Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers cross-sections of a chronological range that spreads from the early Medieval to the contemporary era, and across two connected geographical regions – the United Kingdom, and Australia and the Pacific. It demonstrates that the preservation of the past, the inheritance of value frameworks and embedded memories, the display and viewing of heritage, senses of heritage landscapes and place and community and nostalgic reminiscing have occurred throughout history. The book explores the ways in which heritage is an accumulation formed in the relationship between the body, material cultures, rituals and emotion, recognising that the nature of this relationship is itself a dynamic process that changes over time, and is socially and culturally constructed. It discusses how individuals, in their social and memory practices, contribute to power relationships, national narratives, to codification practices and to notions of authorised histories and public histories.