Historicity and core aspects of the federal policy for intangible cultural heritage: an interpretation

Abstract

The practice of valuation and preservation of representative assets of historical and artistic heritage is officially long running in Brazil. However, several practices and cultural events became part of the cultural heritage of Brazil only recently, when the understanding that cultural heritage also consists of intangible cultural assets began. In this article, under the light of the historicity concept, we seek to highlight the major milestones of the federal policy for intangible heritage, its time of construction and the agents involved in this process. Not becoming overshadowed by the fog inherent to the speech of an ancient ancestry of intangible heritage policy, especially when combined with the ideas and actions of Mario de Andrade, we aim to identify the key aspects of the recent policy, those that make it unprecedented in the history of cultural heritage conservation actions in Brazil.