Historic Preservation Terminal Projects

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Browsing Historic Preservation Terminal Projects by Subject "cultural resource management"

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    Preservation Perspectives: Cultural Resource Meaning, Memory, and Management at Casa Grande Ruins and Hohokam Pima National Monuments, Arizona
    (University of Oregon, 2024) Beesley, Caitlin R.
    Managing cultural resources in our modern world can be a delicate balance, where cultural resource managers bridge the past and the future amid the omnipresent atmosphere of contemporary financial, societal, and political pressure. Adding to this pressure is a demand from professionals or the public for unfettered access to tangible resources. Preservationists generally view tangible resources, the physical pieces of history, as the best way to interpret cultural and historical significance to an unfamiliar audience, who aren’t always able to grasp the intangible value of these resources—non-material experiences or traditions—absent a physical object to envelope them. The methods with which CR managers preserve and display tangible pieces of history is informed by their cultural perspectives; these methods say as much about how managers define cultural resources as it does the role of preservation in cultural heritage. This paper will explore cultural resource management using two sites to discuss larger themes of cultural resource definition and value. The sites in question: Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, managed by the National Park Service (NPS), and Hohokam Pima National Monument, overseen by the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC). Both preserve landscapes and infrastructure from a period of civilization in the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona known as Hohokam Culture. Each agency approaches management and preservation from different perspectives, leading to the paper’s general question: What can the different preservation efforts at Casa Grande Ruins and Hohokam Pima National Monuments tell us about cultural resource management?