From Material to Subject: The Disturbing Rumblings of Brazilian Cultural Heritage

In this article, I review some ideas and actions that have marked the knowledge and making of the Brazilian cultural heritage subject. The intention is to avoid historical and old explanations of the politics of "pedra e cal" ("stone and lime"), but also the vogue of the intangible heritage as if it could save the public politics of the Brazilian heritage culture. The oscillation between these two conceptual ideas is identified in this reflection as a trauma that guided until recently the patrimonial politics of the country. This paper affirms that it is necessary to deny this old tension, which is in fact a false problem that may not allow the understanding/interpretation and ressignification of cultural heritage for the social groups. This should be the reason, a priori, of the existence of such politics. In this cartography of Brazilian public politics, related to the cultural heritage, I shed light on Anthropology, its contribution and its limits as a knowledge field, and also an increasing actor in the reconstruction of this politics. Adapted from the source document.