Insiders and Outsiders
Heritage Politics and Folk life Studies in a Multiethnic World
This article addresses questions concerning cultural heritage and heritage politics in situations in which people, who have migrated or fled from one country to another, suddenly share territory with many different groups. While the examples are from all around the globe, the paper pays special attention to Sweden and to the role of Swedish ethnologists in the study of heritage politics in multicultural situations. Swedish ethnologists have not only studied the processes by which peasant phenomena have become national symbols, they have also - in particular those employed by folk life museums and folk life archives - played a crucial role in the creation of such symbols. What could they contribute to the study of heritage politics in a multiethnic world?
The discussion begins with Swedish America which is culturally and politically very different from Sweden although the common base can be detected. Of special interest are two objects that Swedish-Americans associate with their Swedish heritage, although there are no equivalents in Sweden. One is amid western water tower that has been rebuilt and painted to resemble a gigantic rose-painted coffeepot. The other is a quilt made by descendants of Swedish immigrants for the centennial celebrations of their hometown. The two objects demonstrate that seemingly insignificant artifacts can be chosen as examples of a cultural heritage and carry profound political meanings. People use both not only as symbols of inclusion demarcating a "we" but also as symbols ofexc1usion of peoples who do not share a North-European descent.
Against this background the paper devotes attention to "cultural heritage" as a concept invented in the late nineteenth century to connote phenomena believed to have been taken over from forebears or predecessors. Cultural heritage was then and is now an inherently political term: it is through political action that selected phenomena are appointed as such. Everywhere, phenomena named cultural heritage are resources to be saved, protected or resuscitated. A cultural heritage is part of the category, "threatened facets of the world". Also, phenomena appointed cultural heritage are meant to be put on display to teach others. They are often a part of people's earliest memories and come to incarnate longing, memories, and a collective history.
Observations regarding the official heritage policies in the VS as a prototypical multicultural society lead to a discussion of heritage politics in Sweden as a multicultural society. The first aspect considered is the construction of cultural heritage as political acts among immigrants and refugees themselves. The second aspect discussed is the political activity of Swedish cultural historical museums and archives - institutions that are now under the obligation to collect, protect, and preserve the traditions of immigrants and refugees. A number of questions are debated. Will the museums have the power to define which immigrant traditions are to be displayed in Swedish public arenas? How will the museums and archives handle all the new inventions and seemingly strange mixtures that are now being invented in different immigrant groups as examples of a heritage from a past? The conc1usion is that both museums and archives will have to change their policies. For example, folk life archives can hardly concentrate on collecting materials only in writing as is the practice now. They will have to devise ways to accommodate all those Swedes who cannot write Swedish but whose memories and experiences are largely formed in Sweden.
The conclusions emphasize that Swedish museums and archives, despite attempts to incorporate immigrant materials, still think in terms of a "we" and a "them". Unwittingly, they use symbols ofexc1usion that are not unlike those that sometimes can be seen in Swedish America. What is needed, then, is a revision of cultural heritage as a category. Swedes must establish heritage policies that admit that the symbolic results of migrations are not exceptions but the normal state of affairs. Indeed, ethnologists have a special assignment to study the ways in which many cultural heritages are constructed, tom down, parodied or used as sites of contestations in the Sweden that is now being formed.
