Notes on Authenticity and Development of Cultural Heritage in Syria

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7807964
AutoresAnas Soufan (autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen27
Número2
Páginas189-213
Fecha de publicación2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal of Cultural Property (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0940-7391 • E-ISSN: 1465-7317
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0940739120000132
OpenAlexW3092565828
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas15

According to the Syrian philosopher T. Tizini (1934–2019), the dilemma of authenticity heritage in the Arab world has lost its factual conceptualization. While its societal and ideological issues have been rightly discussed, its technical aspects have been handled only superficially. In this article, I review the deep interconnectivities between the societal and technical aspects of the term “authenticity” and the reconstruction of the damaged architectural heritage in Syria after years of a devastating war. I suggest that any postwar reconstruction raises a central contradiction: rebuilding an element from the past in the present. While the destroyed physical fabrics might be reconstituted, the setting that gave them value and meaning can never be reestablished. For that reason, preserving the “authenticity” in the wide significance of the term seems unrealistic in the context of reconstructed heritage. Nevertheless, what several Syrian scholars and politicians describe as “authenticity by creativity” might be a possible outcome

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Conceptualization · Context (archaeology · Contradiction · Cultural heritage · Dilemma · Element (criminal law · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ideology · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Archaeological Research and Protection · Computer Science · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · History · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Philosophy