Paper short abstract:

Local identity benefits from the interest of the society that may start new waves cherishing the heritage. This is a case study of the interest in two special clergymen from descendants, scholars and archive holdings that will be safeguarded by UNESCO convention for the intangible heritage.

Paper long abstract:

In Sweden the national Institute for Language and Folklore is currently coordinating the country's entry into the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage convention. Renewed interest in local identities and oral history relies on the greater society already having access to them, but initiatives like the coordination project may trigger new waves of interest. This contribution is a case study of such a material comprised of the 18th century memories and manuscripts left by a set of remarkable clergymen from the forests of Westbo district, south-western Sweden.

It also surveys of a number of waves of historical interest. In 1630 a Government Memorial ordered local clergy to register oral history and old monuments, as the recently centralised Swedish state required a glorious past to match its imperial ambitions on the continent. The initiative resulted in a small number of texts, known as The Clerical Relationes. One dealt with Westbo district and is ascribed to the Gasslanders, father and son, featured in this study. Some of their material about local practices would fall under a a heading of clandestine or unauthorised knowledge.

The next wave of scholarly interest in the region occurred in the 1880's, when local handwritten books were copied. The copies were published in 1918 during that period of state-sponsored interest when archives and university disciplines were founded. In the 1970's local history was reinvigorated for its radical social potential, and around 1980 a local author used the narratives for her novels. Today they are again up for grabs.