Cultural Heritage, Community Engagement and Sustainable Tourism: Case Studies from Archaeological Sites in the Global South

by Steven Mithen (Editor), Mubariz Ahmed Rabbani (Editor), Maria Rabbani (Editor)

Overview

This timely and innovative book critically explores how cultural heritage in the Global South can be used to mobilise community engagement and promote sustainable tourism at archaeological sites.

Whilst the volume covers theoretical issues, it primarily offers insight into how both small and large projects within low- and middle-income countries start, plan and develop. It describes what factors lead some projects to succeed, some to fail and most to have elements of both. Core to this investigation, each specifically commissioned chapter considers the challenges of developing collaboration and joint ownership between multiple stakeholders, ranging from local communities to national governments. In addition, the book considers how the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic were managed, with lessons for future events of such magnitude. In summary, this significant volume recognises the value of developing collaborative partnerships between academics, NGOs and local communities, to achieve community engagement within archaeological research and support sustainable development by developing appropriate forms of tourism at archaeological sites. It provides essential reading for those interested in tourism, heritage studies, archaeology, geography, tourism studies and cultural studies.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781040361221
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/13/2025
Series:	Contemporary Geographies of Leisure, Tourism and Mobility
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	308
File size:	37 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Steven Mithen, FBA, is Professor of Early Prehistory at the University of Reading, UK. His research interests include the origins of language, music and thought, hunter-gatherers and the emergence of farming. He has undertaken long-term field projects in southern Jordan and western Scotland and is a founding member of a local charity in Scotland (Islay Heritage, SCO46938). His books include The Prehistory of the Mind (1996), After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000–5000 BC (2003), The Singing Neanderthals (2005), Thirst: Water and Power in the Ancient World (2007) and The Language Puzzle (2024).

Mubariz Ahmed Rabbani is working as a research engineer in archaeology at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). His research interests include the study of the archaeology of South Asia and South-West Asia, focusing on ancient technologies, socio-economic and political organisation, trade, religion and human–environmental relationships. He completed his PhD in archaeology at the University of Reading and has worked on excavations in Pakistan, Iraq and the UK. He is Member of the ISMEO Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan.

Maria Rabbani is a Palynologist for Oxford Archaeology. She completed her PhD at the University of Reading, which focused on human-environmental interactions in the Zagros region during the Late Pleniglacial, Lateglacial and Holocene, using pollen, non-pollen palynomorph, micro- and macro-charcoal and geochemical analyses. Maria has experience in working on lake and wetland sediment and pollen from the UK, Italy, Iran and Iraq.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction Part 1. Asia 2. The Faynan Heritage Project: Developing a Local Museum Within a Rural Bedouin Community of Southern Jordan 3. Developing a Heritage-Themed Bedouin Handicraft Business in Faynan, Jordan: Success, Failure and Reflections 4. Community-Based Conservation and Promotion of the Neolithic Site of Beidha, Jordan 5. Sela: Community and Heritage in Jordan 6. The Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project: Cultural Heritage Protection and Enhancement, Community Engagement and Sustainable Tourism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq 7. Building Community Archaeology Practice and Heritage Tourism for Sustainable Development in a Post-Conflict Zone: The ACT and ALIPH Projects in the Swat Valley (Pakistan) 8. Initiating the Transformation of Spanish Colonial Era Archaeology of Cagayan Province, Philippines, into Cultural Heritage Part 2. Africa 9. Community and Archaeology at Armana: Exploring Sustainable Heritage Strategies for Rural Egypt 10. Community-Engaged Archaeology at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Jebel Barkal, Sudan 11. Co-Production Networks for Community Heritage in Tanzania (CONCH) Part 3. Latin America 12. Santa Cruz Mixtepec: Community Engagement and Religious Heritage in Mexico 13. Biocultural Heritage and Archaeology as Sources of Knowledge, Cultural Identity, Sustainable Tourism and Economic Resilience in Ligüiqui, Manabí, Ecuador 14. The PIARA Peru Project at Hualcayán: An Archaeology and Partnership of Care 15. Utilising Cultural Heritage to Improve Water Security and Agro-Pastoral Farming in the Peruvian Andes Part 4. Overview 16. Experiences, Lessons, Celebration