INTANGIBLE HERITAGE: A RESOURCE TO PROMOTE DEVELOPMENT OR A RESOURCE TO REPRODUCE INEQUALITIES?

LACARRIEU Y MOYA

Islas Azores

Congreso; Sharing Cultures; 2009

UNESCO

Lately,  intangible heritage has been conceived as a resource for development. This new conception was possible thanks to the adoption of a new perspective of culture in accord with the extended anthropological view  which leaves behind the idea of culture as an obstacle for development.  This new conception overcame the restricted idea of ‘culture as transcendence’ giving rise, in time, to a review of the notion of cultural heritage created in modernity.   Though this extension of the concept apparently equilibrates the situation regarding countries, regions and communities, a new cartography of power is actually based on the threshold of culture / heritage. In fact, the most significant and fancy is located in developed countries (monuments, ruins, old quarters; in other words, material heritage includes the wonders of the World), while the odd, exotic, picturesque –the intangible- can be found in ‘traditional’ cultures (thus, ‘belated’, albeit contemporary),   in general anchored in developing countries or continents.   Therefore, intangible heritage operates as an instrument of ‘cultural readjustment’  between the Western world and developing countries, in order to regulate those problems related to the lack of legitimate spaces dedicated to the cultural field (cultural industries, arts, entertainment), with typical and traditional expressions  that allow a comeback to a society of trust and solidarity. However, this idea of society would in fact contribute to control socially, economically and politically the flows and movements of people  towards developed countries and cities. In this way, such restrictions that operate on the configuration of these new cartographies of power would contribute to establish new / old borders, reinforcing the preexisting model of peripheries and centers.