How is cultural heritage defined? What does it mean for individuals and nations? Is there one accepted heritage? Is there an authorised heritage discourse? This lesson will provide you with some definitions for cultural heritage while discussing the underlying challenges.


Interactive: is this Heritage?

Before delving into formal definitions of heritage, let's see what you consider to be cultural heritage. Respond to the brief quiz below indicating if the presented examples are/should be considered heritage.



Let's now reflect on your answers to the quiz. An ancient shipwreck is considered cultural heritage, the same way as Vermeer's Milkmaid. They both constitute material traces of the past that once were or still are significant for a community, a nation, or humanity as a whole. However, a ritual performance or a dance are also considered heritage; not one that you can physically touch, but one that exists intellectually. 

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Heritage can be defined as 'features belonging to the culture of a particular society, such as traditions, languages, or buildings, that were created in the past and still have historical importance'. Heritage is a form of property that belongs to a community and has particular value for that community's history and identity, and thus has been preserved and passed down from on generation to another. Cultural heritage is not only about artefacts or historical monuments; our understanding of the term has been expanded to also include any expressions of human creativity that define who we are and who do we belong to both at a group and at an individual level. These may include our shared culinary traditions (e.g. Mediterranean diet) as well as a photo album or a music collection; an archaeological site, a natural landscape, particular skills and knowledge, or a craft. They all form our individual and shared identities, which through the cultural and sociopolitical process of remembering and forgetting, are preserved and adapted for future generations, or gradually get lost. Heritage is above all, a political matter: 

...heritage is not the place that heritage agencies protect or the objects that museums curate, but rather a process framed by particular discourses, which engages in negotiations over the meaning and values of the past in terms of present day needs and aspirations (Smith 2012, p. 474).

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO)https://en.unesco.org/, founded in 1954, has adopted international conventions for the protection of cultural heritage and to promote the broader understanding of heritage values and international cooperation to achieve its protection. According to UNESCO's 1989 definition of cultural heritage, it may be defined as:

...the entire corpus of material signs - either artistic or symbolic - handed on by the past to each culture and, therefore, to the whole of humankind. As a constituent part of the affirmation and enrichment of cultural identities, as a legacy belonging to all humankind, the cultural heritage gives each particular place its recognizable features and is the storehouse of human experience...The cultural heritage should be considered both in time and in space. First, it no longer stops at the dawn of the nineteenth century but now also embraces the records left behind by the twentieth century. Second, the aim is not only to preserve increasingly numerous items of cultural property but also to safeguard complexes which go far beyond single large monuments or individual buildings. The idea of the heritage has now been broadened to include both the human and the natural environment, both architectural complexes and archaeological sites, not only the rural heritage and the countryside but also the urban, technical or industrial heritage, industrial design and street furniture...cultural heritage now covers the non-physical cultural heritage, which includes the signs and symbols passed on by oral transmission, artistic and literary forms of expression, languages, ways of life, myths, beliefs and rituals, value systems and traditional knowledge and know-how.

It should be noted, however, that UNESCO's definition as well as the guidelines it produces for the safeguard and preservation of heritage are not binding; It is the Nation States that define their own heritage. Although it is out of the scope of this brief introduction to cultural heritage to delve into the politics of heritage (Smith 2006; Harrison 2009), it is worth mentioning that UNESCO is often criticised for its western notions and aesthetics of heritage, often excluding or undermining non-western views and local traditions/ infrastructures for protecting heritage (Bertachini et al. 2016). According to Smith (2006), this constitutes an Authorised Heritage Discourse (AHD) that designates professionals as the only authoritative voices for the past to care about the fragile and non-renewable heritage, thus excluding the non-experts from having an active role in shaping heritage futures. International organisations and authorising institutions create heritage discourses that are accepted without questioning (naturalisation), while creating new meanings for heritage objects that become symbolic at a national/international level, thus abolishing their unique contextual identity and value. 

As a result of the Authorised Heritage Discourse,  heritage (objects, places, practices, traditions etc.), are removed from their contexts while becoming symbols of particular periods, aesthetics, and types (e.g. of buildings), also taking a national or international character. Therefore, their particular meanings are diminished and new associations within different contexts are created. These become official heritage representations that most often exclude the public from having a role, disenfranchise non-specialist practices, and focus on a more passive engagement with the public by educating it while emphasising conservation for safeguarding heritage for future generations (Smith 2006). 

Similarly to UNESCO, the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a global non-government organisation, works for the conservation and protection of the architectural and archaeological heritage. For Europe, Europa Nostra, is a citizen's movement that supports cultural and natural heritage by advocating for it to policymakers and diverse stakeholders and promoting best practice in heritage research, conservation, and education. 


 Interactive: UNESCO, ICOMOS & Europa Nostra

Browse the image slider below to explore the policies, mission, and values of the three heritage organisations: UNESCO, ICOMOS, and Europa Nostra. Do you think that there are underlying politics which define and influence the Authorised Heritage Discourse? You will also have the opportunity to reflect on this in the section 'Cultural Heritage Controversies'.


    

References

• Bertachini, E., Liuzza, C., Meskell, L. et al. (2016). The politicization of UNESCO World Heritage decision making. Public Choice 167 (1-2): 95-129. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-016-0332-9 
• Harrison, R. Ed. (2009). Understanding the Politics of Heritage. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Smith, L. (2012). A Pilgrimage of Masculinity: The Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre, Australian Historical Studies, 43:3, 472-482. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2012.708116
• Smith, L. (2006). Uses of Heritage. London, New York: Routledge.

Further Readings

• Ahmad, Y. (2006). The scope and definitions of heritage: from tangible to intangible. International Journal of Heritage Studies 12(3): 292–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527250600604639
  
• Jokiletho, J. (2005). Definitions of Cultural Heritage. ICCROM Working Group 'Heritage and Society'. http://cif.icomos.org/pdf_docs/Documents%20on%20line/Heritage%20definitions.pdf
  
• Munjeri, D. (2004). Tangible and intangible heritage: from difference to convergence. Museum International 56(1-2): 12–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1350-0775.2004.00453.x