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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Gestures of Compensation: Post-Apartheid Monuments and Memorials |
Author: | Marschall, Sabine |
Year: | 2004 |
Periodical: | Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa |
Issue: | 55 |
Pages: | 78-95 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | monuments cultural heritage History and Exploration Ethnic and Race Relations Politics and Government |
External link: | https://muse.jhu.edu/article/181235 |
Abstract: | With the advent of the postapartheid era in South Africa, the heritage sector has been flourishing. New museums have been built, new heritage sites, commemorative monuments, memorials, statues and busts have been set up throughout the country. Drawing on human needs theory, the author considers such sites as symbolic gestures that fulfil basic emotional human needs. She presents new monuments and heritage sites as gestures of compensation. This applies on two levels: first, the declaration of a site as a heritage site and erection of a monument are intended as a symbolic reparation to victims and their descendants, often compensating for the lack of 'real' reparations (i.e. monetary payments). Secondly, the establishment of monuments contributes to the construction of a 'desired past' and the foregrounding of specific memories, as a means of compensating for potential shortcomings and errors that taint the 'real past'. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |