Unruly Heritage: Archaeologies of the Anthropocene

(Hardback)

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Description

Exploring the current clash between the prevailing conceptions of heritage as, on the one hand, something valued and thus worth saving and, on the other, a haunting and unwanted legacy, this book urges a radical reconsideration of our understanding of heritage in line with the notion of an unruly legacy. The fundamental argument is based on a less anthropocentric and more ecologically focussed perspective, where case studies are presented on the following countries: Canada, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the United States. More specifically, the multidisciplinary approach of the contributions, ranging from archaeology and heritage studies to philosophy and environmental politics, explores a wide range of topics in the contemporary world such as industrialisation and technology; material profusion; modernist architectural material; coastal reclamations; and naval mines. The result is a volume that challenges our idea of the archaeology of the Anthropocene and offers a rethinking of the traditional understanding of heritage as an exclusive field devoid of negative issues.

Author Bio

Bjrnar Julius Olsen is Professor of Archaeology at The Arctic University of Norway, Norway. Stein Farstadvoll is Associate Professor of Contemporary Archaeology The Arctic University of Norway, Norway. Genevive Godin is Doctoral Research Fellow in Archaeology at The Arctic University of Norway, Norway.