Life Itself: An Essay on the Sensory and the (Potential) End of Heritage Making

Abstract

The expansion from material heritage – pleasing sight and to a lesser extent touch (for very often material heritage may be touched only within limits) – to the realm of the intangible indicates an increase in the reflexive consideration of the full sensorium. With the ratification of the 2003 Intangible Heritage Convention, we have turned to select for heritage status cultural practices and perceptions entailing the body and the senses more fully: music and dance, as well as craft traditions exemplifying the knowledge in hands and the skill of touch.The new French sensory heritage law could be a significant marker in the changing dynamic of valorizing selected aspects of culture.