Abstract
Although the concept of community participation, or awneh, is deep-rooted in Palestinian society, community archaeology and community heritage as a scientific discipline is a rather new phenomenon in Palestine. Interest has grown only recently with the transformation from a colonial paradigm of archeological work in the country, based on foreign domination and the local role of unskilled workers limited to dirt removal (as in most of the large-scale excavations at the end of nineteenth and twentieth century), to a new post-colonial paradigm based on joint interest and mutual respect, which has developed in the last two decades. The new situation has enabled the direct involvement of local institutions and communities in archeological work. Community engagement is also practiced in other spheres of cultural heritage activity, including historic conservation, carried out by government bodies and non-governmental organizations. Most recently, more active community participation has been observed in both the museum sector and world heritage.
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Notes
- 1.
The Nakbah, or catastrophe, refers to the expulsion of ca. 900,000 Palestinians from their homeland, and the destruction of more than 600 cities and villages in the areas proclaimed as Israel in 1948.
- 2.
The ‘Green Line’, or 1949 Armistice Line, refers to the boundary separating pre-1967 Israel from the West Bank. It continues to function as a de-facto political administrative divide between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
- 3.
The Bethlehem area comprises the municipalities of Bethlehem, Beir Sahor, Beit Jala and Doha, and has a population of about 100,000.
- 4.
The seven sites included Khirbet Bal’ama, Burqin, Arraba, Deir Istyia, Barqawi Castle and the villages of Irtah and Kur.
- 5.
Riwaq is a Ramallah-based, non-governmental organization established in 1991, whose aim is to document, rehabilitate and restore the architectural heritage of Palestine.
- 6.
Bethlehem was the subject of a series of neighbourhood-based studies, conducted between 2002 and 2006 as part of a major research project and partnership initiative between 13 institutions across the Mediterranean basin and the London Metropolitan University, UK.
- 7.
Ishaq Hroub, collector/curator of the collection housed in the seventeenth century Ottoman fortress, started to document social life in Palestinian villages in 1985. Over subsequent decades he also collected quotidian artefacts related to that life, from Ottoman period marriage contracts and headdresses, to home utensils, farming equipment and the paraphernalia of the prevalent professions.
- 8.
From an early gift of two nineteenth century thobs (traditional costumes), and holidays to her mother’s village in the Ramallah area in the 1940s, Widad Kawar was drawn to the costume and embroidery of Palestinian women. After the 1967 war, and aware of the potential loss of genuine examples, she started collecting purposefully across each geographical area in Palestine, eventually amassing a collection of more than 2000 costumes and weavings.
- 9.
Museum collections in the Palestinian areas are recorded in the Directory of Museums prepared by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (2009) and the Palestinian Museum (Al-Matahef, 2014).
- 10.
This storytelling form comprises fictitious tales, narrated in the Palestinian dialects of fallahi (rural) and madani (urban), that have evolved over centuries and provide a societal critique of the Arab Middle East from the women’s perspective.
- 11.
Butler’s (2010, p. 115) ‘modified, or “alternative” heritage model is ethnographic in approach, hinging on ‘the “consultation process” as an “actor-network” concerned with the inclusion of alternative “voices” and their capacity to modify, reject, subvert, contest and ultimately re-appropriate such models for a more relevant and resonant… museological engagement.’
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Dedication
This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Nada Atrash, an architect and cultural heritage expert. She was involved in co-ordinating and developing various multi-national projects, including the Bethlehem Area Conservation and Management Plan (2008–2010), and Heritage for Development (2012–2014). She was the file preparer of nomination documents to inscribe Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route, Bethlehem (2011), and Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines – Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir (2013) on the World Heritage List. She was the author of many articles on cultural heritage and conservation. Nada passed away on the 25 October 2016 at the age of 40.
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Taha, H., Saca, I. (2022). Invoking Awneh: Community Heritage in Palestine. In: Badran, A., Abu-Khafajah, S., Elliott, S. (eds) Community Heritage in the Arab Region. One World Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07446-2_11
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