Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PATH (Pathways to Heritage: Community heritage and the archaeology of movement in the Adelphi Forest, Cyprus)

Teaser

PATH is an exploration of heritage – how it is formed, reformed and negotiated. It looks at heritage as a process – the meaning that humans bring to the recent and distant past. It goes beyond material culture to look at the practices and activities that connect us to our...

Summary

PATH is an exploration of heritage – how it is formed, reformed and negotiated. It looks at heritage as a process – the meaning that humans bring to the recent and distant past. It goes beyond material culture to look at the practices and activities that connect us to our landscapes and to each other. It is this heritage ‘work’ that forms the foundations of PATH.

Until now, on the island of Cyprus heritage has been a field for academics and ‘heritage professionals’ who hold the control to say what is, and is not important. PATH breaks free of this mould. Through engaging communities in the question ‘what is important to you?’ it acknowledges contemporary connections - ‘unofficial’ heritage - that people have to the past and fosters a renewed sense of pride and confidence in their communities. Involving community members in the research process from the formulation of research questions, through to data collection and processing, acknowledges and reaffirms their connections to the distant and recent past.

PATH creates a new process for engaging Cypriot communities in discussions around heritage thus adding to the debate concerning how ‘unofficial’ and ‘official’ heritage narratives intersect and articulate on the island. On a broader scale, results may be applicable to other countries whose rural communities face similar challenges such as depopulation and economic insecurity.

PATH has five research objectives:
To investigate the social and cultural processes involved in making heritage in rural Cyprus
To merge archaeological, ethnographic and participant-based methods and resultant datasets to address the relationship between human interaction and the formation of heritage values
To examine how local heritage values articulate with wider national and European heritage narratives
To develop strategies for initiating knowledge transfer between archaeological projects and local communities, thus making archaeology relevant to contemporary society
To lay the foundations for future community-based participatory research in Cyprus

Work performed

Pathways to Heritage is a pilot project in community based participatory research. The project addresses the places and practices of significance of those who live in a rural village in Cyprus. Participatory techniques (photovoice, participatory mapping, video, storypaths) and interviews were used in order to engage participants in the practice and process of heritage making. Making heritage places and practices visible through exhibitions and presentations created individual and collective pride.

Dissemination of the project has taken place on the academic and village level. An online ArcGIS Story Map in Greek and English ‘Telling the Story of Home’ includes places and practices of importance to the people of Nikitari. The ‘Pathways to Heritage’ YouTube Channel allows free access to project videos (cc English).

Results
1. Pilot Project in Community-based Participatory Research
CBPR experience for future research; field manual
PATH is a pilot project in community based participatory research that focused on the heritage places and practices of importance to a rural community (Nikitari) in Cyprus. Engaging the multiple communities within Nikitari required maintaining relationships of trust and listening to community needs. While all villages and communities are different, the experience of setting up the project: meeting with key knowledge holders and interested parties to refine the focus of the project, consulting with interested parties about the types of participatory techniques they might use, and identifying the overlapping and often conflicting needs and wants of its communities, gave me experience necessary to undertake future community based research in Cyprus and abroad.

2. New view of heritage
ArcGIS Story Map (English/Greek); ‘Pathways to Heritage’ YouTube; article
PATH created a new way of doing research in Cyprus that crosses the boundaries between what is considered ‘archaeological’, ‘ethnographic’ and ‘folk art’. Dissemination of research results in public fora to archaeologists and anthropologists, has heightened awareness that working with rural communities leads to a more fulsome and ethically sound understanding of the past.

3. Pride and empowerment through making heritage visible
Two articles (one in an advanced stage, one co-authored with heritage leader in preparation)
Through PATH I learned the importance of participants sharing their heritage places and practices with each other. The process of sharing photographs and watching project videos together created a bond and camaraderie among participants that continues as part of the legacy of the project. For the Nikitari Youth Group, Women’s Group and Asinou Regional Primary School this experience of sharing was empowering and led to village-based initiatives.

4. Articulation of Local heritage, National and European Heritage Narratives
Article; new heritage project
The relationship among local, national and European heritage narratives was explored through informal discussions with Cypriot and international academics and collaborations with the Department of Forests and the Asinou Regional Primary School. Results from collaborative work with the primary school have been disseminated by pupils nationally (two presentations in the capital city of Nicosia) and on a European level through EU Erasmus program.

Final results

PATH uses a community based approach and thus confronts the disjunction between the research questions, processes and products of academic archaeology and the interests and concerns of village communities in Cyprus. Participatory techniques like Photovoice not only effectively prompt the formation of heritage, but the collective nature of these methods in which individuals work together fosters a shared sense of purpose and identity.

PATH makes valuable contributions to the archaeology of the 21st century through promoting an archaeology that is embedded and socially engaged. It argues that heritage is formed through contemporary connections to the past. Archaeological practice of today must be holistic and cross over the artificial boundaries that exist between archaeology, anthropology, ethnography and history. In Cyprus where traditional views of the discipline dominate, this research offers a new way of approaching archaeology and engaging the public that has not been done before.

PATH has a social impact. Through PATH I learned that the process of making heritage visible, project participants sharing places and practices with each other, viewing them at village gathering or academic presentations, was empowering. Learning from their peers, individuals reflected on their village (past and present) and what it means to them; they questioned what they didn’t know, what had been forgotten and its relevance to the present. For many this process of heritage making created a sense of shared history, pride and confidence.These effects were felt most strongly in the village on the Nikitari Women\'s Group and Youth Group. At the Asinou Regional Primary School a collaborative participatory mapping exercise led to a larger student led research project where data were presented by pupils locally, nationally and now as part of the EU Erasmus School Exchange Program ‘Tracing Our Cultural Heritage’.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/research/archaeologyresearch/projects/pathwaysadelphi/.