Location
PANEL: Anthropology Honors
Wilder 101
Moderator: Baron Pineda
Document Type
Presentation - Open Access
Start Date
4-25-2025 10:00 AM
End Date
4-25-2025 11:00 AM
Abstract
This Honors thesis aims to analyze the social roles of heritage sites as modes of cultural communication and connection. Through combined ethnographic and archaeological research methods, I argue that while the museumification and industrialization of heritage does provide useful information for populations with little knowledge of cultural processes, the communities most closely related to the heritage sites lose both tangible and intangible cultural connections when their backyards turn to tourist destinations. Studies of heritage have long argued that heritage processes take place not just through tangible heritage artifacts but also through everyday intangible heritage activities (Smith 2006). Throughout this work I drew together work in heritage studies (Appadurai 1986 & Smith 2006), the anthropology of Ireland (Glassie 1982), and power theory (Foucault 1975) to aid my ethnographic and archaeological research. In Co. Galway, Ireland, I interviewed individuals living in rural and urban areas about their interactions with heritage. Simultaneously, I participated in an archaeological excavation of a rural tower house built in the 1400s; here, I conducted participant observation and underwent the entire excavation process. The small communities that I researched represent the everyday rural neighborhoods in Ireland and their lack of communication with those residing in urban areas. I argue that anthropologists should place an increased importance on heritage as an intangible phenomenon that can be developed by personal exploration and free-learning methods. By focusing on heritage as an intangible phenomenon this research demonstrates how local communities engage with heritage through personal exploration and free learning methods.
Keywords:
Heritage, Culture, Community, Museumification
Recommended Citation
Carter, Loren, "Castles, Lands, and Locks: Exploring the Social Capital of Heritage Sites" (2025). Research Symposium. 1.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2025/presentations/1
Major
Anthropology
Sociology
Project Mentor(s)
Kip Hutchins, Anthropology and Environmental Studies
2025
Included in
Castles, Lands, and Locks: Exploring the Social Capital of Heritage Sites
PANEL: Anthropology Honors
Wilder 101
Moderator: Baron Pineda
This Honors thesis aims to analyze the social roles of heritage sites as modes of cultural communication and connection. Through combined ethnographic and archaeological research methods, I argue that while the museumification and industrialization of heritage does provide useful information for populations with little knowledge of cultural processes, the communities most closely related to the heritage sites lose both tangible and intangible cultural connections when their backyards turn to tourist destinations. Studies of heritage have long argued that heritage processes take place not just through tangible heritage artifacts but also through everyday intangible heritage activities (Smith 2006). Throughout this work I drew together work in heritage studies (Appadurai 1986 & Smith 2006), the anthropology of Ireland (Glassie 1982), and power theory (Foucault 1975) to aid my ethnographic and archaeological research. In Co. Galway, Ireland, I interviewed individuals living in rural and urban areas about their interactions with heritage. Simultaneously, I participated in an archaeological excavation of a rural tower house built in the 1400s; here, I conducted participant observation and underwent the entire excavation process. The small communities that I researched represent the everyday rural neighborhoods in Ireland and their lack of communication with those residing in urban areas. I argue that anthropologists should place an increased importance on heritage as an intangible phenomenon that can be developed by personal exploration and free-learning methods. By focusing on heritage as an intangible phenomenon this research demonstrates how local communities engage with heritage through personal exploration and free learning methods.
