VIRTUAL ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

This paper examines heritage conservation as a relational process of organizing in a protected area structured by socioecological disputes in the context of the Anthropocene. It focuses on Serra da Capivara National Park, in northeastern Brazil, a UNESCO World Heritage Site established in 1979 to preserve archaeological evidence of early human presence in South America. The creation of the park was accompanied by the displacement of local populations, generating enduring conflicts between conservation policies, territorial belonging, and ways of life. Drawing on interviews and document analysis, the study explores how organizing unfolds through situated knowledge, conservation practices, alternative forms of work, and continuously evolving attachments to the territory. Rather than treating heritage conservation as a stable and technocratic practice, the paper understands it as something continuously produced through everyday practices, disputes, and negotiations. It argues that conservation not only responds to these disputes but is produced through them, being shaped by power asymmetries and colonial legacies. At the same time, the study highlights relational forms of coexistence that challenge the nature–culture divide underpinning dominant preservation frameworks. The paper aims to contribute to interdisciplinary debates on heritage and conservation by advancing a relational understanding attentive to the entanglements among humans, non-humans, and place. It argues that heritage conservation in protected areas is not simply a matter of preserving the past, but an ongoing and contested process of organizing life, memory, and territory.