Preserving the Ephemeral: the International Museum Day 2004 in Mexico
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This paper analyses the process by which intangibleheritage has gradually been integrated into theconservationists’ awareness. Intangible heritage, whosecreative products are expressed in skills, knowledge, andrepresentations, constitutes a challenge for museums,which were conceived, from their start, around the value ofobjects. Even when these spaces have previouslyacknowledged the importance of intangible culturalexpressions, they have rarely performed the tasks ofcollecting, conserving, or displaying this kind of heritage. The prevailing perspective in Mexican museums is, to thisday, to present them only as part of a ‘glorious past’ –beforethe Spaniards’ arrival to the continent–so that only recentlyhave museum professionals become interested in the vastamount of traditional knowledge, skills, and activities thatindigenous peoples still keep alive, more than 500 yearsafter the Conquest. The conservation of cultural diversityimplies not only the sampling of a few customs or artisticexpressions that dominant groups consider valuable, butrather the formulation of government and social programswhich ensure the continuity of ways of life, customs, and asustainable relationship with the environment whichcreated a given culture.
Abstract
This paper analyses the process by which intangibleheritage has gradually been integrated into theconservationists’ awareness. Intangible heritage, whosecreative products are expressed in skills, knowledge, andrepresentations, constitutes a challenge for museums,which were conceived, from their start, around the value ofobjects. Even when these spaces have previouslyacknowledged the importance of intangible culturalexpressions, they have rarely performed the tasks ofcollecting, conserving, or displaying this kind of heritage. The prevailing perspective in Mexican museums is, to thisday, to present them only as part of a ‘glorious past’ –beforethe Spaniards’ arrival to the continent–so that only recentlyhave museum professionals become interested in the vastamount of traditional knowledge, skills, and activities thatindigenous peoples still keep alive, more than 500 yearsafter the Conquest. The conservation of cultural diversityimplies not only the sampling of a few customs or artisticexpressions that dominant groups consider valuable, butrather the formulation of government and social programswhich ensure the continuity of ways of life, customs, and asustainable relationship with the environment whichcreated a given culture.