Intimate heritage: experiencing the authentic in the arts prémiers

Abstract

In order to be conceived as ‘art’, the ethnographic heritage reenacted to the European eyes as “arts prémiers” must have its “authenticity” attested by a specific set of values. The paper analyses the axiological grammar, as proposed in the work of Nathalie Heinich, from a perspective of the sociology of value, leading the objects of heritage to be perceived as “arts prémiers” in Europe, and particularly in the case of the Musée du quai Branly, in France. Considering a revision of the references used to think authenticity in the field of Museology and Heritage, the paper proposes an axiological perspective to investigate patrimonialization and musealization as social processes.