The West & Other Problems in Conservation

Image from the documentary Two Million Minutes (www.2mminutes.com)

In a recent post I made a big deal out of the issue of ‘non-western conservation’; it’s an issue that I feel quite passionately about. I haven’t really posted much about this on my blog, but you might be able to discern the topic in the background of much of my writing. I am still a long way (and a lot of research) from any serious writing about this topic, so consider this post a first foray into some of the ideas, and potential directions for research.

I was, to be honest, intrigued, and pleased, that the concept was raised within the context of a conference such as that described in the post. For it is an idea that certainly opens up a world of unknown challenges to the established conservation epistemology. I am also encouraged that major organizations such as ICCROM have noted the importance of non-western approaches to the field: “Non-western states dominate ICCROM‘s membership, and yet non-western approaches to conservation are not sufficiently recognized, disseminated, debated, or researched.” (ICCROM). But for all this talk we seem to be lacking in one important factor; definitions.

What do we mean by “Non-Western Conservation”?  Lets break it down and assume, for arguments sake, that by conservation we are suggesting all forms of care of cultural heritage. I guess then the remaining question is what do we mean by “the west”? This is, potentially, the big challenge. What is clear is that it does not refer to a geographical location; it could for example be argued that Europe, USA, Canada, Mexico, Australasia, and even Japan fall into definitions of the west. Furthermore we often hear talk of parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East becoming ‘Westernized’. So what is it people are talking about? It seems that what people are referring to is a set of common ideas, principles, ethics, and such like. A standardized way of doing things. However, the anthropologist David Graeber has made a very convincing argument that ‘there never was a West’. At its core his argument suggests that these so-called western ideas are often universal, or adopted from other communities and countries. Conceptually then “The West” is a chimera. So where does this leave us?

I think what we really have is a white, dominant class, euro-centric conservation, a conservation built on science in the service of the state and capitalism. This is the conservation that those of us who are professional conservators in so called western society practice. It’s detached from the material culture (viewing it as little more than data), and focused on the reproduction of the spectacle (that culture should be viewed and broadcast, but not experienced and used). In this way we can begin to understand these then are the key characteristics of “our” conservation. What we are looking for then is whether societies that differ from ours practice conservation (the care of culture heritage) in an alternative fashion?

Starting Points:

Our first port of call for research would probably be the conservation literature itself. Within this literature I would suggest that research conducted with indigenous groups, and the writings of indigenous groups themselves, shed light on a variety of potential alternative approaches to conservation, as has research with non-christian religious groups. We should then expand our research to include museum studies literature particularly as it pertains to social-inclusiveness, and post-colonial museum contexts. Next stops might be the ethnographic literature, the literature of explorers and missionaries of one sort or another, and the writings and oral traditions of all societies.

• The continuation of traditions. (e.g., being permitted to repaint rock paintings).
• The ritual process (e.g., Buddhist temple building).
• Views of social inclusion in museum contexts (e.g., where’s the so-called ‘IC3-9′ folks).
• Views on museums in relation to heritage.

Any approach to so-called ‘non-western’ conservation/s must, I believe, take a political stance against the encroachment of a mono-conservation. It must stand up for the rights of people to define their own futures, and their own pasts. First by identifying and celebrating diversity (even with a critical eye), and then acting to protect it against colonial approaches. For the purpose of developing a ‘non-western’ focus to the conservation discourse it is a wonderful, yet seemingly overlooked, publication from ICCROM (Stovel et al 2005) that I think really pushes the envelope, and is probably the most important book on ‘non-western’ conservation currently available. Furthermore, within the conservation literature a de-colonial approach has already been developed (Sully 2008) and was essentially supported by countless participants in ‘Symposium 2007′ (Dignard et al 2008). In activist circles radical theoretical and historical currents of Non-Western and Third World anarchism/s have recently been making inroads into the social movement, notably essays by Jason Adams (2003) and Sharif Gemie (2003), and perhaps provide a benchmark for methods of inclusion that conservation could learn from. At the very least it will help us to avoid simply opening up new markets for GC-MS machines and Paraloid B72 and all the other tools and trinkets of our industry, for if this is the aim of our approaches to other cultures then maybe we’d be better off leaving the subject well alone!!

Bibliography/Sources of Information/Starting points:

* The international working group on Ethnographic Collections within ICOM-CC
* A variety of institutional writings, such as those from the NMAI.
* Adams, Jason. Non-Western Anarchisms : Rethinking the Global Context. (2003). <read it>
* Appelbaum, Barbara. Conservation treatment methodology. Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann (2007).
* Breeze, Camille Myers. A Peruvian-American conservation collaboration. In: The Textile Specialty Group postprints of papers delivered at the Textile Subgroup Session: American Institute for Conservation: annual meeting†18 (2009), pp. 88-99.
* Clavir, Miriam. Preserving What is Valued: Museums, Conservation, and First Nations. (2002).
* D’Aragon, Jean. Earth as an element of resistance (or persistence) & development in the South African AmaXhosa building culture. In: Preprints of papers: 9th international conference on the Study and Conservation of Earthen Architecture: Terra 2003: Yazd, Iran: 29 November-2 December 2003.Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization(2003),  pp. 120-127.
* Dignard, Carole., Kate Helwig, Janet Mason, Kathy Nanowin, and Thomas Stone (Eds). Preserving Aboriginal Heritage: Technical and Traditional Approaches. Proceedings of a Conference. Symposium 2007. CCI. (2008)
* Egloff, Brian J. Tam Ting Conservation Project: a decade of collaborative heritage practice in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Historic environment. 15, no. 3 (2001), pp. 20-34
* Gemie, Sharif. Beyond the Borders: The Question of Third World Anarchism. (2003). <read it>
* Loubser, Johannes. Conservation of non-Western rock art sites using a holistic medical approach. In: Of the past, for the future: integrating archaeology and conservation, proceedings of the conservation theme at the 5th World Archaeological Congress, Washington, D.C., 22-26 June 2003. Getty Conservation Institute symposium proceedings series. Agnew, Neville and Bridgland, Janet. (Eds). The Getty Conservation Institute (2006), pp. 340-345.
*Karlström, Anna. Spiritual materiality: Heritage preservation in a Buddhist world? Journal of Social Archaeology, 5(3), 338-354. (2005).
* Muñoz-Viñas, Salvador. Contemporary Theory of Conservation. Elsevier. (2004)
* Stewart, Novelette-Aldoni. Conserving the sacred. ICON NEWS. Issue 8. JANUARY 2007. pp. 30-
* Stovel, Herb. Nicholas Stanley-Price, and Robert Killick (Eds). Conservation of Living Religious Heritage: Papers from the ICCROM 2003 Forum on Living Religious Heritage: Conserving the Sacred. ICCROM (2005).
* Sully, Dean. Decolonising Conservation: Caring for Maori Meeting Houses outside New Zealand. Left Coast Press. (2008).
* Thompson, Jack C. On restoring sacred objects. Leather conservation news 14, no. 2 (1998), pp. 1-6.