Paper short abstract

Folklore, identity and heritage are all subsets of culture, and isolated in the form of text or artifact from a flow and from a social and historical process. As concepts whose stability is their raison d’être, they protect against the ravages of time. This paper will ask whether current notions of heritage are still imprisoned within this static model.

Paper long abstract

Folklore, identity and heritage are all subsets of culture, and isolated in the form of text or artifact from a flow and from a social and historical process. As concepts whose stability is their raison d'être, they protect against the ravages of time. This paper will ask whether current notions of heritage are still imprisoned within this static model. Has the notion of intangible cultural heritage broken out of the cage? Has its origin in the deliberations of a non-state actor released it from the preoccupations of national identity?