Crimes against cultures: how local practices of regulation shape archaeological landscapes in Trowulan, East Java

Abstract

This chapter applies Jacoby’s ideas about the moral ecologies of resident relationships with their environment to the relationships of residents of Trowulan in East Java, Indonesia with Majapahit artefacts and sites. We augment moral ecologies with Tim Ingold’s concept of meshwork, and argue that heritage should be theorized as movement in configuration with environments in order to challenge hierarchies that privilege state and expert regulation, and often ignore or disparage residents’ regulation of artefacts and sites. Attention to the moral ecologies of heritage: reveals the sets of relations that generate the production and care for these objects; and documents the power of these relationships to transform colonial and postcolonial relations into creative and fulfilling livelihoods.