On the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, rural villages, traditional artefacts, even atmospheres and experiences are considered heritage. Heritage making not only protects, but also produces, things, people, and places. Since the Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, heritage making and Europeanization are increasingly intertwined in Greek-Cypriot society. Against the backdrop of a long-term ethnographic engagement, the author argues that heritage emerges as an increasingly standardized economic resource, a “European product.” Implemented in historic preservation, rural tourism, culinary traditions, nature protection, and urban restoration projects, heritage policy has become infused with transnational market regulations and neoliberal property regimes.
The Mediterranean world has long been an island for European thought and imagination. Anthropologically, the focus has been on tradition rather than modernity, on continuity rather than change, on borders rather than transgression. Today, the focus shifts to the interconnected turbulence of the present that challenges the imagination of a southern Other vis-a-vis a Northwestern Self and the notion of a homogenous, unanimous culture area. The emerging dialogue between Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean anthropologists has introduced new perspectives on southern mobilities and modernities across collapsing and (re)constructed borders as they are inserted and created by global, transnational and local cultural processes.
The Mediterranean world has long been an island for European thought and imagination. Anthropologically, the focus has been on tradition rather than modernity, on continuity rather than change, on borders rather than transgression. Today, the focus shifts to the interconnected turbulence of the present that challenges the imagination of a southern Other vis-a-vis a Northwestern Self and the notion of a homogenous, unanimous culture area. The emerging dialogue between Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean anthropologists has introduced new perspectives on southern mobilities and modernities across collapsing and (re)constructed borders as they are inserted and created by global, transnational and local cultural processes.
On the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, rural villages, traditional artefacts, even atmospheres and experiences are considered heritage. Heritage making not only protects, but also produces, things, people, and places. Since the Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, heritage making and Europeanization are increasingly intertwined in Greek-Cypriot society. Against the backdrop of a long-term ethnographic engagement, the author argues that heritage emerges as an increasingly standardized economic resource, a “European product.” Implemented in historic preservation, rural tourism, culinary traditions, nature protection, and urban restoration projects, heritage policy has become infused with transnational market regulations and neoliberal property regimes.
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