Assembling heritage: Investigating the UNESCO proclamation of Bedouin intangible heritage in Jordan

TY - JOUR

T1 - Assembling heritage

T2 - Investigating the UNESCO proclamation of Bedouin intangible heritage in Jordan

AU - Bille, Mikkel

PY - 2012/3/1

Y1 - 2012/3/1

N2 - This paper examines the process of incorporating the Bedouin of Petra and Wadi Rum in Jordan on UNESCOs list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005. The author focuses on the Bedouin tribes around Petra, who were resettled in villages when UNESCO proclaimed the area part of the tangible heritage of humanity in 1985. Heritage is approached as a process of assembling that emerges from the interactions of social entities operating on a smaller scale. By focusing on these entities various discourses about Bedouin heritage that are included in the reports and applications to UNESCO, it is argued that through the process of proclaiming intangible heritage, cultural categories are formulated so as to fit into contemporary imaginations, longings and settlement policies. Investigating the process of heritage inscription reveals the multiple, and at times contradictory, discourses that undergird the production of particular images of Bedouin culture through heritage institutions that interlock, rather than harmonise, them.

AB - This paper examines the process of incorporating the Bedouin of Petra and Wadi Rum in Jordan on UNESCOs list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005. The author focuses on the Bedouin tribes around Petra, who were resettled in villages when UNESCO proclaimed the area part of the tangible heritage of humanity in 1985. Heritage is approached as a process of assembling that emerges from the interactions of social entities operating on a smaller scale. By focusing on these entities various discourses about Bedouin heritage that are included in the reports and applications to UNESCO, it is argued that through the process of proclaiming intangible heritage, cultural categories are formulated so as to fit into contemporary imaginations, longings and settlement policies. Investigating the process of heritage inscription reveals the multiple, and at times contradictory, discourses that undergird the production of particular images of Bedouin culture through heritage institutions that interlock, rather than harmonise, them.

U2 - 10.1080/13527258.2011.599853

DO - 10.1080/13527258.2011.599853

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1352-7258

VL - 18

SP - 107

EP - 123

JO - International Journal of Heritage Studies

JF - International Journal of Heritage Studies

IS - 2

ER -