Paper short abstract:

The article concerns unauthorized and critical forms of heritagization in the region of Polish Spisz, undertaken by the local "heritage community", which challenges the authorized forms represented by external experts. The authorized symbolic violence meets resistance “from below”.

Paper long abstract:

Polish Spisz is a multicultural border region characterized by Polishness and to some extent Slovakness and Hungarianness. This is related to the long history of the region, dating back to the Middle Ages, which until 1918 was part of the Habsburg Monarchy. Since the beginning of the political changes of the end of the 20th century the region has been experiencing a cultural revival, inspired by local social elites, but also by external experts (ethnographers, historians, musicologists, choreographers). The experts play an important role, who act as arbitrators deciding on the value and usefulness of specific cultural content, products and practices. Their influence often means imposing choices from the resources of the regional cultural heritage. In the light of postcolonial studies, it is possible to indicate the oppressive nature of their activity in the field of cultural policy, simply showing the ways of practicing the regional culture. Sometimes this is combined with political pressure to make this multicultural border region part of an ethnically homogeneous Polish society. This type of symbolic violence meets resistance “from below” of some region’s activists and inhabitants who do not accept the values, forms and cultural content arranged by professionals into the form of classical kastom. They reject treating their own heritage in the form of an unchanging, staged fossil and promote an attitude of creativity, independence, agency of local cultural practices and forms of creativity not constrained by an oppressive kastom scenario.