New Politics of Heritage Reconstruction in Afghanistan

<p><i>A New Politics of Heritage Reconstruction in Afghanistan</i> investigates the politics of cultural heritage preservation in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2015.</p><p>Based on several periods of ethnographic fieldwork and the author’s direct employment on several internationally-sponsored heritage projects this book studies the new and complex intersections between cultural heritage and politics in Afghanistan. Wyndham argues that a particular configuration of heritage and politics has emerged after the destruction of the Buddhas at Bamyan and demonstrates how the characteristics of this ‘post-Bamyan’ heritage paradigm are revealed through a number of case studies of internationally sponsored heritage work. These case studies reveal how politics and heritage are currently configured across a diverse range of governments state and non-state actors NGOs individuals and forms of expertise—and why such intersections matter. The book responds to a call from across the discipline of Heritage Studies to look more closely at the relationships between heritage power and politics.</p><p><i>A New Politics of Heritage Reconstruction in Afghanistan</i> provides a fascinating case study on the intersection of heritage and politics that will be of interest to students and scholars of heritage as well as to professionals working on heritage preservation - both within and outside of government.</p>