ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by exploring how the theory can help to understand how heritage sites themselves represent and interpret the past. Heritage is a deceptively simple, yet malleable and slippery term that is continually evolving. Heritage can mean many things: a survival from the past, an industry, a process or practice, a symbol, a social phenomenon, a thing of value, at risk or in need of preservation; it can be top-down or grassroots, tangible or intangible, national, international or transnational. 'Historical consciousness' is founded on the premise that humans have a fundamental sense of history, the past forming a coherent narrative against which people in the present can make decisions about their future. 'Historical consciousness' is a conceptual framework for explaining the complexity of how humans make sense of change over time. In an increasingly global and multicultural society, where people are potentially coming into contact with people from groups and cultures very different from their own.
