areas and the rock art sites).

3. The approach that we propose here is the result of more than 15 years of field research experience in the MDP WHS since 2000 gained during various research projects: pigment analysis and the impacts of atmospheric conditions on rock art decay (Hœrlé and Salomon 2004; Hœrlé 2005, 2006; Hœrlé et al. 2007; Huneau et al. 2008; Tournié et al. 2011), rock art and tourism research (Smith 2006a; Duval 2013; Duval and Smith 2013, 2014a, 2014b; Duval, Gauchon, and Smith 2017), rock art and identity research (Smith 2006b, 2010; Duval 2012), and rock art display research (Laue, Turkington, and Smith 2001; Bovet 2012).

4. 2009–2011: ‘Rock art management and heritage tourism in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg’, financed by the Wits University and NRF; 2012–2013: ‘Vulnerabilis: Rock art sites vulnerabilities: bridging human, social and environmental sciences’, financed by IRD-HEREGO call; 2014–2017: ‘Heritage, valorization and management of rock art sites in the Maloti-Drakensberg’, financed by the French Institute in South Africa and the French Embassy.

5. The 1999 National Heritage Resources Act in South Africa, http://www.dac.gov.za/sites/default/files/Legislations%20Files/a25-99.pdf.

6. In order to respect confidential clauses, all names have been changed.

7. Huffingtonpost, ‘Millennials See Themselves As Narcissistic, Too (And It Bothers Them)’by Stephanie Pappas, 02/05/2016 [Online available] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/millennials-see-themselves-as-narcissistic-too-and-it-bothers-them_us_56b4d2cbe4b08069c7a6f81f?ir=Healthy+Living&section=us_healthy-living&utm_hp_ref=healthy-living (accessed date: 13 February 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This work was co-supported by the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), under Grant ‘HEritage REsources Governanceʼ; by the French Embassy and the Institut Français en Afrique du Sud (IFAS CNRS USR 3336/UMIFRE 25) under ‘research project calls 2013 and 2016ʼ. It was also supported by the NRF, the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and the Centre for Rock Art Research + Management at the University of Western Australia.

Notes on contributors

Mélanie Duval

Mélanie Duval is a senior researcher at the Edytem UMR 5204 CNRS Laboratory (University of Savoie Mont Blanc, France) and an honorary research fellow at the Rock Art Research Institute (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa). As a human geographer, her research is concerned with heritage, sustainable tourism and archaeological sites (rock art, stilt houses), particularly in mountain areas (South of France, French Antilles, Alps, South Africa), where she analyses the dynamic balance between heritage processes and tourism development, with a focus on stakeholders’ interplay and the role of local communities. Working with Benjamin Smith and Stéphane Hoerlé from 2009, they have developed many researchs projects together in South Africa, with the last one ‘Sustainability of Rock Art Tourismʼ (2018–2020) focusing on the Makgabeng area. In the chapter ‘Rock Art Tourismʼ published in The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art (2018, edited by B. David and I.J. McNiven, Oxford University Press), they address questions surrounding the principles and practices of rock art tourism development in conjunction with issues of heritage management and conservation. DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190607357.013.50

Benjamin Smith

Benjamin Smith is a professor of World Rock Art at the Centre for Rock Art Research and Management, and associate dean (Research) of the Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Education at the University of Western Australia (Perth, Australia). His major research interests include theory and method in rock art studies, rock art dating, digital archiving in archaeology, rock art and identity, contextual approaches to the interpretation of meaning and motivation in rock art and the role of rock art in modern societies. He is also the director of the Rock Art Research Institute (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) from 2000 to 2013, and he has published extensively on rock art from across Africa, with a strong emphasis on contextual interpretation, as well as on the arts of African herders and farmers.

Stéphane Hœrlé

Stéphane Hœrlé is a researcher in material sciences. He is an honorary research fellow at the PACEA UMR 5199 CNRS Laboratory (University of Bordeaux, France) and the Rock Art Research Institute (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa). His research interests include the dynamics of rock art sites’ evolution through natural factors and human uses, with a focus on applications to the archaeometric study of rock art technology and the conservation and management of sites.

Lucie Bovet

Lucie Bovet is a researcher in social anthropology and archaeology with several contracts in museums (Latenium in Neuchâtel, Switzerland; Musée des Civilisations de l’Islam in Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland). She is an honorary research fellow at the Edytem UMR 5204 CNRS Laboratory (University of Savoie Mont Blanc, France) and the Rock Art Research Institute (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa). Her master’s thesis was devoted to the analysis of the museographic treatment of rock art sites in post-apartheid South Africa, with a focus on the values used in discourse construction.

Nokukhanya Khumalo

Nokukhanya Khumalo holds her Bachelor in geography and archaeology at Wits University. She is currently working for the Archaeology, Palaeontology and Meteorites (APM) Unit of the South African Heritage Resources Agency (Cape Town), doing impact assessment reports in the heritage management field. On the same time, she is doing a Master degree in Archaeology at the University of Cape Town, focusing on Early Iron Age metal production in KwaZulu-Natal.

Lwazi Bhengu

Lwazi Bhengu holds his Bachelor in geography and archaeology at Wits University. After an experience as officer at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum and working as Archaeologist and Heritage Consultant for the NGT Environmental and Heritage Consulting, he is currently working as research assistant at Wits University.