The Nature of Heritage: The New South Africa is unique in revealing the conflicts inherent in preserving both natural and cultural heritage, by examining the archaeological, ethnographic and economic evidence of a nation's attempts to master its past and its future.

• Provides a classic example of how nations attempt to overcome a negative heritage through past mastering of their histories
• Evaluates the continuing dominance of nature and conservation over concerns for cultural heritage
• Employs ethnographic and archaeological methodologies to reveal how the past is processed into a new national heritage
• Identifies heritage as therapy, exemplified in the strategy for repairing legacies of racial and ethnic difference in post-apartheid South Africa
• Highlights the role of archaeological heritage sites, national parks and protected areas in economic development and social empowerment
• Explores how nature trumps culture and the global implications of the new configurations of heritage