Cultural Heritage Literary Criticism

Literary Criticism Research Paper
Heritage means different things to different people. By definition, heritage means an individual's perception of their unique family identity, including the artifacts, culture, traditions, and values passed down through generations. We all absorb our heritage from childhood through experience and through observing. Even though not everything passed down through generations is positive, heritage is widely considered positive. Positive in the sense that the elements being passed down are meaningful elements that identify our families and our cultures, and we are also supposed to pass them down.
In many cases, what families hold close to heart as heritage is their cultural or ethnic identity. Other families also hold values such as religiosity, strong work ethic, leading a social life, and pursuit of education to be their heritage. For some individuals, their love for certain sports, music, or adventure is part and parcel of what they consider heritage (Zhang, Rui et al. 2).
There is a dual concern about cultural maintenance and cultural change when individuals interact with other cultures. For immigrants, adopting new values and practices common in the society or culture they have settled in is considered cultural change. When a culture does not change, it is referred to as cultural maintenance. The maintained aspects or elements are considered heritage or heritage culture. The passing down of heritage culture in immigrant families in the society they have settled in is called enculturation. It usually occurs for many years and decades. Even though a significant number of studies show that many immigrants and their families maintain their culture, there is very little knowledge on how long enculturation goes on and how it helps develop heritage ethnic identity (Zhang, Rui et al. 2).
Mama and Dee understand heritage differently. For Mama, family heirlooms or objects have a little bit of the spirit or aura of the individuals who used them or owned them over the years. They are part and parcel of the origins and identity of Dee. However, Dee does not know a lot about her past. She does not know how quilts were made in the past and the materials utilized to make them.
This is even though she believes she is deeply linked to the tradition of making them. Dee believes so much in her connection to quilts that she wants to hang them like exotic items in an exhibit or a museum. Dee feels reverence for the quilts, but they are impersonal and foreign objects to her. They do not have any link to the people who have used them. Because of this,
Mama believes it is Maggie who should have the quilts because Maggie believes they are part of her heritage, and she will, therefore, use them the way they should be utilized. When Dee argues that Maggie and Mama do not understand heritage, Walker sees it as ironic because Dee is the one whose understanding of heritage is not complete (Walker 427).
Going back to culture as an action based on the use or manipulation of symbolic tools, we can now attempt to apply it to cultural heritage. However, for this to work, heritage must be defined concerning its meaning for the population because this meaning is based on how it is applied to society. There is a need to understand that cultural heritage is made up of cultural goods or elements that have become important via cultural work and have meanings or uses in the modern world.
The cultural construction process (making cultural heritage) is based on the symbolism given to a cultural good. The greater the symbolism attached to an item, the greater its importance when used in the future. Therefore, there is no doubt that certain special items deserve to be carefully preserved for the future because of the symbolism or the meaning attached to them (Durham 80).
It is somewhat easy to talk about cultural heritage in general. However, a problem usually emerges when discussing cultural heritage in our community or society. Because this discussion must take into account the elitist quality of the idea of cultural heritage. In ancient societies, the elitist nature of cultural heritage is not a problem since their cultures were somewhat homogenous, and all members of the societies knew the same things had equal access to most things, and used the same tools and techniques.
This means these societies had a collective heritage. In modern societies, individuals and groups within them are differentiated and unique in various ways. While culture, a product of society, is regarded as collective heritage, multiple groups and individuals do not have equal access to the heritage and, therefore, understand it (Durham 80).
Different segments of the population being unique and having different levels of labor access contribute differently to cultural heritage. Societies that are not homogenous with regards to ethnic, regional, and work differences in addition to different historical traditions, usually record ever-increasing heterogeneity. As societies continue to grow, classes and groups take certain cultural practices and elements common among them and use them to differentiate themselves. The differences are frequently highly valued among various groups and classes, and they often lead to the development of new esthetic and moral patterns (Durham 80).
Although Dee Johnson's family has been living in America for many generations, she believes she is embracing and promoting her African heritage by changing her appearance, behavior, and name. Mrs. Johnson and Maggie are intimidated and confused by the new image of "Wangero." Mrs. Johnson and Maggie believe they have a deep connection with their heritage based on their parents' and grandparents' memories.
They prefer, however, to remember them as individuals rather than as Africans. Because of their different understanding of heritage and culture, both parties cherish the possessions handed down through generations for differing reasons. Dee looks for objects that she can exhibit in her house as African or African American art. Mrs. Johnson and Maggie also value objects similar to the ones Dee is looking for but not for the same reason but because they have sentimental value and remind them of their predecessors.
Dee likes a butterchurn, but when her sister says it was handmade by the first husband of their aunt, who was named Henry, Dee reacts condescendingly by saying her sister's memory is like that of an elephant. However, the story implies that Maggie's greater memory about her loved ones and their items or objects is a better and more genuine appreciation of her cultural heritage than Dee's valuing traditional items or objects because of their artistic value and traditional African roots (Walker 431). In other words, while Dee thinks her loving and valuing of things from her family's past makes her more attached to her culture and better than her sister and her mother at keeping their cultural heritage and valuing it more, she does not. Her mother and her sister have more appreciation for the family's cultural heritage.
It is important to consider how briefly cultural heritage is often defined in literature and heritage conventions. Most definitions include words to the effect that cultural heritage includes everything important that results from people's constant interaction in a particular place over a long period. According to the Faro Convention, communities and individuals are important in maintaining cultural heritage and passing it down to future generations (Samuels & Rico 15).
According to David Lowenthal, cultural heritage is all about belonging, identity, roots, and antiquities. Lowenthal did not promote heritage as things inherited from parents but as special elements passed down generations by forebearers. He further argued that while heritage shares some links to tradition and history, it has a wider social reach and relevance.
Another researcher, Blake, argued that heritage is a social, political, or economic part of history that we chose for now and passed to the next generation. Blake argues that cultural heritage's worth lies in its complex array of modern demands, moralities, and values rather than its intrinsic merit. Further, he argues that heritage's main use is to mobilize resources and people, transform, and alter discourses (Samuels & Rico 15). Simply put, Blake argues that cultural heritage is much more than just the objects passed down. According to Blake's argument, it is the unseen things such as the values, moralities, and unique identities that separate people that form cultural heritage.
Therefore, evaluating cultural heritage's rhetorical aspect can help draw on communication elements such as semiotics, discourse, and narrative. However, it does so with a focus on cultural heritage's ability to motivate and mobilize certain actions, especially those bringing about political or social change. Thus, cultural heritage or simply heritage can be considered a social practice that can redefine a community's conceptions, teach important history, highlight important milestones, and show change mechanisms (Samuels & Rico 15).
It can be argued that the current language of heritage is sufficient and that coming up with new descriptions or definitions is confusing or time-wasting. Nevertheless, because of the importance of relevance to cultural heritage, contentment with the status quo is the exception rather than the norm. Cultural heritage is characterized by change because as the environment changes, so must heritage, particularly social change and justice. By this argument, re-description is justified. Furthermore, re-description is also justified because it plays an important role in heritage management, designation. In other words, a lot of the workaround cultural heritage is about defining or recognizing what heritage is and what is not. Therefore, the re-description of heritage can further examine the things considered heritage and the things that are not considered heritage. In other words, it can create further checks-and-balances for the elements of cultural heritage. Moreover, heritage keyword codification at the international level is linked to an ineffectual institutional system and in danger of becoming obsolete. This is even more reason to redefine cultural heritage (Samuels & Rico, 16).
An individual family's heritage often heavily influences the values and how family members lead their lives because it determines their culture and customs. An individual can want to honor their family's culture and heritage because they believe in how their family thinks about life and does things in life. This can include their family's religious beliefs, family's work ethic, family's political viewpoints, and their family's views on certain topics. Nevertheless, many people usually believe in and follow their family's cultural heritage in part. In other words, they ignore some parts of their heritage that they do not believe (Holtorf 14). This does not make their cultural heritage any less authentic or does not make them any less loyal to it. The constant change in cultural heritage is part and parcel of culture.
Cultural heritage can be a thing that brings together a community because it gives them things to hold on to. This can be important in fragile communities where it can promote certain values such as a strong work ethic, respect for elders, persistence, and strong work ethic. It can also promote social cohesion by promoting togetherness in protecting and advancing cultural heritage (Holtorf 14).
Works Cited
Durham, Eunice Ribeiro. "Reflections on culture, heritage, and preservation." Vibrant. Virtual Brazilian Anthropology v10n1 (2013): 77-97.
Holtorf, Cornelius. "The changing contribution of cultural heritage to society." Museum International 63.1-2 (2011): 8-16.
Samuels, Kathryn Lafrenz, and Trinidad Rico, eds. Heritage Keywords: Rhetoric and re-description in cultural heritage. University Press of Colorado, 2015.
Walker, Alice. Everyday use. Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, 2004.
Zhang, Rui, et al. "Know Your Heritage: Exploring the Effects of Fit in Cultural Knowledge on Chinese Canadians' Heritage Identification." Frontiers in psychology vol. 9 2100. 5 Nov. 2018, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02100