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Cultural Heritage on the Web: Applied Digital Visual Anthropology and Local Cultural Property Rights Discourse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2012

Kate Hennessy
Kate Hennessy*
Affiliation:
School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University, Surrey
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Abstract

The 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage specifies that communities are to be full partners in efforts to safeguard their intangible cultural heritage. Yet the notion of safeguarding has been complicated by the politics and mechanisms of digital circulation. Based on fieldwork in British Columbia and Thailand, I show that community-based productions of multimedia aimed at documenting, transmitting, and revitalizing intangible heritage are productive spaces in which local cultural property rights discourses are initiated and articulated. I argue that digital heritage initiatives can support decision making about the circulation—or restriction—of digital cultural heritage while drawing attention to the complexities of safeguarding heritage in the digital age.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 19 , Special Issue 3: Intangible Property at the Periphery: Expanding Enclosure in the 21st Century , August 2012 , pp. 345 - 369
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2012

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