Reimagined Community in London: The transmission of food as heritage in the Afghan Diaspora

This chapter focuses on an applied thematic analysis of the continuity and change of foodstuffs and food practices, their transmission within and beyond the domestic unit, and their role in the formation of identity within the Afghan diaspora. These themes capture how Afghan food in London represents true diasporic memory. The history of Afghanistan and migration to the UK are testimonies to the varied lived experiences of refugees in London. The chapter argues that the re-imagining of an ‘Afghan’ collective memory and community in diaspora can only be understood if place is taken to be in flux: the process of migration itself. The first theme of the applied thematic analysis pertains to the food and foodways that have been maintained since leaving Afghanistan. Examining the transmission of Afghan food practices is crucial for ascertaining how the means of transmission and its recipients have changed over time to create a creolized, reimagined Afghan cuisine in diaspora

Safeguarding Indigenous Heritage in the Anthropocene: A Transnational Comparative Study of the Northwest Territories, Canada, and Northern Chile

Climate change has been widely recognised as one of the most urgent and growing threats to natural and cultural heritage in the twenty-first century, and the indelible impact of humanity has led to the definition of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by natural and human-induced changes to the environment. Their vulnerability is exacerbated by centuries of cultural and territorial disenfranchisement within settler-colonial nations. This dissertation aims at understanding Indigenous perceptions of heritage in the face of climate change and its intersection with the impacts of settler- colonialism. It analyses how these on-the-ground perceptions can, in turn, inform heritage organisations and contribute to safeguarding the many facets of tangible and intangible Indigenous heritage for future generations in the Anthropocene. This is accomplished through a comparative, transnational case study of two communities each from the Dehcho First Nations in the Northwest Territories, Canada, and the Aymara and Quechua peoples in northern Chile. I use a multi-method approach consisting of semi-structured interviews, oral histories and participant observation. The data is complemented by environmental and heritage legislation and grey literature at multiple organisational scales for both case studies. Three lines of enquiry are explored through an applied comparative thematic analysis: i) the perceptions of climate change and associated land loss/change among Indigenous groups and how this impacts each group’s notions of challenges to its cultural identity; ii) the intersection of the effects of post- colonialism, ongoing industrial activities and climate change on the intergenerational transmission of ancestral knowledge and notions of place attachment; and iii) how international, national and regional political and sociocultural rhetoric on environmental and heritage conservation affect local, grassroots considerations for safeguarding heritage. The similarities and contrasts of the Dehcho First Nations, Aymara and Quechua experiences of climate change across the North-South divide are related from the grassroots to arrive at redefining heritage practices in the Anthropocene. The results demonstrate that decolonising heritage is not only necessary, but that this decolonisation depends on building and actively engaging in intercultural empathy through the global threat of climate change. In order to understand how Indigenous practices, places, and items are valorised—attributed value—as heritage in the face of climate change, one must empathise with the cultural loss that exists in the temporal and cognitive spaces between Indigenous individuals’ moments of nostalgic reference and today.Gurnee Hart Scholarship, Jesus College, Cambridge; PIA-CONICYT (under grant Anillo SOC 1405); The Santander Mobility Grant, the Simon Bolivar Fund; the Dorothy Garrod Memorial Trust; the Jesus College Graduate Research Fund; the University of Cambridge Fieldwork Fund; the Anthony Wilkin Fun