Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

Anthropology

Major Professor

Rebecca K. Zarger, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Antoinette Jackson, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Winston Phulgence, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Dillion Mahoney, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Alissandra Cummins, GCM, FMA

Committee Member

John Morris, Ph.D.

Keywords

Caribbean, Museology, Cultural Heritage, Community-based, Governance, Grassroots, Ethnography, Intangible Heritage, Post-Colonial, Kriol, Garifuna

Abstract

This dissertation examines how heritage governance in Belize shapes the representation, recognition, and participation of Afro-descendant communities within national cultural institutions and policy frameworks. Focusing on Creole/Kriol and Garifuna communities, the study analyses how law, institutional designs, museum practises, tourism development, and community-based heritage work to produce uneven forms of cultural visibility. I argue that Afro-descendant communities are not absent from Belizean heritage. Rather, their cultural presence has not consistently translated into institutional authority, sustained investments, or meaningful participation in decisions about national representation. Drawing on critical heritage theory, critical museology, post-colonial scholarship, and the concept of authorised heritage discourse, this research employs an applied anthropological mixed-method design. These methods include archival and policy analysis, semi-structured interviews with cultural practitioners and state officials, participant observation, online ethnography, and a national survey of 653 Belizean respondents. The findings demonstrate that Belize’s heritage system has expanded in scope without sufficiently redistributing cultural authority. The removal of the General Assembly from the National Institute of Culture and History’s governance structure, repeated ministerial shifts, funding asymmetries, limited public awareness of the country’s cultural policy, and tourism-facing investment priorities have reinforced a centralised model of heritage management. At the same time, community museums, Belizean Houses of Culture, social media debates, foodways, language, music, and ritual practises reveal active forms of heritage-making from below. This dissertation contributes to anthropology, heritage studies, and museum studies by demonstrating how governance structures produce representational outcomes. It also advances an applied framework for a National Museum System in Belize, grounded in distributed authority, collections care, community co-curation, intangible heritage safeguarding, and cultural rights. Ultimately, this study argues that heritage equity requires more than visibility. It requires institutions capable of sharing authority with the communities whose histories and cultural practises they claim to represent.

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