Book Review: A Theory of Cultural Heritage

"Jump on board the Salvador Muños-Viñas theory train"

Review by Jane Henderson

A Theory of Cultural Heritage: Beyond the Intangibleby Salvador Muños-Viñas Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group (2023) $39.99 / 202 pages / 7 B&W illustrations ISBN 9781032263946

I was fortunate to be given A theory of cultural heritage: Beyond the Intangible, authored by Salvador Muños-Viñas, to review, and it has certainly been a stimulating read. Muños-Viñas invites us to address theoretical issues with intellectual finesse, and that is the only way to approach this book. This would be a perfect book club choice. Anything that Muños Viñas writes is interesting and challenging, and I want to talk about it with fellow conservators because I have questions! There were times while reading this book when I felt swept along by Muños Viñas’ logic and language. I wanted to pause and decide if I agreed with the fundamental starting points.  I wanted to talk with colleagues to ensure I understood the meaning of the words, phrases, and chapters, and to discuss the implications of these ideas for my practice. 

I admit to a rueful smile when Muños-Viñas states in the introduction that he has made a deliberate effort to compose a text that is as uncomplicated as possible. I suspect it could be less complicated! There are many terms that need to be understood to follow this book, not least to get through chapter one, ‘How not to be axiological: a brief history of cultural heritage’, which I read for several pages before Muños-Viñas offered me his definition of the word ‘axiological’. Meanwhile, I was running to keep up with the introduction to his concept of cultural heritage. I think his definition is probably the aspect I have the most questions about. I can't quite disagree with the logic offered, but neither do I feel comfortable with his definition of the establishment of cultural heritage in Europe as an act of the Enlightenment from 1792. Muños-Viñas talks about the consequences of the French Revolution and the decree that ‘may symbolise the starting point in the history of the concept of cultural heritage’ (p. 7). Although this is introduced as a ‘may’, I think it is pivotal to the whole book. The starting point of cultural heritage is defined as having universal value, judged by experts using criteria such as aesthetic and cultural judgments. He describes this as reinforcing the political status quo—emphasising both the intellectual and economic superiority of the enlightened class, ‘no selection can be made without a selector’ (p. 19). I kept wondering if that starting point excluded other less formal concepts of cultural heritage which, although discussed, were presented as downstream from an original moment in France. Did no one else in the world ever have a sense of such things in a way they could recognise before a decree was passed in Europe? 

In chapter three, Muños-Viñas introduces Stanley Eveling’s concept that a thing is a slow event (p. 53), a point which resonates with the work of Hannah Hölling (i.e., her book Object—Event—Performance, 2021). This was such an attractive concept for me that I rolled it around in my brain for days, considering how objects change as we engage with them. Is each just-noticeable fade of a painting simply proof of art as a slow event? It is for these moments that this book is such a joy.

As the book develops, Muños-Viñas begins to require us to understand cultural heritage in one of three streams. The first familiar, if limited, concept is of tangible cultural heritage that can be defined, listed, selected and conserved—simply, cultural heritage with universal value chosen by an elite, with the possibility for singularity and boundaries. Such designation of cultural and heritage value serves an elitist agenda ‘as reinforcing the social and political status quo’ (p.16). Muños-Viñas further explores the nature (or ontology) of cultural heritage as we move beyond the tangible form, asking how we understand cultural heritage with its plural intangible aspects?  Finally, he asks if, for some people, cultural heritage becomes everything, and everything is cultural heritage to the point that it renders the concept meaningless.  I think he despairs at the ‘refusal to theorize’ (p. 55), as he believes a lack of boundaries makes cultural heritage redundant (p. 57). These are the shifts from axiological to non-axiological that the book addresses.

Each of the chapters in this book has its own DOI (digital object identifier) and powerful titles that draw you in. Who doesn’t want to read a chapter on ‘Elitism, authority and cultural heritage’? Muños-Viñas explores the power of authority in defining the value of cultural heritage. In the wider societal framework, experts have roles in defining, codifying and protecting cultural heritage, and Muños-Viñas argues this authority (even elitism) is inevitable. Indeed, to fail to select and define is an absurd notion. The challenge is not to eschew authority but to challenge bad authority.  Muños-Viñas respects expertise in matters ranging from bridge building to painting conservation, and I think he is arguing that this limits the scope for democratic participation in matters of the experts. I am not sure I fully embrace the conclusions and draw on Muños-Viñas’s own recent paper in the Journal of the Institute of Conservation in which he talks about all the decisions involved in conservation and where the skills for this sit. Beyond science, our decisions are tactile and instinctive, but are these not available for discussion and participation?   

Muños-Viñas is, of course, quite right that many of the terms used in conservation have multiple meanings in different contexts and therefore require discussion. These discussions are particularly enjoyable when he describes issues around authenticity, a ‘convoluted concept in the heritage field’ (p. 116). Chapter seven is inspired by the Nara Declaration, but the issue has arisen previously many times in the book before we get here. He offers a clever thought experiment of the ‘Theseus parade’ (pp. 122-123) in a town where one part of the community evolves their parade over time and the other part attempts to preserve aspects of the parade. Both sides can claim authenticity for their version of the parade.  Muños-Viñas describes authenticity as no more than ‘a noble disguise’ for notions such as ‘taste, need or preference’ (p. 121). I cannot help but wish that something more fundamental was on that list. Whilst tastes, needs and preferences are acts of selection by people—as described in the thought experiment—when I recognise an authentic cultural experience, it is something that I simply have from the places and the people that I have been with; with those around me, I grew up eating, acting, performing or wearing certain things, and while some of these become tastes and preferences, they don’t feel, to me, like choices selected from a menu—they feel baked in. I felt the allure and elegance of Muños-Viñas’s argument and yet didn’t quite feel it to my core. 

Muños-Viñas concludes with the idea that the notion of cultural heritage is more complex than had been previously thought. After reading this book, I can only agree. He has approached the whole work with ‘intellectual finesse’ (p. 110). Muños-Viñas fundamentally experiments with words and ideas and takes you on a delicious journey. He argues (p. 29) that although boundaries and concepts can be challenged, deconstructed and found to be arbitrary, they are still useful. I believe that Muños-Viñas hopes to make the theory and concepts of cultural heritage more manageable, to support us in our tools to think about it and create uncomplicated, if fuzzy, boundaries. I didn't feel that I quite got there, but I enjoyed the ride and perhaps in my book club I would be able to resolve these questions.

Author bio:

Jane Henderson, Professor of Conservation and Secretary General of the IIC, is chair of the BSI standard group B/560, which is concerned with the conservation of tangible cultural heritage. Jane serves on the editorial panel of the Journal of the Institute for Conservation and the Science Museum Journal and is the acting president of the Welsh Federation of Museums and Art Galleries.

Read this and other reviews in the August-September 2024 "News in Conservation" Issue 103, p. 60-63