 |
Understanding Cultural Resources |   |
| Home | About | Other Writings | Understanding Cultural Resources | ||
        
|
This article was originally published in The Leelanau Enterprise on July 5, 2001. Understanding Cultural Resources Written by R. Mark Livengood, Director Leelanau Historical Society Within the last year, particularly in the past several months, a number of issues involving cultural resources in Leelanau County have come to the fore. The proposed land swap on South Fox Island, plans for county government facilities, long-range planning at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and farmland preservation efforts all entail cultural resources to some degree. But what are cultural resources and why are they important? This brief article outlines some key concepts that underlie these issues affecting the countyıs heritage. "Cultural resources" is a broad concept, a definition of which lies in its two components culture and resource. "Culture" in this instance refers to the traditions, beliefs, practices, language, artifacts, and social institutions of a community of people. In this sense, the concept of culture does not distinguish supposed levels of culture, that is "low," "popular," or "high." "Resource" implies something that people give particular significance, whether economic, political, historical, spiritual, or symbolic. Cultural resources reflect and, in turn, create, the knowledge and values of the people who make and/or use them; they are essential to understanding who we have been and who we are. Cultural resources take a variety of forms and may be prehistoric or contemporary. They include human social institutions, such as community choirs, and the built environment, such as a farmstead including a house, barn, outbuildings, orchards, fields, and windbreaks. Other examples are a lighthouse, a fishing shanty, a cemetery, or even a village main street, which may become the site of an annual parade expressing and creating a communityıs shared sense of identity. Indeed, a communityıs expressive traditions, such as a Fourth of July parade, polka festival, or black ash basket making tradition, are also considered cultural resources. The natural environment is at times a cultural resource when people use it in specific ways. A stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline, for example, may be the location of a traditional ceremony. And a patch of woods may hold plants used in local culinary and festive traditions or for medicinal purposes. In Leelanau County examples include morel mushrooms, and comfrey, a plant that can be used as a poultice. The significance of certain resources varies from community to community. The same resource that may hold considerable value to one group of people may mean relatively little to another group of people. Accordingly, cultural resources are best understood in context. The federal government has adopted a number of measures that recognize and safeguard the nationıs cultural resources, including the National Historic Preservation Act (1966), the National Environmental Policy Act (1969), and the American Folklife Preservation Act (1976). Two basic designations currently distinguish some cultural resources, primarily buildings and sites determined to have historical significance. One is the State Register of Historic Places, administered by the State Historic Preservation Office in Lansing. The other is the National Register of Historic Places, administered by the United States Department of the Interior. According to the State Historic Preservation Office, there are currently 31 properties in Leelanau County on the state and/or national registers (visit www.sos.state.mi.us/history/preserve/preserve.html). These properties include the old Leelanau County jail in Leland, listed on the state register in 1974; the Leland Historic District (Fishtown), listed on the state register in 1973 and the national register in 1975; and the Port Oneida Rural Historic District north of Glen Arbor, within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, listed on the national register in 1997. State and national register designations can enhance preservation efforts by bestowing credibility to a cultural resource and serving as obvious reminders of historical significance. Neither designation, however, guarantees protection of a site. "Cultural conservation" is a concept relevant to cultural resources. Cultural conservation entails working with a given community to identify, and often document, the range of cultural resources important to it, and using that knowledge to strengthen the community. Cultural conservation requires a holistic approach that explores how humans and the land are essentially interconnected. If farmland is endangered, so too is the culture of farming; to work at conserving the land is to work at conserving a way of life associated with the land. The Leelanau peninsula and its islands are places of unparalleled cultural resources farms, lighthouses, and a spectrum of traditional activities from hunting to maple syruping, fishing to chicken dinner fund-raisers. With its woods and water, orchards and open spaces, the peninsula and islands are also places of considerable natural resources. Together, these resources have defined, and will continue to define, the character of Leelanau County. | |||
