Heritage represents the meanings and representations conveyed in the present day upon artefacts, landscapes, mythologies, memories and traditions from the past. It is a key element in the shaping of identities, particularly in the context of increasingly multicultural societies. This Research Companion brings together an international team of authors to discuss the concepts, ideas and practices that inform the entwining of heritage and identity. They have assembled a wide geographical range of examples and interpret them through a number of disciplinary lenses that include geography, history, museum and heritage studies, archaeology, art history, history, anthropology and media studies. This outstanding companion offers scholars and graduate students a thoroughly up-to-date guide to current thinking and a comprehensive reference to this growing field. -taken from book cover.

Pt I The Context of Heritage and Identity -- 1. The History of Heritage -- 2. Heritage, Memory and Identity -- 3. Personal and public histories: issues in the presentation of the past -- Pt. II Markers of Heritage and Identity -- 4 'Natural' Landscapes in the representation of national identity -- 5 Heritage and 'race' -- 6 'We are here, yet we are not here': The heritage of excluded groups -- 7 The Contestation of Heritage: The Enduring importance of religion -- 8 Heritage from below: class, social protest and resistance -- 9. Heritage, gender and identity -- Part III Practices of heritage and identity -- 10. The communication of heritage: creating place identities -- 11. Place, naming and the interpretation of cultural landscapes -- 12. Commemoration of war -- 13. The memorialization of violence and tragedy: human trauama as heritage -- 14. Conservation and restoration in built heritage: a western european perspective -- 15. Museums and the representation of identity -- Part IV The challenges of a postmodern and post-colonial world -- 17. Plural and mulitcultural heritages -- 18. Heritage transformation in central and eastern europe -- 19. The heritage of post-colonial societies -- 20. The contestation of heritage: the colonizer and the colonized in Australia -- 21. The heritage of mundane places -- 22. New museologies and the ecomuseum -- 23. An exploration of the connections among museums, community and heritage -- 24. European landscapes: heritage, participation and local communities -- 25. Cultural diversity, heritage and human rights.