Representing spirit: Heathenry, new-indigenes and the imaged past

Abstract

Images of heritage surround us. Advertising utilises iconic stone circles (the ubiquitous Stonehenge), rock art and other well-known visual icons of ancient culture. Television archaeology imparts information on digs, finds and reports, while cinema offers Egyptian, South American and other exotic ancient cultures for consumption. These visual cultures are, of course, mediated re-presentations, not neutral, objective or impartial interpretations, be they museum dioramas, photographs, moving film reconstructions, CGI or VR (e.g. Moser 1998; Earl 2005; Gillings 2005). As a result of the dissemination of these re-presentations of the past in the present, many people associate themselves in diverse ways with past episodes, times, places and perceived 'ancestors'. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.