Heritage and Identity in Alice Walker's Everyday Use

Introduction: What Heritage Means

Heritage means different things to different people. By definition, heritage refers to 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 observation. Even though not everything passed down through generations is positive, heritage is widely considered a positive force — positive in the sense that the elements being transmitted are meaningful, that they identify our families and our cultures, and that we are expected to pass them on in turn.

In many cases, what families hold close to their hearts as heritage is their cultural or ethnic identity. Other families hold values such as religiosity, a strong work ethic, a social way of life, and the pursuit of education as their heritage. For some individuals, a love of 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, and the aspects or elements that are maintained are considered heritage or heritage culture. The passing down of heritage culture in immigrant families within their new society is called enculturation. It usually occurs over 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 about how long enculturation continues and how it helps develop a heritage ethnic identity (Zhang, Rui et al. 2).

Heritage and Cultural Identity in Everyday Use

Mama and Dee understand heritage very differently. For Mama, family heirlooms and objects carry a little bit of the spirit or aura of the individuals who used or owned them over the years. They are part and parcel of the origins and identity of her daughters. Dee, however, does not know a great deal about her past. She does not know how the quilts were made or the materials used to make them, even though she believes she is deeply connected to the tradition of making them.

Dee believes so strongly in her connection to the quilts that she wants to hang them like exotic items in an exhibit or a museum. She feels a kind of reverence for the quilts, but they are impersonal and foreign objects to her — objects with no living link to the people who actually used them. Because of this, Mama believes it is Maggie who should have the quilts, since Maggie understands them as part of her heritage and will use them the way they were meant to be used. When Dee argues that Maggie and Mama do not understand heritage, Walker presents this as deeply ironic, because it is Dee whose understanding of heritage is incomplete (Walker 427).

Although Dee'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 to "Wangero." Mama and Maggie are intimidated and confused by this new image. They believe they have a deep connection with their heritage rooted in their parents' and grandparents' memories, though they prefer to remember their ancestors as individuals rather than as symbols of Africa. Because of their different understandings of heritage and culture, both parties cherish the possessions handed down through generations for different reasons. Dee seeks objects she can display in her home as African or African American art, while Mama and Maggie value the same objects for their sentimental significance and because they are tangible reminders of the people they loved.

Dee admires a butterchurn, but when Maggie mentions that it was handmade by the first husband of their aunt — a man named Henry — Dee reacts condescendingly, remarking that her sister's memory is like that of an elephant. Yet the story implies that Maggie's detailed memory of her loved ones and their belongings represents a deeper and more genuine appreciation of cultural heritage than Dee's valuing of traditional objects for their artistic merit and African roots (Walker 431). In other words, while Dee believes that her love of family artifacts makes her more connected to her culture and a better keeper of their heritage, the opposite is true. Her mother and sister demonstrate far richer appreciation for the family's cultural legacy.

Cultural Heritage as Symbolic Practice

Returning to culture as action based on the use or manipulation of symbolic tools, we can attempt to apply this concept to cultural heritage. For this to work, heritage must be defined in relation to its meaning for the population, since that meaning depends on how it is applied within society. Cultural heritage is made up of cultural goods or elements that have become important through cultural work and that carry meaning or use in the modern world.

The process of cultural construction — that is, the making of cultural heritage — is based on the symbolism attached to a cultural good. The greater the symbolism attached to an item, the greater its importance when engaged with in the future. Certain special items therefore deserve to be carefully preserved because of the meaning attached to them (Durham 80).

It is somewhat easy to speak of cultural heritage in general terms. A problem arises, however, when discussing cultural heritage within a specific community or society, because such a discussion must account for the elitist quality inherent in the idea of cultural heritage. In ancient societies, this elitist character was less problematic, since their cultures were relatively homogenous: all members shared the same knowledge, had roughly equal access to most things, and used the same tools and techniques. These societies possessed a collective heritage. In modern societies, by contrast, individuals and groups are differentiated and unique in various ways. While culture, as a product of society, is regarded as collective heritage, multiple groups and individuals do not have equal access to it and therefore understand it differently (Durham 80).

Different segments of the population, being unique and having different levels of access to resources and labor, contribute differently to cultural heritage. Societies that are not homogenous — with ethnic, regional, and occupational differences alongside different historical traditions — tend toward ever-increasing heterogeneity. As societies grow, classes and groups adopt certain cultural practices and elements distinctive to themselves and use them to differentiate their identities. These differences are frequently highly valued among various groups and classes, and they often lead to the development of new aesthetic and moral patterns (Durham 80).

Conclusion

An individual family's heritage often heavily influences the values and conduct of its members because it shapes their culture and customs. A person may wish to honor their family's culture and heritage because they believe in how their family understands and approaches life — including religious beliefs, work ethic, political viewpoints, and views on particular subjects. Nevertheless, many people follow their family's cultural heritage only in part, setting aside aspects they do not personally accept (Holtorf 14). This does not make their cultural heritage any less authentic, nor does it make them any less loyal to it. The constant evolution of cultural heritage is itself part and parcel of culture.

As Walker's story illustrates, and as scholars of cultural heritage confirm, genuine connection to heritage is expressed through daily life, emotional memory, and ongoing practice — not through display or performance. Maggie and Mama, who use and remember their heirlooms as living links to people they loved, embody a more authentic relationship with their family's cultural legacy than Dee, whose reverence for those same objects is ultimately aesthetic and abstract.

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.