Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T19:32:45.204Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - The Social Life of Heritage-Making: Cultural Representations and Frictions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2020

Get access

Summary

Abstract

This chapter adopts an anthropological perspective to explore the role played by institutions in the social and historical construction of heritage. Since member states ratified the UNESCO Conventions, national inventories have been collated so that candidacies can be submitted to international lists for recognition and, in turn, return the benefits of this cultural showcase to the nation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in China and Switzerland, this chapter focuses on the logic underlying processes of selection, which involves both political and administrative bodies. How cultural heritage is interpreted by various stakeholders will be outlined, along with an analysis of practices and narratives that almost inevitably produces friction. The case studies presented here highlight the complexity of cultural meanings and frictions among stakeholders at all levels who claim their ‘rights to cultural heritage’.

Keywords: anthropology, state regime, heritage-making, identity, Miaofengshan, Gulou

Introduction

This chapter will discuss various interpretations of stakeholders involved in the heritage-making processes. Its purpose is to explore the social and historic construction of heritage and the role played in this by institutions, from an anthropological perspective. Nations have long undertaken the process of heritage-making but, since they ratified the UNESCO Conventions, this has taken on a new dimension. National inventories have been collated so that candidacies can be submitted to international lists and, in turn, the benefits of this cultural showcase return to the nation. This chapter takes a comparative perspective, looking at China and Switzerland. It also focuses on the logic underlying processes of selection, which involves both political and administrative bodies. The evaluation of how cultural heritage acts, and is interpreted by various stakeholders, is based on ethnographic fieldwork, which will be outlined along with an analysis of which practices and narratives almost inevitably produce friction. The case studies presented highlight the complexity of cultural meanings and frictions among multilayered stakeholders who claim their ‘rights to cultural heritage’ and, in doing so, challenge the norms and values that it carries which, they feel, must be transmitted to the next generation.

When I arrived at Peking University in 1995 and began fieldwork in a small neighbourhood between Beida and Tsinghua, the notion of heritage principally referred to the past built environment (beautiful historic buildings of classical/imperial China), which contrasted sharply with ordinary mixed habitations from the Mao era (dazayuan) in very bad conditions.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Heritage Turn in China
The Reinvention, Dissemination and Consumption of Heritage
, pp. 39 - 68
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×