Sense and Essence: Heritage and the Cultural Production of the Real (Material Mediations: People and Things in a World of Movement Book 9)

Prés. de l'éd.: Contrary to popular perceptions, cultural heritage is not given, but constantly in the making: a construction subject to dynamic processes of (re)inventing culture within particular social formations and bound to particular forms of mediation. Yet the appeal of cultural heritage often rests on its denial of being a fabrication, its promise to provide an essential ground to social-cultural identities. Taking this paradoxical feature as a point of departure, and anchoring the discussion to two heuristic concepts—the "politics of authentication" and "aesthetics of persuasion"—the chapters herein explore how this tension is central to the dynamics of heritage formation worldwide Heritage Dynamics : Politics Of Authentication, Aesthetics Of Persuasion And The Cultural Production Of The Real / Mattijs Van De Port And Birgit Meyer -- Aesthetics As Form And Force : Notes On The Shaping Of Pataxo Indian Bodies / Andre Werneck De Andrade Bakker -- Intangible Heritage, Tangible Controversies : The Baiana And The Acaraje As Boundary-objects In Contemporary Brazil / Bruno Reinhardt -- Swinging Between The Material And The Immaterial : Brazilian Cultural Politics And The Authentication Of Afro-brazilian Heritage / Maria Paula Fernandes Adinolfi -- News-history And The Formation Of The Sunday Times Heritage Project / Duane Jethro -- Scaffolding Heritage : Transient Architectures And Temporalizing Formations In Luanda / Ruy Llera Blanes -- Corpo-reality Tv : Media, Body, And The Authentication Of 'african Heritage' / Marleen De Witte -- Heated Discussions Are Necessary : The Creative Engagement With Sankofa In Modern Ghanaian Arts / Rhoda Woets -- Iconic Objects : Making Diasporic Heritage, Blackness, And Whiteness In The Netherlands / Markus Balkenhol -- Ascertaining The Future Memory Of Our Time : Dutch Institutions Collecting Relics Of National Tragedy / Irene Stengs -- Heritage Under Construction : Boundary Objects, Scaffolding, And Anticipation / David Chidester -- Can Anything Become Heritage? / David Berliner -- Heritage As Process / Ciraj Rassool. Edited By Birgit Meyer And Mattijs Van De Port. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contrary to popular perceptions, cultural heritage is not given, but constantly in the making: a construction subject to dynamic processes of (re)inventing culture within particular social formations and bound to particular forms of mediation. Yet the appeal of cultural heritage often rests on its denial of being a fabrication, its promise to provide an essential ground to social-cultural identities. Taking this paradoxical feature as a point of departure and anchoring the discussion to two heuristic concepts - the 'politics of authenticatioin' and 'aesthetics of persuasion' - the chapters herein explore how this tension is central to the dynamics of heritage formation worldwide Contents Illustrations Preface INTRODUCTION: Heritage Dynamics Politics of Authentication, Aesthetics of Persuasion and the Cultural Production of the Real 1 Aesthetics as Form and Force 2 Intangible Heritage, Tangible Controversies 3 Swinging between the Material and the Immaterial 4 ‘Reporting the Past’ 5 Scaffolding Heritage 6 Corpo-Reality TV 7 ‘Heated Discussions Are Necessary’ 8 Iconic Objects 9 Ascertaining the Future Memory of Our Time Concluding Comments 10 Heritage under Construction 11 Can Anything Become Heritage? 12 Heritage as Process Index Contrary to popular perceptions, cultural heritage is not given, but constantly in the making, subject to dynamic processes of (re)inventing culture within particular social formations and via particular forms of mediation.