Transformation of American Southern Commemorative Landscapes

纪念性景观既反映了文化价值，又提供了维持和挑战这些价值的背景。景观可以被构建并被用来主动地记住或忘记某些身份、群体和历史，以便保持或有时挑战这些历史。南方种植园旅游通过探索纪念性景观来建立地方感和意义，在发展美国对种族的基本认识方面发挥了重要作用。南方纪念景观如何象征性地和实质性地展示了南方意味着什么，以及南方文化是如何被界定和辩论的，这些都是社会记忆和纪念景观科学研究中的关键问题。这项研究的目的是为以美国境内种族主义的南部纪念景观的改造为中心的理论做出贡献。具体地说，研究人员考察了将奴隶制纳入种植园景观的过程和政治，将其作为当代关于南方和美国遗产的意义和用途的斗争的象征。在这样的地点纳入关于奴隶制的批判性讨论不仅可以提高历史的准确性，而且对于理解美国当代的种族关系也是必要的。这项研究描述和解释了南方旅游种植园正在朝着将被奴役的历史融入该地区和国家的纪念景观的方向发展的方式和程度。这些问题对当代美国整个社会都很重要，对那些拥有、管理或参观这些旅游景点的人也特别感兴趣。传统上，旅游种植园支持白人特权的思想，并将奴隶从南方种植园的历史中抹去，但这些表述已经开始改变。这个框架引出了以下研究问题：(1)种植园的所有者/经营者在多大程度上以及如何将奴隶制纳入种植园的建成、叙事和表演景观中？(2)推动改变的动力是什么？将奴隶制纳入种植园的建成景观、叙事景观和表演景观的动力是什么？(3)游客对奴隶制的期望是什么，以及对将奴隶制排除或纳入作为种植园建成景观、叙事景观和表演景观的一部分的反应是什么？(4)奴隶制是如何纳入建成的、叙事的和表演的景观中的？以及种植园的表演性景观随着时间的推移而发生变化？(5)讲解员如何接受、抵制和体现将奴隶制纳入种植园建成的、叙事的和表演的景观？(6)游客对奴隶制作为种植园建成的、叙事的和表演的景观的一部分的前后概念是什么？该项目通过在多个种植园地点和类型进行实地调查，以及检查多个利益相关者(例如，所有者/经营者、讲解员和游客)，在文献中开辟了新的领域。这项研究通过在每个地区的多个研究地点比较了三个主要的种植区。在每个地点，研究人员采用混合方法，包括准实验设计，采访种植园所有者/经营者、参与种植园之旅的观察员、采访讲解员以及对游客的调查和采访。

Commemorative landscapes both reflect cultural values and provide a context to sustain and challenge those values. Landscapes can be constructed and used to actively remember or forget certain identities, groups, and histories in order to maintain or sometimes challenge those histories. Southern plantation tourism plays an important role in developing basic understanding of race in the United States by establishing a sense of place and meaning through the exploration of commemorative landscapes. How southern commemorative landscapes provide symbolic and substantive representations of what it means to be southern and how southern culture is defined and debated form key questions in the scientific study of social memory and commemorative landscapes. The objective of this research is to contribute to theory centered on the transformation of racialized southern commemorative landscapes within the United States. Specifically, the researchers examine the processes and politics of incorporating slavery into plantation landscapes as sites symbolic of contemporary struggles over the meanings and uses of southern and American heritage. Incorporating critical discussions of slavery at such sites not only enhances historical accuracy, but is also necessary to understand contemporary race relations in the United States. This research describes and explains the manner and extent to which southern tourist plantations are moving toward an incorporation of the history of the enslaved into the commemorative landscape of the region and nation. These issues are of importance to contemporary American society as a whole, and of specific interest to those who own, manage, or visit these tourist sites. Traditionally, tourism plantations have given authority to the idea of white privilege and the erasure of the enslaved from southern plantation history, but these representations have begun to change. This framework drives the following research questions: (1) To what extent and how are owners/operators of plantations incorporating slavery into the built, narrative, and performative landscapes at plantations? (2) What were/are the impetuses for change, towards an inclusion of slavery into the built, narrative, and performative landscapes of plantations? (3) What are the tourists' expectations regarding slavery and reactions to the exclusion or inclusion of slavery as part of the built, narrative, and performative landscapes of plantations? (4) How is the incorporation of slavery into the built, narrative, and performative landscapes perceived changing over time at plantations? (5) How do docents embrace, resist and embody the inclusion of slavery into the built, narrative, and performative landscapes of plantations? (6) What are the tourists' pre- and post-conceptions of slavery as part of the built, narrative, and performative landscapes at plantations? The project breaks new ground in the literature by conducting fieldwork at multiple plantation sites and types, as well as examining multiple stakeholders (e.g., owners/operators, docents, and tourists). The study compares three prominent plantation regions through multiple study sites in each region. At each site, the researchers apply a mixed methods approach, including a quasi-experimental design, to interview plantation owner/operators, participant observers of plantation tours, interview docents, and surveys and interviews of tourists.