Heritage between two concepts

Abstract

Heritage preservation is currently undergoing a process of transformation and redefinition. Concepts and approaches were spread across the globe, redefining their object and hampering traditional intervention. In Brazil, heritage preservation laws have been modified inadequately due to lack of knowledge of the complexity of a culture so diverse, pluralistic and controversial.

Hence, two basic principles of heritage preservation are being reviewed: identity and authenticity. Although these are both relevant aspects of the issue, they bring about cultural contradictions that cannot be resolved by the conventional, inflexible and universally accepted European notions currently under question. Such concepts presumably cannot be used to determine the “absolute immunity” of the protected heritage object, since the justification of the act of preservation itself has been broadened. It is important to identify changes that provide the conditions for historical events and the cultural interpretation of our world and times, providing memory and identity through the reincorporation of the past with the present.