Intangible Heritage and Erasure: Rethinking Cultural Preservation and Contemporary Museum Practice

This article challenges conventional approaches to cultural preservation by critiquing UNESCO's 2003 intangible heritage framework, which, despite aiming to safeguard global diversity, risks institutionalizing culture as a set of endangered practices. It examines the politics of erasure and renewal in two high-profile museum contexts: Te Papa Tongarewa (New Zealand) and the Quai Branly Museum (Paris), revealing how indigenous identity politics intersect with heritage discourse. The study employs comparative analysis to expose tensions between normative preservation efforts and dynamic cultural identities, offering a nuanced perspective on contemporary museum practice.

Alivizatou, M. (2011). Intangible Heritage and Erasure: Rethinking Cultural Preservation and Contemporary Museum Practice. International Journal of Cultural Property, 18(1), 37–60. https://doi.org/10.1017/s094073911100004x