Re-Localising Cultural Economy through Heritage Building

Abstract

 In this article I consider contemporary heritage building as a productive 
process helping the re-localisation of cultural economy in a post-crisis context. I recall the debates concerning cultural development in economic anthropology, showing how heritage building processes have become a widespread manner of fuelling the local economy. As a social-cultural anthropologist, I use the data collected during my fieldwork to show that the transformation of festive rituals into local economic resources also has a deep influence on the complex structures and meanings of local traditions. This eventually creates the opportunity to compare ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ ways of thinking about the place of festive rituals in the economy. First, I use examples of festive rituals that have been granted the status of intangible cultural heritage in France by UNESCO, to show what economic effects were desired by local practitioners of the rituals when they proposed their candidature, and what real effects can be observed ten years later. Second, I document some British festive rituals that have not asked for intangible cultural heritage status and explain how they nevertheless have a strong relationship with the local economy. Third, I focus on Italian festive rituals that have asked for intangible cultural heritage status but which have not yet received it. Through these various examples I try to understand how local practitioners use the UNESCO candidature process itself as a means to re-localise regional cultural economies.