Valorising whose Heritage? The Politics of Representation of Breton Culture at a French Non-Governmental Organisation
In December 2012, the musical dance form “Fest-Noz” (“night party”) from Brittany, France, was listed as intangible cultural heritage (ICH) on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) “Representative List of Immaterial Cultural Heritage of Humanity”. This arti...
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| 出版年: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/socrep, |
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| 第一著者: | |
| フォーマット: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| 言語: | Anglais |
| 出版事項: |
Sociétés & représentations
2025
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| 主題: | |
| オンライン･アクセス: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| 要約: | In December 2012, the musical dance form “Fest-Noz” (“night party”) from Brittany, France, was listed as intangible cultural heritage (ICH) on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) “Representative List of Immaterial Cultural Heritage of Humanity”. This article considers the politics of representation within the nonprofit organisation behind Fest-Noz’s listing to the UNESCO list, Dastum (defined as a nonprofit by law 1901). We argue that Dastum’s model of cultural representation creates tensions around definitions of traditional authenticity within the Breton cultural community. This politics of representation plays out through invocations of difference, here referred to as scale-making processes. Dastum members define Fest-Noz as authentically Breton in opposition to other forms of ICH which are considered only ‘representations’ since they are not embraced by the population. Dastum sources its legitimacy to speak for the Breton community using the notion of ‘the field’ and the organisation’s relative proximity to it. Finally, Dastum uses UNESCO to legitimise its model of cultural representation and UNESCO reciprocally points to Fest-Noz as a model for heritage preservation. In doing so, both entities gloss over high-stakes questions concerning how interlocutors negotiate representation. |
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