Me, You and Cultural Heritage

While history and cultural heritage seem inherently bound to each other, nothing is less true. History and cultural heritage seem to work together; one might even think history creates cultural heritage. However, the disconnection between history and cultural heritage is becoming increasingly large. One could argue that nowadays history is for all, while cultural heritage is for ourselves alone (Lowenthal, 1998, 128). What one might consider cultural heritage, could be of no interest to others. And this is where cultural heritage is on the verge of becoming a topic for heated discussion. We can all think of present examples in which the notion of cultural heritage is being criticized and where it sometimes is even called racist. Recall the ‘Black Pete’ discussion here in the Netherlands for example. The one side to this discussion sees ‘Black Pete’ as an important part of Dutch cultural heritage and as intrinsically part of Dutch culture, without it, the Dutch would lose a part of thei...