The Heritage Given: Cultural Landscape and Heritage of the Vistula Delta Mennonites as Perceived by the Contemporary Residents of the Region

All tangible and intangible elements of cultural heritage that the past has conceded to local communities create unique landscapes shaped by tightly connected anthropogenic and natural factors. This heritage is a keystone of local identity which plays a significant role in politics, economic development, society and world view. In some regions, such as in the Vistula delta in Poland, the cultural heritage has been created by consecutive groups of settlers who represented different values, beliefs and ways of life. On the one hand, such a rich heritage may be perceived as a valuable asset and become a landmark or tourism product of a region. On the other hand, it may be perceived as alien and unwanted by contemporary residents, especially when they are not descendants of the former communities. The main objective of the study presented herein is to analyse how the residents of the Vistula delta region, called Żuławy Wiślane, perceive and use cultural heritage of the Mennonites, representing the most extraordinary group of settlers who used to live in the region. The analysis covers original data gathered during survey research in the period of 2017–2018 under the project Miniatura I “Perception and usage of cultural heritage of the Vistula delta Mennonites” financed by the National Science Centre in Poland.

Restoring Natural Forests as the Most Efficient Way to Water Quality and Abundance: Case Study from Želivka River Basin

This article shows how to restore Central European natural capital effectively. Water in the landscape is primarily sustained by vegetation and soil, most effectively by natural forests and only secondarily by artificial reservoirs. The authors document these facts using a case study from the Želivka River basin (Švihov reservoir), which collects surface water for the metropolitan region of Prague and Central Bohemia. With the Energy-Water-Vegetation Method, the authors demonstrate that the cultural human-changed landscape of the Želivka river basin is able to utilize only about 60% of its solar energy potential. In 1.5% of the territory of the Czech Republic, society annually loses supporting ecosystem services at a level higher than 25% of the annual GDP of the CR 2015. Water retention in the landscape needs to be re-evaluated and addressed in accordance with the thermodynamic principles of life and ecosystem functioning in the biosphere. It is necessary to begin restoring the most efficient natural capital in the landscapes and to return the broad-leaved deciduous forests by intelligent forestation methods to the cultural landscape to the extent justified; this is especially true of the Želivka River basin, which is Czechia’s biggest surface drinking-water collecting area.

Artificial Intelligence in the Protection and Inheritance of Cultural Landscape Heritage in Traditional Village

To continue to protect and inherit the cultural landscape heritage of traditional villages, starting from the perspective of artificial intelligence (AI), literature review methods are used, and related theories are collected. Then, Wuyuan County in Jiangxi Province in the traditional villages is taken as the research object. By analyzing the tourism income of this place from 2016 to 2020, the overall income of this county is relatively good. In fact, due to the weak protection of traditional villages in Wuyuan County, the lack of supervision awareness, the implementation of the “immigrant and relocation” policy, and the backward thinking of residents, the cultural landscape of traditional villages has collapsed and destroyed. Up to now, there are 113 ancient ancestral temples, 28 ancient mansion houses, 36 ancient private houses, 187 ancient bridges, and only 12 ancient villages. Finally, AI technology is applied to the cultural landscape of traditional villages. Through image restoration technology, traditional villages can be restored to a certain extent. Intelligent positioning and radio frequency (RF) technology can also realize real-time monitoring of traditional villages from the perspective of weather and service life to achieve the purpose of protecting cultural landscape heritage. Therefore, AI technology is applied in the protection and inheritance of traditional village cultural landscape heritage, which has great reference significance for the management of various historical and cultural heritage.

Challenges in the Valorization of the Funerary Heritage. Experiences in the Municipal Cemetery of Murcia (Spain)

The cemetery is a cultural landscape that represents themes of great relevance to interpret the structure of a society, roles, and hierarchies, as a reflection of its social life. The cemetery gathers a whole symbolic universe where local social histories are represented, beyond the history of art and the architectural aspect. As a heritage element, the cemetery shows us the socio-cultural changes of a territory: religious questioning, changes linked to the family, individualization of contemporary society or broader questions about socio-economic structure. This article presents the experience conducted during the last 6 years in the Cemetery “Nuestro Padre Jesús” in Murcia (Spain), through a collaboration among the Sociedad Murciana de Antropolgía (SOMA), the University of Murcia and the Municipality of Murcia, developing the project “Funerary Cultures”, whose main objective is to promote the heritage, cultural and historical values of the funerary culture. Specifically, as a result of this teaching innovation experience, the six thematic guides to visit the cemetery are presented as an experience of patrimonialization of elements of the cemetery and its consequent selection and consensus exercise to determine what was considered as heritage in the context of the cemetery. Finally, a proposal of a systematic process in the valuation and selection of the material objects in the cemetery is presented; this proposal allows us to establish a debate on what considerations to take into account when considering the relationship between cultural heritage and the cemetery as a cultural landscape in permanent transformation.

A Life Less than Ordinary: The Schooner Ocean (1821–1865)

The East Winner Bank Shipwreck takes its name from the southern sandbank on Hayling Island near Portsmouth, UK. Examination of the wreck indicates a 19th-century carvel-built vessel. The sandbank is an active environment, meaning the wreck is rarely exposed to its full extent. Discussed here is work completed on the site before and during the social-distancing restrictions imposed by COVID-19. Documentary sources and previous detailed surveys suggest a possible identification for the wreck. The site appears to be an example of an everyday 19th-century coastal trading vessel, rarely explored archaeologically in the UK, with potential to contribute to discussions of the maritime technologies and maritime cultural landscape of regular folk. The investigation represents an excellent example of combining historical and archaeological data sets to further the interpretation of both sources, revealing details about the ship and its lasting impact on this stretch of coastline.

Gender and Mindscapes of Patriarchy in Poverty Reduction

Is poverty gendered? Feminist theorists suggest that the experience of poverty by any woman is shaped not only by her gender but by ideologies and other systems of social stratification such as race, ethnicity, and class – and that these dimensions are not simply an additional facet of a woman's identity but do affect her gendered experience as well. The narratives examined in this chapter consist of symbolic patriarchy, inheritance laws, gender socialization, domestic division of labor, and certain accounts pertaining to widows and the subordination of women. A scan of the African cultural landscape revealed a profile of rural poverty that is unproportionate, unequal, and sometimes unfairly affects women more than men. Patriarchal and discriminatory practices are stubbornly unyielding in some rural areas and has inflicted a blow against women the most.

The Potential Role of Ecoacoustics in the Study of the Coffee Natural Landscape of Colombia

In 2011, the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia (CCLC) was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Several studies have been undertaken to increase its knowledge and promote its conservation and sustainable development; however, there still exists a gap between the knowledge of the visible features of this landscape and the audible ones, which are associated to anthropophonic, geophonic, and, mainly, to biophonic sound-emitting sources. The perception or recording of the audible features in a place has been recently termed as soundscape and is studied by a relatively novel discipline known as ecoacoustics. This chapter is, therefore, aimed to discuss the potential opportunities and challenges of applying ecoacoustic methods—particularly non-negative matrix factorization and acoustic indices—to enrich the study of the CCLC. Essential concepts for both the CCLC and ecoacoustics are also briefly explained, along with an outline of future work directions in short- and long-term perspectives.