Memory and patrimony houses and doors

Abstract

It presents some reflections about the concept of patrimony since its origins until the contemporaneity. It affirms that there is an intrinsic relation between patrimony and power, which remains in the relation between patrimony and property, being it material or spiritual, economic or symbolic, and its association with the idea of preservation. It emphasizes that the notion of possession seems to be more appropriate in relation to museums than to property. It suggests that the preservationist idea and the conception of property are in the root of institutions of patrimony and of museums (houses of memory and power). It stresses that preservation as a social practice, which is used for the construction of determined narratives, has a subjective character. This is covered up by discourses that intend to be positive, scientific and objective. It concludes that what is in question in museums and also in the domain of cultural patrimony is memory, forgetting, resistance and power, danger and value, multiple meaning and functions, silence and speech, destruction and preservation. Consequently, it is interesting to understand these phenomena in their social dynamics and also comprehend what may be done with them, against them, in spite of and from them.