Culture Après le Déluge: Heritage Ecology after Disaster Benjamin Alan Morris Clare Hall 20 April 2010 & 20 July 2010 Department of Archaeology University of Cambridge This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text. It does not exceed the required word limit of 80,000 words specified by the Department of Archaeology. -2- Summary This PhD dissertation examines the relationships between cultural heritage and the environment, focusing specifically on the devastation and rebuilding of New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Departing from conventional approaches to the natural world (such as documentation- and conservation-based approaches), this thesis adopts a developmental-systems based approach to cultural heritage in order to construct a new way of interpreting it, within the specific context of natural disaster. This new approach, termed ‘heritage ecology’, reinterprets cultural heritage in two ways: first, as a physical assemblage of sites, materials, traditions, beliefs, and practices that are constructed in significant ways by their natural environments; and second, as a metaphorical ecosystem which impacts back on the assessment and construction of that natural environment in turn. In order to construct this approach, the thesis poses three interrelated questions: how is cultural heritage transformed as a result of disaster, how do societies rebuild their heritage after disaster, and how does heritage contribute to the rebuilding process? Examining a rebuilding process in real-time provides a unique window on these processes; events and developments in New Orleans taken from the first four years of recovery (2005-2009) suggest that prior understandings of how societies rebuild themselves after disaster have neglected crucial aspects of cultural heritage that are integral to that process. The examination of data from the case study—data of diverse forms, such as historiography, the culinary arts, music, the built environment, and memorial sites and landscapes—reveals the limitations of traditional approaches to heritage and prompts a reassessment of a range of issues central to heritage research, issues such as materiality, authenticity, and commodification. This study moreover incorporates into heritage research concepts previously unconsidered, such as infrastructure and policy. In the coming century of global climate change and increased environmental hazards, this last theme will become increasingly central to heritage policy and research; the dissertation concludes accordingly, with a reflection on contingency and future disaster. -3- Table of Contents Declaration ..........................................................................................................................................2 Summary ..............................................................................................................................................3 Table of Contents ..............................................................................................................................4 Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................................6 List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................................9 Chapter 1: Introduction and Dissertation Outline Prologue: The Silent Second-Line......................................................................................13 1.1: Introduction to the Argument.....................................................................................17 1.2: Heritage and the Environment: An Overview..........................................................19 1.3: Heritage Ecology: Foundations and Aims.................................................................27 1.4: Research Methodology.................................................................................................31 1.5: Chapter Outline.............................................................................................................36 Chapter 2: The Deaths and Lives of New Orleans, Louisiana 2.1: Introduction...................................................................................................................38 2.2: History and Historiography of New Orleans............................................................42 2.3: What We Talk About When We Talk About Culture .............................................46 2.4: Hurricane Katrina: Origins and Impact .....................................................................55 2.5: Transformations in Landscape....................................................................................56 2.5.1: X Marks the Spot..........................................................................................60 2.5.2: The Waterline................................................................................................61 2.5.3: Stairways to Nowhere..................................................................................65 2.5.4: Overgrowth...................................................................................................67 2.5.5: Debris.............................................................................................................69 2.5.6: The Fleur-de-lis.............................................................................................73 2.6: Renewing New Orleans................................................................................................74 Chapter 3: Katrina and the Culinary Arts Prologue: Tacos or Po-boys?..............................................................................................80 3.1: Foodways and Heritage................................................................................................83 3.2: New Orleans Cuisine, Past and Present.....................................................................84 3.3: Katrina’s Impacts on Culinary Industries ..................................................................88 3.3.1: Impacts on Restaurants...............................................................................90 3.3.2: Impacts on Recipes......................................................................................94 3.3.3: New Styles and Enterprises...................................................................... 100 3.4: Culinary Infrastructure............................................................................................... 105 3.4.1: Culinary Museums ..................................................................................... 105 3.4.2: Public Markets............................................................................................ 109 3.5: Ecologies of the Table............................................................................................... 114 Chapter 4: Katrina and the Musical Arts Prologue: The Locked Gate............................................................................................. 119 4.1: Music and Heritage.................................................................................................... 122 4.1.1: Material Culture......................................................................................... 123 4.1.2: Musical Infrastructure............................................................................... 125 4.1.3: Lives and Livelihoods ............................................................................... 126 4.2: Renewing Our Music................................................................................................. 130 4.2.1: Benefit Concerts and Compositions....................................................... 131 -4- 4.2.2: New Material Culture................................................................................ 133 4.2.3: Renewing Festivals.................................................................................... 139 4.3: Case Studies: Musical Heritage Under Threat........................................................ 144 4.3.1: The Scattered Tribes: Mardi Gras Indians............................................. 145 4.3.2: Neighbourhood Development: The Musicians’ Village ...................... 154 4.3.3: District-level Development: The Hyatt Jazz District........................... 160 4.4: Ecologies of Music..................................................................................................... 168 Chapter 5: Katrina and the Built Environment Prologue: The Latex House.............................................................................................. 172 5.1: New Orleans Architecture Past and Present.......................................................... 176 5.2: Blank Slates: Demolition vs. Reconstruction ......................................................... 182 5.3: What Is New Orleans? Individual Case Studies..................................................... 184 5.3.1: St. Francis of Cabrini Church .................................................................. 184 5.3.2: ICInola........................................................................................................ 187 5.3.3: Make It Right Foundation........................................................................ 193 5.4: Public Heritage...........................................................................................................