Peripheral Porosity: Cultural Landscapes of Indigenous Heritage Conservation

In 2007, the United Nations instated the Declaration of Rights for Indigenous Peoples, promoting an agenda of human rights. However, postulating the 'indigenous' evokes preservationist tactics, meriting value through classification and boundaries. Textual and spatial definitions assert control. This paper examines the foregrounded spatial divisions demarcated by the Declaration, questioning the ostensibly generous provisions that may inhibit, not enrich, the conservation of indigenous cultural heritage. The paper examines Bolivian legislation issued in direct response to the United Nations Declaration, asserting indigenous autonomy evoking distinctly rural spatial demarcations. This notably avoids predominant indigenous population living on periphery of urban centers as result of post-colonial migration. The paper posits that the ambiguous pen-urbanity is a 'border' as sociologist Richard Sennett explains as 'at once resistant and porous.' The paper argues that the level of porosity of peripheral settlements is essential for a dynamic cultural landscape; at once maintaining heritage ties to indigenous lands while engaging the urban center's labor force. This paper examines the definitions implicated by the Declaration. It analyzes definitions of people and space, and the subsequent lack of definition for social or spatial ambiguity 'between the lines' of these definitions. The paper acknowledges the ambiguous territory that resists definition and the beneficial affordances of undefined land. To end, the paper argues for new strategies to maintain and nurture cultural heritage. It distinguishes tactics of conservation from those of preservation strategies. Beyond a semantic difference, conservation engages sustained practices of indigenous cultural heritage amidst a dynamic urban ecology.