Contested narratives in the domain of world heritage

This chapter focuses primarily on how 'heritage' is interpreted by various social actors, either individually or collectively. It is indicated that what is 'natural' is contested, heritage is a performance, and debates occur as to what is genuine, authentic or fake. Memories, too, are selective: victors in power struggles ignore or downplay shameful historical episodes in favour of those that show them in a favourable light, and World Heritage status is usually accorded only to sites that have gone through a rigorous negotiation process to determine which of them is of universal value (and reflects most favourably on the dominant government and interest groups of the time).