Heritage in the Context of Globalization by Peter F. Biehl & Christopher Prescott

Author:Peter F. Biehl & Christopher Prescott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer New York, New York, NY

The explication of the legislation states that it is an overarching statement of intent that emphasizes cultural recourse as scientific materials, a spring of experience, a source of values to generate identity, and a sense of security that is locally anchored. It is Norway’s contribution to world heritage (Holme 2005:25–27).

A Changing Northern Europe: Public Schools in Oslo

The strategy of binding archaeology and cultural heritage to identity, generating narratives of the interdependent evolution of the land, the people, and the culture, has been immensely successful for all parties—Norwegians, Saamis, and the ­cultural heritage sector. Various groups have been supplied with collective ­identities ­conducive for political projects like nation building or gaining recognition as indigenous people. Cultural–historical disciplines and the cultural resource management have gained public recognition and financial support. The national and ethnic “identity paradigm” as the basis of heritage management is still regarded as unproblematic and benevolent. When protests against hydroelectric development in Finnmark associate petroglyph motives with Saami ethnicity, or opponents of the EU use Bronze Age depictions of boats to symbolize resistance to globalization, many archaeologists probably recognize the mistaken use of the symbols and naïve perception of prehistory, but shrug it off as innocuous.

Of course, there is always the risk that national becomes nationalistic, and one ethnic group uses heritage to limit rights of others. Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 massacres in Norway, defended his actions in court by claiming to defend an indigenous population that immigrated to Norway at the end of the Ice Age 12,000 years ago. In principle his appeal to rights based on a popular, if scientifically flawed, perception of the descent of modern Norwegians is not that different from other narratives that we let slip by or even encourage based on more acceptable political sympathies. Identity and heritage myths might still represent a lethal concoction.

The lack of contention concerning aligning heritage with national and ethnic identity is probably related to the fact that Scandinavia has until recently been very homogeneous in terms of populations. Norway has been dominated by two major indigenous populations, Norwegians and Saamis. This situation is, however, rapidly changing. Non-European immigration took off in the 1970s with the first Pakistani labor immigrants. According to the City of Oslo’s statistics of a population in 2011 of more than 600,000, 160,484 were immigrants or children of immigrant parents. Of these 117,489 were from Africa and Asia. The quantitatively most important immigrant nationalities are Pakistanis, Turks, Somalis, Iraqis, and Vietnamese. According to a recent reevaluation by Statistics Norway, approximately 24% of Norway’s population will have an immigrant background in 2040. In the urban centers, the immigrant population will be more substantial. In Oslo, the government’s “Statistics Norway” predicts an immigrant population between 40 and 56%.

The situation is illustrated by the ethnic makeup of the pupils in schools in the capital Oslo—perhaps the most important target groups for heritage outreach. Since the 1970s, the demography of Oslo’s schools has become increasingly heterogeneous. From 1999 to 2011 the amount of students with a “minority language” background has increased from 29% to 40%.

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