Alvaro HIGUERAS
(University of Rome 2, Italy)
The concept of value and importance of cultural heritage is indeed very relative as one considers the societies that hold them in trust, promote them and preserve them with the highest standards, or other societies that have such heritage in their territory but is not part of their general culture and does not fit in their identity concepts. In other words, in these latter societies the links to the past are not always automatic even if highly rich sites and heritage exist, more so in regions where conquests of different empires along the centuries have constantly changed the power structures of the land. In this paper I will explore four cases of relationships between current populations and their cultural heritage: Libya, Bosnia, Eritrea, and Ghana. The state of cultural heritages and its status varies depending of its history: cultural heritage may be considered as such by foreign populations and not locals, or considered important by locals but with little enthusiasm for its preservation. How does cultural heritage management work in such conditions? The long history of foreign archaeological missions is changing with a strong component of preservation in situ and not in metropolitan museums, as moving heritage out of the country is no longer possible. Are we aiming at new international cooperation concepts for the preservation of certain cases of cultural heritage?