Building a World Heritage City by Michele Lamprakos

Author:Michele Lamprakos [Lamprakos, Michele]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Public Policy, City Planning & Urban Development, Social Science, Human Geography
ISBN: 9781472435415
Google: rDcVrgEACAAJ
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Limited
Published: 2015-06-01T06:01:29+00:00

Chapter 5

Old and New Professionals

A number of recent studies have shown that local or “traditional” experts—builders, craftsmen, and artisans—are often marginalized by the heritage enterprise. They are seen as bearers of a noble tradition, but they are also excluded from the benefits of modernity, and from new global networks of production and expertise.1 As we will see, a similar process has occurred in Yemen. But benefits to new groups—in terms of economic and cultural capital—have been limited by political circumstances and the vagaries of donor aid. Professionals who began their careers under the UNESCO Campaign lived through the restructuring of the conservation office in 1990–1991, the economic crisis that followed the first Gulf War, and the 1994 civil war; the modest renaissance of heritage activities in the late 1990s is now stalled, in the wake of the 2011 uprising. As such, heritage has never quite taken off in Yemen. At the same time, a relatively young architectural profession has not fully displaced the prestige of the master builders, or ustas. Different kinds of knowledge and expertise coexist, and intersect in interesting ways.

In this chapter I explore turath from the perspective of these “old” and “new” professionals. In first part of this chapter, I describe the experience of architects, planners, and other new professionals relative to the typical process of heritage training and management. The contrast derives in part from the fact that conservation was transferred to Yemen in the framework of development assistance. It also derives from specific conditions in Yemen, especially the persistence of traditional building practice. In the second section, I discuss the ustas who, independently or under the supervision of architects, do the actual making. I attempt to paint a portrait of builders’ practice as they inherited it, and the pressures exerted by the new conception of turath. These pressures are material and social, even psychic—challenging the identity of builders as expert persons and historical agents. At the same time, the new context of turath provides an opportunity for builders to influence the ongoing production of culture and conceptions of the past.

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