Cuadernos de Antropología Social (Jul 2009)
Heritage politics and past reinvention: the pomerans of São Lourenço do sul, Brazil
Abstract
In this paper, we discuss the relation between publics politics, tradition and heritage in the town of São Lourenço do Sul, southern Brazil. The pomeranian ethnic group that for long time was ignored, nowadays is overvalued through a local policy of “past invention”.The political speech approaches a “rescue of the identity of this people, valuing the tourism as a source of economy.... the search for the past with the eyes on the future” (O Lourenciano, p.2, 18/01/2008).Our research consists in verifyng the impact of these interventions in this society, and how it accepts this heritaged past as true, an invented past, shaped in the present.
