TRASHËGIMIA MIDIS EKONOMISË DHE POLITIKËS
HERITAGE BETWEEN ECONOMY AND POLITICS AN ASSESSMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Summary/Abstract: Heritage allows close observation of the dynamic between economy and politics, with a focus on ‘culture’ as an economic good. The process of heritage nomination openly declares this good independent of both spheres; hence, it contributes to intensive discussions between opponents, users and mediators active in the discourses before and after the nomination. However, heritagisation also represents cultural practices that point to other research topics. I look at two examples: mechanisms of social control on the local, regional or even global level, and competition as a regime permeating all spheres of life. Finally, cultural anthropology has acquired a deep awareness of the interdependence of cultural scholarship, nationbuilding, and the processes of cultivating symbolic cultural capital. Thereby ethnographic work has acquired a reflexivity, disciplinary modesty and diplomacy which will be almost indispensable in taking on heritagisation as a cultural practice – even more so with intangible manifestations, given their naturally more vague contours requiring of actors far more determination in making their case. At the same time, interdisciplinary cooperation remains equally vital for cultural anthropology, for declaring one bit of culture to be heritage opens economic and legal dimensions. Here I present questions and potential lines of inquiry to address these dimensions, based on empirical research with heritage practices in late modern lifeworlds.

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