Decolonising a Profession: Built Heritage Conservation and Management in Post-Colonial Egypt

在许多前殖民国家，独立之旅以不同的方式实现，包括“独立的工业化、文化复兴、政治自决或资产国有化”(Salem，2019)。然而，尽管作出了这些努力，殖民主义的后果始终存在(赛义德，1994年)。因此，非殖民化不应被视为一个“历史时代”，而应被视为一个复杂的多方面过程，“其表现形式虽然植根于战后时代，但在重大方面超越了它”(Schayegh&Di-Capua，2020)。在此背景下，这项研究提出了殖民主义对后殖民背景下遗产保护的持续影响的问题，重点是埃及。通过后殖民研究的视角，它将解决三个主要问题：谁负责殖民时期埃及的遗产保护？那么什么被认为是‘遗产’呢？建筑文物的保护和管理是如何进行的？在后殖民时代的埃及，影响遗产实践的因素是什么？这些做法是如何受到后殖民政治和政策的影响的？殖民遗产如何在后殖民背景下的建筑遗产保护和管理中得到解决？在20世纪50年代完全独立之前，埃及的遗产论述和做法一直由殖民和外国精英主导，他们关于遗产的概念和做法往往与当地背景不相容(Elhabashi，2001)。尽管进行了非殖民化努力，但许多源自殖民时代、以西方为基础的过时观念和做法至今仍在继续。这可以归因于几个因素，包括：在后殖民背景下认为西方是现代的同义词(沃达，2019年)，独立后，埃及继承了殖民机构及其做法(赫尔字体，2015年)--在这种情况下，L的阿拉伯艺术古迹保护委员会和S古迹古迹服务机构(法赫米，2016年)与教科文组织、国际文化财产保护与修复研究中心和国际古迹遗址理事会等组织一起实现了遗产全球化，尽管做出了相反的努力，但这些组织进一步强化了西方的遗产观念，无视当地背景和传统知识体系(Ndoro&Wijesuriya，关于阿拉伯地区遗产的定义和保护的“认识论和理论领域的稀少接触”(Daher，2021年)今天，这可以从僵化的自上而下的‘纪念性’方法中观察到，该方法将已建成的遗产视为与周围的结构和社区隔绝的人工制品，无视无形的方面，并加强了“历史城市居民的东方主义代表”(Moustafa&Said，2020)。其结果是使活的遗产成为博物馆，比其他遗产类型更能欣赏“古代”遗产(Daher，2021)，以及遗产保护和城市发展之间的紧张关系(Ndoro&Wijesuriya，2015)。尽管学术界对遗产、保护和非殖民化越来越感兴趣，但对于这些领域之间的相互作用，历史上的理解仍然不足。最近的学术研究集中在战后和战后时期，但后帝国时代需要进一步的研究(Carruthers，2019)。埃及的情况肯定就是这样，以前的研究都集中在殖民时代。然而，当涉及到独立后的遗产做法时，仍然存在差距。通过解决这一差距，这项研究将有助于解决非殖民化和遗产之间的纠葛。这是一个及时的调查领域，因为它解决了后殖民背景下困扰建筑遗产的许多问题的根源。它还建立在最近关于埃及学殖民遗产的论述的基础上。然而，这些活动主要集中在考古和博物馆实践上，尚未扩展到建筑遗产。

Across many formerly-colonised countries, the journey towards independence materialized in different ways including "independent industrialisation, cultural renewal, political self-determination, or the nationalisation of assets" (Salem, 2019). However, despite these efforts, the consequences of colonialism are ever-present (Said, 1994). Therefore, decolonisation should not be approached as a 'historical era,' but as a complex multifaceted process "whose manifestations, while anchored in the post-war era, transcend it in significant ways" (Schayegh & Di-Capua, 2020). In this context, this research problematizes the continuing impact of colonialism on heritage conservation in post-colonial contexts, focusing on Egypt. Through the lens of post-colonial studies, it will address three main lines of inquiry: Who was responsible for heritage conservation in colonial Egypt? What was considered 'heritage' then? How was built heritage conservation and management approached? What are the factors that shaped heritage practices in post-colonial Egypt? How are these practices affected by post-colonial politics and policies? How can colonial legacies be addressed within built heritage conservation and management in post-colonial contexts? Until full independence in the 1950s, Egyptian heritage discourses and practices were dominated by colonial and foreign elites, whose notions and practices of heritage were often incompatible with the local context (Elhabashi, 2001). Despite decolonization efforts, many of these outdated western-based notions and practices which originated in colonial times have continued to this day. This can be due to several factors including: the perception in post-colonial contexts that Western is synonymous with Modern (Vawda, 2019) that post-independence, Egypt inherited colonial institutions along with their practices (Helfont, 2015)- in this case the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l'Art Arabe and the Service des Antiquités (Fahmy, 2016) The Globalisation of heritage with organisations such as UNESCO, ICCROM, and ICOMOS which, despite efforts to the contrary, further strengthened western ideas of heritage and disregarded local contexts and traditional knowledge systems (Ndoro & Wijesuriya, 2015) The "scarce engagement with epistemological and theoretical spheres" addressing the definition and conservation of heritage in the Arab region (Daher, 2021) Today, this can be observed in the rigid top-down 'monumentalist' approach which treats built heritage as artefacts isolated from the surrounding fabric and communities, disregards intangible aspects, and reinforces an "orientalist-like representation of historic city inhabitants" (Moustafa & Said, 2020). The result is a museumification of living heritage, the appreciation of 'ancient' heritage over other heritage types (Daher, 2021), and an uneasy relationship between heritage conservation and urban development (Ndoro & Wijesuriya, 2015). Despite increasing scholarly interest in heritage, conservation and decolonisation, historical understanding of the interplay between these fields is still lacking. Recent scholarship has focused on inter- and post-war periods but the post-imperial era requires further research (Carruthers, 2019). This is certainly the case in Egypt where previous research has focused on the colonial era. However, there remains a disparity when it comes to post-independence heritage practices. By addressing this gap, the research will contribute to the area of entanglement between decolonisation and heritage. This constitutes a timely area of inquiry as it addresses the root causes of many issues plaguing built heritage in postcolonial contexts. It also builds on recent discourses on the colonial legacies of Egyptology. However, these have mainly focused on archaeological and museum practices, and have not yet been extended to built heritage.