A Better Past Through Technology: World War II Aircraft as a Form of Cultural Heritage
Richard Handler
Department of Anthropology
Drawing on research into the cultural construction of technology and research on the objectification of culture in heritage movements, this project examines the “industrial romanticism” which underlies the restoration of World War II airplanes, known as warbirds. Industrial romanticism is seen as a contrast to traditional, pastoral romanticism that characterizes most heritage movements. Through an ethnographic investigation of warbird groups and airshows, this project examines the apparent inversion of anti-modernist view of technology they represent. This project therefore sheds light on this new form of romanticism by examining the remaking or reinvention of an obsolete technology as an objectification of the past. Ethnographic research will be conducted in mostly Southern California, in the maintenance hangars of warbird groups, in the workshops of warbird restorers, at warbird museums, and at airshows. In addition to participant observation in these sites, the researcher interviews private owners of warbirds and other types of people involved in warbirds outside of the main research sites.
More information at www.virginia.edu
Project Sponsored By: U.S. Nsf - Directorate Soc., Behav. & Eco. Science
Start Date: 8/1/2001
- End Date: 7/31/2002
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