Collaborative Research: BCC: Developing a Research Community and Capacity for the Study of Cultural Heritage in Conflict

文化遗产是一个社会群体或地区文化和历史的物质表现形式，是人民认同感的重要组成部分。在国内冲突和民族主义者冲突期间蓄意破坏文化遗产是一种众所周知但很少被研究的现象，其目的往往是抹杀敌对社会或族裔群体的存在和历史。最近的此类破坏事件包括2001年拆除阿富汗巴米扬大佛、2006年轰炸伊拉克阿斯卡里清真寺以及2012年摧毁马里廷巴克图的苏菲派圣地。尽管关于冲突期间故意侵犯公民权利和政治权利的问题有相当多的学术研究，但普遍倾向于将对文化遗产的破坏视为不幸的附带后果，而不是蓄意的策略。因此，很少有研究探讨对文化遗产的破坏如何与种族或宗派暴力相联系。了解遗产破坏如何牵涉到这些冲突的轨迹中，将使美国政策制定者和其他在冲突地区工作的人道主义机构能够设计更有效的干预措施。这一跨学科项目将召集一个工作组，成员包括考古学、人类学和其他相关领域的专题专家；政治学、地理学和社会学的冲突研究专家；以及数据科学的方法论专家。在为期两年的时间里，这一研究界将制定共同的定义和编码标准，使今后能够开发记录和量化文化遗产破坏情况的大型数据集。为了便于进行这种比较研究，有必要制定方法，综合有关事件、具体地点、历史轨迹和社会条件的数据，这些事件、具体地点、历史轨迹和社会条件会引发破坏性暴力的急剧爆发，包括对文化遗产的破坏。将根据叙利亚目前的冲突进行概念验证案例研究，对拟议的编码标准进行评估。这一测试数据集的完成将确立对文化遗产破坏信息进行编码的最佳做法，以及关于宗派暴力和文化遗产破坏之间关系的个案研究。这项研究的结果以及对编码战略有效性和可靠性的评估将通过门户网站提供。

Cultural heritage represents the physical manifestation of the culture and history of a social group or region and forms a major component of a people's sense of identity. Intentional destruction of cultural heritage during intrastate and ethnonationalist conflict is a well-known but rarely studied phenomenon often designed to erase the presence and history of a rival social or ethnic group. Recent cases of such destruction include the 2001 demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, the 2006 bombing of the al-Askari Mosque in Iraq, and the 2012 destruction of Sufi shrines in Timbuktu, Mali. Despite considerable scholarship about purposeful violations of civil and political rights during conflict, there is a general tendency to view damage to cultural heritage as an unfortunate collateral outcome, rather than as a deliberate tactic. Consequently, few studies have examined how damage to cultural heritage sites is linked to ethnic or sectarian violence. Understanding how heritage destruction is implicated in the trajectory of these conflicts will enable U.S. policymakers and other humanitarian agencies working in conflict zones to design more effective interventions. This interdisciplinary project will convene a working group consisting of subject matter experts in archaeology, anthropology, and other allied fields; specialists in conflict studies from political science, geography, and sociology; and methodological experts from the data sciences. Over the course of a two-year period, this research community will develop common definitions and coding standards that will enable the future development of large-scale datasets documenting and quantifying the destruction of cultural heritage. In order to facilitate such a comparative study, there is a need to develop methods for integrating data about events, specific localities, historical trajectories, and social conditions that precipitate acute outbreaks of destructive violence, which includes damage to cultural heritage. The proposed coding standards will be evaluated with a proof-of-concept case study based upon the current conflict in Syria. The completion of this test dataset will establish best practices in coding cultural heritage destruction information as well as a case study on the relationship between sectarian violence and cultural heritage destruction. Findings of the study, as well as an assessment of the validity and reliability of the coding strategy will be made available through a web portal.