From folklore to intangiblecultural heritage. Observationsabout a problematic filiation1
Alessandro Testa
In the last few decades some major theoretical and methodological shifts havecharacterised the interconnected disciplines of Anthropology, Folkloristics, Ethnology ofEurope, and Cultural History. Many categories and notions long used( and sporadicallyabused) have been thoroughly problematised, at times profoundly questioned, and evenabandoned.
In this contribution I briefly discuss how these shifts have affected both theinstitutional, academic, and common usages of two of these notions:" Folklore" and" Intangible cultural heritage". I also present some reflections about the emic and eticusages of the categories of" folklore" and" cultural heritage" in the two contexts in whichI have done ethnographic research over the last few years: Molise in Italy and Bohemiain the Czech Republic.
" From Folklore to Heritage" was the title of the research project formy postdoctoral position in the Czech Republic( 2013-2015). Amongstother aims, the project had the purpose of understanding how my spe-cific case study could be encapsulated in the theoretical framework of
1 This piece is the development of a conference paper called" From folklore to culturalheritage and the other way round: Theoretical annotations from two ethnographiccase- studies( Italy and the Czech Republic)". It was presented at a panel convenedby myself called" From Folklore to Cultural Heritage”, which took place during the12th International SIEF congress" Utopias, Realities, Heritages. Ethnographies forthe 21st century"( Zagreb, Croatia, 21-25 June 2015), on the 22nd of June 2015.The research that has led to the writing of this piece has been undertaken in theframework of two projects: 1) project“ Enhancement of R& D Pools of Excellenceat the University of Pardubice"( CZ.1.07/ 2.3.00/ 30.0021), financially supported bythe European Social Fund and the Czech Ministry of Education( 2013–2015; 2) pro-ject M 1828- G22, financed by the FWF- Austrian Research Fund and undertakenat the University of Vienna( 2015-2017).