Conserving Culture

Conservation of Cultural Heritage covers the methods and practices needed for future museum professionals who will be working in various capacities with museum collections and artifacts. It also assists current professionals in understanding the complex decision-making processes that face conservators on a daily basis. The uniqueness of this book lies in correlating the aspects of material science and the behaviour of artifacts in a museum environment. It will be of special benefit to museum professionals not trained in conservation. Covering a broad range of topics that are key to sound conservation in the museum, Conservation of Cultural Heritage is an important tool for students and professionals alike in ensuring that best practice is followed in the preservation of important collections.

Conserving Culture examines heritage protection in the United States and how it has been implemented in specific cases. Contributors challenge the division of heritage into nature, the built environment, and culture. They describe cultural conservation as an integrated process for resource planning and recommend supplanting the current prescriptive approach with one that is more responsive to grass-roots cultural concerns.

In Kenya, cultural and natural heritage has a particular value. Its pre-historic heritage not only tells the story of man's origin and evolution but has also contributed to the understanding of the earth's history: fossils and artefacts spanning over 27 million years have been discovered and conserved by the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). Alongside this, the steady rise in the market value of African art has also affected Kenya. Demand for African tribal art has surpassed that for antiquities of Roman, Byzantine, and Egyptian origin, and in African countries currently experiencing conflicts, this activity invariably attracts looters, traffickers and criminal networks. This book brings together essays by heritage experts from different backgrounds, including conservation, heritage management, museum studies, archaeology, environment and social sciences, architecture and landscape, geography, philosophy and economics to explore three key themes: the underlying ethics, practices and legal issues of heritage conservation; the exploration of architectural and urban heritage of Nairobi; and the natural heritage, landscapes and sacred sites in relation to local Kenyan communities and tourism. It thus provides an overview of conservation practices in Kenya from 2000 to 2015 and highlights the role of natural and cultural heritage as a key factor of social-economic development, and as a potential instrument for conflict resolution

Today, there is growing interest in conservation and anthropologists have an important role to play in helping conservation succeed for the sake of humanity and for the sake of other species. Equally important, however, is the fact that we, as the species that causes extinctions, have a moral responsibility to those whose evolutionary unfolding and very future we threaten. This volume is an examination of the relationship between conservation and the social sciences, particularly anthropology. It calls for increased collaboration between anthropologists, conservationists and environmental scientists, and advocates for a shift towards an environmentally focused perspective that embraces not only cultural values and human rights, but also the intrinsic value and rights to life of nonhuman species. This book demonstrates that cultural and biological diversity are intimately interlinked, and equally threatened by the industrialism that endangers the planet's life-giving processes. The consideration of ecological data, as well as an expansion of ethics that embraces more than one species, is essential to a well-rounded understanding of the connections between human behavior and environmental wellbeing. This book gives students and researchers in anthropology, conservation, environmental ethics and across the social sciences an invaluable insight into how innovative and intensive new interdisciplinary approaches, questions, ethics and subject pools can close the gap between culture and conservation.

In our technological civilization, the forces of globalization are a threat to both nature and culture. The many and varied cultures of the world are beset by the homogenizing impact of the global media, which represents the triumph of technics. Nature and culture must be protected to preserve a humanly habitable world. Conserving Cultures is the first book to link nature and culture conservation. The threat to nature is now well understood; how it relates to cultures is not. This book both describes and analyzes theoretically the danger to culture and proposes practical remedial measures. Visit our website for sample chapters!

The third International congress of Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, TechnoHeritage 2017, was held in Cadiz, from 21 to 24 May 2017, under the umbrella of the TechnoHeritage network. TechnoHeritage is an initiative funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity dedicated to the creation of a network which integrates CSIC and University groups, private companies and end users such as foundations, museums or institutions. The network’s purpose is to foster the creation of transdisciplinary (and not only multidisciplinary) initiatives focused on the study of all assets, movable or immovable, that make up Cultural Heritage. A high-quality scientific programme was prepared, which includes new emerging topics on Cultural Heritage (1) Nanomaterials and other Products for Conservation, (2) New Technologies for Analysis, Protection and Conservation, (3) 20th Century Cultural Heritage, (4) Significance of Cultural Heritage. Policies for Conservation, (5) Deterioration of Cultural Heritage, (6) Biodeterioration: Fundamentals, Present and Future Perspectives and (7) Underwater Cultural Heritage. A special session "Biodeterioration: Fundamentals, present and future perspectives, a session in honour of Prof. Cesáreo Sáiz Jiménez" took place. Our intention was to recognise the work of Prof. Sáiz Jiménez, who recently retired, and its impact on the Cultural Heritage conservation community, which he has helped to promote through numerous activities including, in 2011, the creation of the TechnoHeritage network. This volume publishes a total of eighty-three contributions which reflect the state of the art investigations on different aspects of cultural heritage conservation.

New approaches to both cultural landscapes and historic urban landscapes increasingly recognize the need to guide future change, rather than simply protecting the fabric of the past. Challenging traditional notions of historic preservation, Conserving Cultural Landscapes takes a dynamic multifaceted approach to conservation. It builds on the premise that a successful approach to urban and cultural landscape conservation recognizes cultural as well as natural values, sustains traditional connections to place, and engages people in stewardship where they live and work. It brings together academics within the humanities and humanistic social sciences, conservation and preservation professionals, practitioners, and stakeholders to rethink the meaning and practice of cultural heritage conservation, encourage international cooperation, and stimulate collaborative research and scholarship.

Conservation of Cultural Heritage covers the methods and practices needed for future museum professionals who will be working in various capacities with museum collections and artifacts. It also assists current professionals in understanding the complex decision making processes that faces conservators on a daily basis. Covering a broad range of topics that are key to sound conservation in the museum, this volume is an important tool for students and professional alike in ensuring that best practice is followed in the preservation of important collections.

From 2nd to 5th October 2012 an International Congress on Science and Technology for the conservation of Cultural Heritage was held in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, organized by the Universidade of Santiago de Compostela on behalf of TechnoHeritage Network. The congress was attended by some 160 participants from 10 countries, which presented a tot

In Kenya, cultural and natural heritage has a particular value. Its pre-historic heritage not only tells the story of man's origin and evolution but has also contributed to the understanding of the earth's history: fossils and artefacts spanning over 27 million years have been discovered and conserved by the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). Alongside this, the steady rise in the market value of African art has also affected Kenya. Demand for African tribal art has surpassed that for antiquities of Roman, Byzantine, and Egyptian origin, and in African countries currently experiencing conflicts, this activity invariably attracts looters, traffickers and criminal networks. This book brings together essays by heritage experts from different backgrounds, including conservation, heritage management, museum studies, archaeology, environment and social sciences, architecture and landscape, geography, philosophy and economics to explore three key themes: the underlying ethics, practices and legal issues of heritage conservation; the exploration of architectural and urban heritage of Nairobi; and the natural heritage, landscapes and sacred sites in relation to local Kenyan communities and tourism. It thus provides an overview of conservation practices in Kenya from 2000 to 2015 and highlights the role of natural and cultural heritage as a key factor of social-economic development, and as a potential instrument for conflict resolution