Erfgoed: De geschiedenis van een begrip

The word ‘heritage’ is nowadays mainly used in the term pair ‘cultural heritage’. Another use of the word ‘heritage’ focuses precisely on the intangible meaning of the word. This includes the spiritual legacy of a thinker or artist. In the latter sense, the term ‘heritage’ has a longer history than in the first. In Heritage. The history of a concept reconstructs and analyzes the different histories of the concept. First of all, attention is paid to the legal origin and development of the word ‘heritage’. Willem Frijhoff highlights its religious dimension. Other authors focus on related concepts, such as ‘monument’ or ‘antiquities’. Eco Haitsma Mulier pays attention to the concept of ‘testators’, made famous by the famous Erflaters publication of our civilization by Jan and Annie Romein (1938). Eric Ketelaar, Gerard Rooijakkers and others each discuss a specific field of action within the cultural heritage: archives, literature, archeology, folklore. The collection ends with a reflection by Wessel Krul on the need of some to oppose the heritage idea or even the urge to destroy heritage.