The "Second Heritage Conference," organized by the Sharjah Institute for Heritage has issued several scientific and cultural recommendations to enhance studies on travel literature and representations of the "other" in popular heritage.
The conference held under the theme "Popular Heritage Through the Eyes of Others" took place at the Arab Heritage Center in the university city of Sharjah, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported Saturday.
Participants urged a reevaluation of the writings of travelers and Orientalists using contemporary scientific criticism methodologies, WAM said.
They advocated for analytical comparisons between groups of travelers from various geographical regions and similar time periods to derive a more realistic portrayal and compare it with available local studies, it added.
According to WAM, the attendees stressed the need to establish practical laboratories for translating Western research and studies on travel literature and forming scientific committees to review untranslated travel accounts, particularly Russian works.
Among the recommendations was the proposal to extend the conference from two to three days and to publish the presented research in a scientific book.
They also suggested creating an online library featuring works of travelers and Orientalists, along with a specialized database for researchers and translators in this field.
The recommendations further called for stimulating critical studies addressing representations of the "other" in popular heritage through various approaches, including anthropology, semiotics, narratives, and post-colonial studies.
Additionally, they highlighted the need to examine the interaction between oral and narrative cultures as described by travelers, questioning the ideological and epistemological backgrounds that shaped their representations and deconstructing the positions of self and other in their writings.
"The recommendations from the Second Heritage Conference embody our vision at the Sharjah Institute for Heritage, which aims to establish awareness of the importance of reading popular heritage from multiple perspectives, especially through the writings of travelers and Orientalists,” said Chairman of the Sharjah Institute for Heritage Dr. Abdulaziz Al Musallam.
“Through this conference, we sought to initiate a critical intellectual dialogue with these records, opening new horizons for understanding the self and the other, and enhancing the presence of our heritage in the global cultural sphere with a scientific spirit and objective approach,” he added.
