The Heritagization of Religion and the Sacralization of Heritage in Contemporary Europe


Project Summary

This project aims to understand the consequences of the heritagisation of religious sites, objects and practices which were not considered heritage before, and which may provoke tensions between, heritage and religious constituencies, religious and secular sacralisations and uses, and different disciplines and management regimes.

Often what is now considered heritage was and still is seen as religious in nature and possibly sacred. Actual heritage involves an explicitly secular gaze that sacralises non-religious aspects of religious sites, objects and practices in a cultural, historical, or otherwise secular, inherent frame. Since World War II, heritage is increasingly seen as defining identities and communities in times of change.

 

Prof. Oscar Salemink

Project Leader

University of Copenhagen
Denmark


Our Lady of Walsingham, statue in the Roman Catholic Shrine.

Our Lady of Walsingham in the Anglican Shrine

HERILIGION asks, what happens when religious sites, objects and practices are simultaneously considered heritage?

The project will produce new insights which can be used to understand, manage and defuse tensions, benefiting both religious and heritage constituencies in Europe.

The research will take place at religious and heritage sites in Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and the UK, or would focus on emerging practical heritage – so-called intangible cultural heritage – in these countries.

View project website

Project Partners

Prof. Oscar Salemink

Project Leader

University of Copenhagen
Denmark

Email

Dr Ferdinand de Jong

University of East Anglia
United Kingdom

Email

Dr Anna Maria Niedzwiedz

Jagiellonian University
Poland

Email

Dr Maria Clara Saraiva

Centro em Rede de Investigacao em Antropologia
Portugal

Email

Dr Irene Stengs

Meertens Institute
Netherlands

Associate Partners

Dr Ulla Kjaer

National Museum of Denmark
Denmark

Dr Anouk Janssen

Museum Catharijneconvent
Netherlands

Dr Antoni Bartosz

Ethnographic Museum in Krakow
Poland

Aleksander Kardys

Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation
Poland

Dr Paulo Costa

National Museum of Ethnology
Portugal

Dr Joana Monteiro

Museu de Lisboa - Palácio Pimenta, Portugal
Portugal

Cláudio Ferreira

ATUPO
Portugal

Dr Helen Lunnon Hungate

Medieval Art
United Kingdom

  • University of Copenhagen

    University of Copenhagen

  • University of East Anglia

    University of East Anglia

  • Jagiellonian University

    Jagiellonian University

  • Centro em Rede de Investigacao em Antropologia

    Centro em Rede de Investigacao em Antropologia

  • Meertens Institute

    Meertens Institute

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