A kulturális örökség és a történettudomány viszonyának meghatározása
Defining the Relationship between Cultural Heritage and Historical Studies

Summary/Abstract: The definition of cultural heritage and historical studies is of fundamental importance, especially after the significant degree of institutionalization of the former in recent decades, which has encroached not only upon historical studies, but upon the interpretive and research fields of all humanities and social sciences. This intervention does not take place along the traditional development curve of the formation of new disciplines, as was the case in previous crises in historiography – instead of manifesting as an academic paradigm shift, it is a response to current political and social needs. In order to create a manage- able framework to study the history of heritage, the paper first draws up three regimes which, rather than following one another sequentially, were integrated into one another during the twentieth century, resulting in today’s complex dis- course of cultural heritage. Applying fuzzy logic in this case is a new approach to grasp the disintegration of the traditional science/non-science dichotomy through the comparative analysis of the institutionalization of cultural heritage studies and public history in the US, the UK, France and Germany. The western examples will be followed by describing the delayed – but all the more intense – emergence and subsequent institutionalization of Hungarian cultural heritage concept. The reception of this concept is a clear indicator of how far the given country has come in processing its past, how a given political system facilitates or pathologizes this process, and how involved historical studies are in the socialization of reflexivity.

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