Contemporary societies often legitimize their place in the world on the basis of ancestral heritage. A culture's heritage can be recorded in objects created and/or constructed by predecessors. A widely accepted term used to describe these objects is 'material culture'. Material culture has been defined as any and all human-constructed or human mediated objects, forms or expressions, manifested consciously or unconsciously through culturally acquired behaviors. Extant ancient architectural structures are included in this definition.

Whether and how ancient architectural structures are cared for by present-day descendents reflect the complexity of issues surrounding the care and sustainability of material culture. These issues include the degree to which: (a) contemporary cultures value their heritage, (b) resources are available to maintain ancient structures and other items associated with cultural heritage, (c) stressors related to daily living of the cultural group, (d) use or misuse of newer technologies to preserve and/or maintain a culture's heritage. Disjuncture between/among these factors can threaten, even destroy a culture's heritage as preserved in it's ancient objects.

Present Post-Modern thinking values the past. For example, Post-Modern architects often appropriate parts of past structures in designing new buildings as a way to honor achievements of those who have gone before them. Post-Modernists also can use the past to discover whether present situations have roots in past predicaments, that is, result from misguided thinking of colonizing groups. Also of concern are situations where 'experts' use knowledge not to make life better, but to further disenfranchise cultural groups. In theory, Post-Modernists seek diversification of power enabling all stakeholders to have an equal voice. In practice however, power is often in the hands of a few stakeholders who often care little about a disenfranchised culture's ancestral records.