
Heritage, Power, and Liminality
Culture and the Crisis of Authoritarian Transitions in Myanmar
Alicia Stevens(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 12. June 2026
Book
Hardback
282 pages
978-1-032-95122-5 (ISBN)
Description
This book delivers a fresh approach to understanding cultural heritage amid an under-explored yet dynamic global force: the uncertainty of political transition.
Since the turn of the 21st century, transition has defined geopolitics across the globe - from a sharp rise in hybrid authoritarian-democratic regimes and an unsettling shift toward post-truth politics to the accelerating threat of technological warfare. As the past is constantly renegotiated to suit the ever-changing needs of the present, cultural heritage emerges as both beacon and battleground. Employing the versatile concept of contemporary liminality from political anthropology, this book provides critical heritage studies with a novel approach to understanding the interplay between heritage and transition. It illuminates how different political groups use cultural heritage as a tool for navigating the uncertainty of transitional crisis in their quests to legitimise power or to resist it. Drawing on a synthesis of two centuries of political transitions in Myanmar and interviews with military officials, pro-democracy leaders, cultural experts, and everyday people, an innovative critique which ventures into the backstage spaces of cultural production emerges.
The book makes a unique contribution by theorising a modality of 'liminal heritage', cultural expression that takes on qualities of its transitional-liminal context, such as absurdity, ambiguity, imitation, violence, and inversion, particularly potent in authoritarian contexts. It will appeal to scholars and researchers with interests in sociology, political anthropology, heritage studies, museum studies, and Asian studies.
Since the turn of the 21st century, transition has defined geopolitics across the globe - from a sharp rise in hybrid authoritarian-democratic regimes and an unsettling shift toward post-truth politics to the accelerating threat of technological warfare. As the past is constantly renegotiated to suit the ever-changing needs of the present, cultural heritage emerges as both beacon and battleground. Employing the versatile concept of contemporary liminality from political anthropology, this book provides critical heritage studies with a novel approach to understanding the interplay between heritage and transition. It illuminates how different political groups use cultural heritage as a tool for navigating the uncertainty of transitional crisis in their quests to legitimise power or to resist it. Drawing on a synthesis of two centuries of political transitions in Myanmar and interviews with military officials, pro-democracy leaders, cultural experts, and everyday people, an innovative critique which ventures into the backstage spaces of cultural production emerges.
The book makes a unique contribution by theorising a modality of 'liminal heritage', cultural expression that takes on qualities of its transitional-liminal context, such as absurdity, ambiguity, imitation, violence, and inversion, particularly potent in authoritarian contexts. It will appeal to scholars and researchers with interests in sociology, political anthropology, heritage studies, museum studies, and Asian studies.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Academic and Postgraduate
Illustrations
3 s/w Tabellen, 11 s/w Zeichnungen, 29 Farbfotos bzw. farbige Rasterbilder, 42 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder, 29 farbige Abbildungen, 53 s/w Abbildungen
3 Tables, black and white; 11 Line drawings, black and white; 29 Halftones, color; 42 Halftones, black and white; 29 Illustrations, color; 53 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-032-95122-5 (9781032951225)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Alicia Stevens
Heritage, Power, and Liminality
Culture and the Crisis of Authoritarian Transitions in Myanmar
E-Book
approx. 06/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download

Alicia Stevens
Heritage, Power, and Liminality
Culture and the Crisis of Authoritarian Transitions in Myanmar
E-Book
approx. 06/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download
Person
Alicia Stevens coordinates the Heritage, Memory, and Identity Pillar for MIT's Global Humanities Initiative. She is a Gates Cambridge Scholar with PhD and MPhil from the University of Cambridge (Dept of Archaeology), a postdoctoral member of the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Two decades of international museum work for the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History also inform her research.
Content
1. Heritage, Power, and Liminality 2. Rethinking Heritage Theory with Political Anthropology 3. Two Centuries of Heritage and Transition in Myanmar 4. Political Uses of Sacred Heritage at Shwedagon and Uppatasanti Pagodas 5. Fractured Memoryscape of the Rangoon Secretariat 6. Trickster Makes a Democracy Museum 7. Crucial Schism 8. Liminal Heritage 9. The Global Meantime