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Western Model Of Development Essay

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The quiet deepens, and, in the way of a transient epoch—it passes. This thesis will place the western model in a focal position and explore its condition as it is made evident in the world heritage site of the Borobudur located in Central Java, Indonesia. It will furthermore contrast the monument-centric values of western heritage management with the cultural landscape as imagined in the JICA Plan, and delve into the colonialist past to trace the evolution and translation of imperialism into a modern archaeological discipline and context. Complex societies breathe complex histories. The model of western linear development is, in the characterisation of South-East Asian cultures, a blueprint derived from colonialist legacies. Remnants of a former society are viewed as a physical expression of their complexity, with the objective of placing them alongside the western model of development. Thus, assumptions are made regarding a society’s evolution in relation to this scale of cultural continuity. Central to the notion of a ‘western’ model of heritage management is the multiple interpretations of history shared between indigenous culture and imperialist structures. It is a history that only hints of its presence, manifesting itself in the romantic Orientalist nostalgia which tints contemporary archaeological discourse and permeates throughout popular consciousness. Nevertheless, it is a history born in a British and Dutch colonial Java and its existence continued in the

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