Abstract
This volume began life as a session at the 2010 Australian Archaeological Conference on the cultural heritage of protected areas in the Asia-Pacific region. Our particular concern was with the proposition that the discourse of nature conservation was predisposed to a vision of protected areas (in the form of national parks and other ‘nature’ reserves) as pristine nature. According to such a vision, protected areas represent wildernesses that, having escaped the ravages of human exploitation, had now to be preserved as the last reservoirs of biodiversity on a planet threatened with ecological disaster. To what extent, we asked, did such a mindset eclipse the history and heritage of protected areas as human habitats, not to mention effacing the contemporary presence in them of living human cultures?
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Transcending the Culture-Nature Divide in Cultural Heritage: Views from the Asia-Pacific Region |
| Editors | Sally Brockwell, Sue O'Connor, Denis R. Byrne |
| Place of Publication | Canberra, A.C.T. |
| Publisher | Australian National University E Press |
| Pages | 1-11 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781922144058 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781922144041 |
| Publication status | Published - 2013 |