Heritage, Politics and Liminality: Culture and the Crisis of Authoritarian Transitions in Myanmar (Contemporary Liminality)

This book delivers a fresh approach to understanding cultural heritage amid an under-explored yet dynamic global force: the uncertainty of political transitionSince the turn of the 21st century, transition has defined geopolitics across the globe - from a sharp rise in hybrid authoritarian-democratic regimes and an unsettling shift toward post-truth politics to the accelerating threat of technological warfare.As the past is constantly renegotiated to suit the ever-changing needs of the present, cultural heritage emerges as both beacon and battleground.Employing the versatile concept of contemporary liminality from political anthropology, this book provides critical heritage studies with a novel approach to understanding the interplay between heritage and transition.It illuminates how different political groups use cultural heritage as a tool for navigating the uncertainty of transitional crisis in their quests to legitimise power or to resist it.Drawing on a synthesis of two centuries