H1: Community Archaeology, Sacred Places and Lived Heritage
Tracks
1
| Wednesday, December 2, 2026 |
| 9:00 AM - 10:15 AM |
| RHLT1 |
Overview
Stream: Participation, Community and Social Cohesion
Paper / Session Submitter
Mr Wouter Kock
Phd Candidate
Radboud University
Monastic Heritage by Proxy: New Communities Revitalising the Intangible Heritage of Abandoned Monasteries
Summary Abstract
Across Western Europe, thousands of former Catholic monasteries persist as material traces of a rapidly declining monastic landscape. While many of these monumental sites are preserved through adaptive reuse—often as private residences—the relational ethos historically embedded in these places is increasingly lost. Against this backdrop, a small but growing number of newly formed intentional lay communities have taken up residence in former monasteries to practise what we term vicarious heritage: small communities sustaining place based lifeways and intangible monastic heritage on behalf of a much larger public that values the experiential availability of monastic heritage yet engages with it only episodically. Although this form of heritage care is precarious due to intergenerational fragility and competing heritage frameworks, through everyday practices of cohabitation, hospitality, ritual activity, and caretaking, these communities are able to create relational heritage spaces that meaningfully connect monastic pasts with contemporary spiritual, ecological, and social concerns.
Biographies
Wouter Kock investigates how religious heritage continues to carry meaning in secularising contexts. Combining historical and ethnographic methods, he studies heritage interventions at religious sites and new communal initiatives in former monasteries, tracing how the intangible dimensions of religious heritage are marginalised, reinterpreted, or re‑invoked for wider publics.
Dr Jessie Garland
Trustee
Christchurch Archaeology Project
Developing community archaeology in Ōtautahi Christchurch
Summary Abstract
Archaeology is a valuable means of connecting people to place, building connection, and sharing knowledge about our past. By directly engaging with the community and enabling their participation in curating their own archaeological heritage we can further foster connection to people and place through an increasingly accessible material past. This paper shares results and lessons from community archaeological projects undertaken by the Christchurch Archaeological Project in Ōtautahi Christchurch over the last year, emphasising the tangible and intangible connections between people, place and the past alongside the practice and role of archaeology in the local community.
Biographies
Jessie is an archaeologist and material culture specialist with more than 15 years experience in Aotearoa New Zealand. Alongside research interests in the materiality of identity, urban development and global colonialism, she has a keen focus on realising the potential of archaeology as a community resource, particularly in Ōtautahi Christchurch.
Katharine is an archaeologist with over 20 years experience in the field. She currently runs Christchurch Archaeology Project, a not-for-profit established to save, share and preserve Ōtautahi Christchurch’s archaeology.
Jane is a public archaeologist, interested in how archaeology is applied, communicated and understood. She’s an experienced marketer of culture and heritage, an enthusiastic excavator, and holds Ōtautahi Christchurch close to her heart. She has an MA in Public Archaeology from University College London.
Hayden has been working as a heritage consultant for the last 20 years. He specialises in mining archaeology, pre-European New Zealand archaeology and buildings archaeology. In addition to being a trustee of Christchurch Archaeology Project, he owns and runs one of Aotearoa’s largest archaeological consultancies.
Mr Yiduo He
Doctoral Student
Harvard University
Cave Conservation in the Maya Region: The Case of Metzabok in Chiapas, Mexico
Summary Abstract
Maya caves are sacred entities to Indigenous peoples, yet issues ranging from generational gaps in ancestral knowledge to tourism increasingly threaten these heritage sites. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Lacandon Maya community in the town of Metzabok in Chiapas, Mexico, I argue that sustainable conservation cannot be mandated from above; it relies on the intrinsic motivation of the descendant community. I first examine the history of heritage conservation in the Lacandon Maya context, positing that active communal engagement is the most effective factor in successful conservation. I then propose a dual-approach model that combines physical and educational measures for caves that are no longer in active use but remain spiritually significant. I argue that ethical heritage practice demands shifting the role of researchers to relational partners. Tūhono in the Maya context means recognizing caves as active nodes in webs of significance connecting land, ancestors, and living communities.
Biographies
Yiduo He is a PhD student in Anthropology at Harvard University, specializing in Mesoamerican archaeology with a primary focus on the ancient Maya. His fieldwork experience includes archaeological and ethnographic research with the Indigenous Lacandon Maya community in Chiapas, Mexico, and archaeological survey at Teotihuacan in central Mexico.
Miss Wen-Yi Liu
Associate Researcher
Cultural Properties Research Center, China University Of Technology, Taipei City, Taiwan
Former Colonial Legacies in Religious Venues: exploring possible cultural integration and nuanced co-existence
Summary Abstract
This presentation examines two religious venues, Taoyuan Shinto Shrine and Hongmaogang Bao'an Temple, in Taiwan which show subtle co-existence of Taiwanese local beliefs and Japanese indigenous religion to investigate the possibilities of post-colonial cultural integration. With the past and influences of Japanese colonial period, the complex emotions of Taiwanese people, who were once colonized, towards the Japanese are to a certain extent reflected in such religious settings. The focuses will be examining what underlying factors result in the co-existence and how these continue to influence local communities. The preliminary observations illustrate that co-existence does not mean integration, and the ‘legacies’ are the elements that seem unnecessary to be eradicated.
Biographies
I am an Associate Researcher in Cultural Properties Research Centre in CUTe, Taiwan and in charge of a project concerning the impacts of climate change upon cultural heritage. I receive my PhD degree in Museum Studies, University of Leicester with concentrations on Sites of memory and relevant cultural phenomena.
