Presentation: Disputed heritage: agendas, actors, and heritage agency

Abstract

This is the presentation of the dossier titled “Heritage in Dispute: Agendas, Actors, and Agency”. In recent years, we have witnessed an unprecedented expansion of the scope of heritage. This expansion has sparked heated debates surrounding demands for heritage designation processes driven by a diverse group of actors who have increasingly incorporated the language of heritage to construct political subjects and advocate for rights. Given this state of affairs, the objective of this dossier is to situate, from an anthropological perspective, a set of central questions for understanding the disputes, power plays, and forms of agency related to the management of heritage policies today. In this presentation, we seek to prioritize the history of heritage policy management in Brazil, focusing on the different ways in which the Brazilian state has engaged with – or failed to engage with – the notion of difference. Engaging with the literature on memory, we also seek to discuss how anthropology has conceptualized memory policies through the memorialization strategies employed by collectives historically silenced in the heritage agenda. Thus, the collection of articles that make up this dossier situates its concerns within this contested and shifting terrain, where agents, political agendas, and strategies of agency circulate, negotiating alternative narratives of heritage. Drawing on ethnographic approaches, we have compiled articles that help deepen our reflections on insurgent and uncomfortable heritages, counter-memories, and sensitive memories, with the aim of fostering a productive debate on heritage, human rights, and the exercise of citizenship.