Thread by @MichaelDPress

For @aeonmag I've written a piece on how and why cultural heritage ultimately benefits the powerful
aeon.co/essays/why-cul…

These are ideas I've been working through over the past few years; thanks to @samhaselby for helping me tie them together.

As usual, I'm grateful to the many people whose work has influenced and helped me (even if they may not agree with my analysis or conclusions!)
In this piece I was able to link to important articles by @mokersel and @cwjones89

But the Aeon format does not include full referencing, and there are many other things that I relied on:

There is @stephenniem's 2017 International Journal of Islamic Architecture special issue on Imagining Localities of Antiquity in Islamic Societies, especially for alternate ways that people in the Middle East and beyond have thought about ruins & the past
ingentaconnect.com/content/intell…

I always keep in mind @artcrimeprof and @ehatmat's writings on replicas and authenticity, for instance:
apollo-magazine.com/digital-replic…

A fascinating blog post by @JMDesplat on archaeology in Iraq as it moved toward independence:
blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/decolonis…

The writing of @w_carruthers has been an important source for learning and thinking about the UNESCO Nubia campaign and Nubians themselves.
williamcarruthers.wordpress.com

I want to add: There is a field of critical heritage studies, and its discussions over the last several years are often echoed in my piece.
books.google.com/books?id=bYx_A…
I need to read more of this body of work myself!

From the work of Michael Herzfeld to Chiara De Cesari to Cornelius Holtorf and beyond, there are many interesting discussions of the types of issues I present.

There are of course the writings of David Lowenthal on our relationship to the past and specifically on heritage.
I've been influenced by his critique of our current need to preserve everything.
books.google.com/books?id=qbDb7…

But the most important thing I read for this piece, for so many different reasons, was -- unexpectedly -- John Berger et al's Ways of Seeing.