Essay On Cultural Heritage

In an era of generalized globalization, which leads to increased hybridity in practically all levels of our existence, cultural barriers also tend to shade off substantially. This has motivated a growing feeling of protection regarding several singular cultural heritage elements that are considered to be unique identity components of the societies and communities that created them, and of irreplaceable value. However, this globalization that began centuries ago through commercial, technological, cultural, political and war-related exchanges between different peoples, which have been gradually increasing in intensity to the present day, turned out to be itself the originator of a heritage that has been created precisely in the context of contacts between different cultures. This new transcultural heritage (or, in some way, hybrid heritage) presents a whole set of different complexities that, to a greater or lesser extent, hinders its safeguard and preservation for future generations.

For example, in inland villages – and sometimes even in large cities – one sees people touching up old paintings, covering century-old altarpieces with glitter, throwing away antique pieces of furniture because they are old, demolishing or obliterating old houses to build new ones that are deemed to have better conditions and, therefore, more value. What the Occidentals are shocked to see happening in other cultures also occurs in their communities. One cannot be a hypocrite, what is designated as “Western culture” is, in truth, the “culture of Occidental elites”. And there is no such thing as a single occidental culture but rather various occidental cultures, in the same way that there are, for instance, various Oriental, African, and American cultures, all with their specific concepts of heritage authenticity, which are not better or worse than our own, only different and also worth