Heritage-making and the language of auctoritas and potestas

Issue Date

1-2014

Abstract

Heritage-making can mean many things to different cultures, especially with the advent of multiculturalism and interculturalism. From this perspective, a wide array of cultural items, devices and values can be witnessed, and some of these are significant, yet others are considered in the balance. To argue that heritagemaking is an ongoing process brings to light the fact that cultures and the actors involved do not only have a task in the social order, but also the knowhow to direct the way of their discourses. At its core is the view that one must deal with language games, which effectively engage the active participants in circulating heritage. These games are taken into account as clusters of speech acts rules that are classified as assertives, commissives and directives, which correspond to the three types of rule: hegemony, hierarchy and heteronomy. Nonetheless, heritage-making under the contemporary signs of the times can be appropriated, communicated, substituted or even challenged by partakers of a certain culture and by way of a choice of language employed. It is in the context of the latter that we specifically lay emphasis on the language of auctoritas and potestas as decisive in cultural heritage-making.

Source or Periodical Title

Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology

ISSN

1584-1057

Volume

11

Issue

2

Page

19-37

Document Type

Article

Language

English

Subject

Auctoritas, Culture, Heritage-making, Laguage games, Potestas

Identifier

doi:10.5840/cultura201411213.

Digital Copy

yes

Link to Full Text

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