Patrimônio cultural: saberes e fazeres no discurso cultural-epistemológico

Abstract

The concept of heritage is a social construction, defined from the perception that natural and human-created goods run the risk of disappearing. The institutionalization of heritage practices in separate domains of culture and nature expresses the broader Cartesian dualism, disarticulating the tangible and intangible aspects of the items to be preserved, assigning value to “civilizing” creations and diminishing the value of the creations of popular culture in their interaction with the environment. However, conservationist practices since the end of the 20th century have shown how hybrid this concept is, and that conservation can be effective only by overcoming the material/immaterial duality and through the interaction of different types of knowledge, both scientific and empirical.