This article examines the ways in which global heritage discourse has operated across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, from an ideological and historical perspective. Ideologically, I consider tensions between heritage preservation practice and religious traditions that share the same landscape or material culture. This discussion, which is relatively marginalized in the heritage literature, has an adverse effect on many attempts by heritage preservationists to mediate or resolve conflicts and contradictions surrounding this type of historic resource. Historically, I revisit the presence and inclusion of experts from the MENA region in the formative years of a global heritage ideology. In this discussion, I juxtapose the relative marginalization of the Middle East and North Africa in global heritage debates against the frequency with which sites and communities across this region are put in the spotlight of religion-driven heritage conflict. Addressing these two forms of (mis)representation, I aim to bring to the foreground the way in which heritage studies is implicated in the constructions of narratives about – not from or by – the MENA region.

中文翻译：

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宗教背景下的遗产保护。中东和北非 (MENA) 地区的纪律挑战

本文从意识形态和历史的角度审视了全球遗产话语在中东和北非 (MENA) 地区的运作方式。在意识形态上，我考虑了遗产保护实践与共享相同景观或物质文化的宗教传统之间的紧张关系。这种在遗产文献中相对边缘化的讨论对遗产保护主义者试图调解或解决围绕此类历史资源的冲突和矛盾的许多尝试产生了不利影响。从历史上看，我重新审视了中东和北非地区专家在全球遗产意识形态形成时期的存在和包容。在本次讨论中，我将中东和北非在全球遗产辩论中的相对边缘化与该地区的遗址和社区置于宗教驱动的遗产冲突聚光灯下的频率并列。针对这两种（错误）再现形式，我的目标是突出遗产研究与叙事建构的关联方式关于 -不是从要么经过 -中东和北非地区。