For a historical anthropology of cultural heritage. From the symbolic construction of community to the "discovery" of the future: a look between Marmilla and Campidano

Abstract

This essay intends to analyze, from the methodological point of view of historical anthropology, some problems inherent to cultural heritage in some areas of southern Sardinia (Medio Campidano e Marmilla), starting from a reconstruction of the historical-institutional events and attitudes that led to the birth of the concept of "cultural heritage" as a semantic landscape rooted in the collective imagination. More precisely, the investigation I conducted made it possible to retrace the development process of some "patrimonial communities" located in the mentioned area, so places where the protection and construction of the artistic, architectural, archaeological and demo-ethno-anthropological heritage (as well as their social spaces) becomes the background of collective projects and local policies, capable of involving the entire social body. The communities I studied are of Sardara and Masullas - respectively in the sub-regions of Medio Campidano and Marmilla - in which I was able to conduct an ethnographic research aimed at detecting and documenting the mental changes that led to the transformation of these small villages from based on a peasant type culture to one based on tertiary activities and on the enhancement of heritage.