Det säljande kulturarvet

Minnesvård och minnesbruk igår och idag

Abstract

The topic for this article is the growing "heritage business" in Sweden, with special attention to and example from the visiting area in Västerbotten called Guldriket.

The article starts with an exposé over how the museums and the science around ancient history have motivated its existence in relation to the public community. From initial centralization and public education during the last 200 years has, in the later part of the twentieth century, cultural politic gravitated against decentralization and democratization in the process of making and caretaking of public heritages. In the same time shall cultural politics still act in a direction to keep distance from the commercial market. This results in a message in two directions which is equally confusing for the common public as it is for the antiquarians. This art of dilemma is discussed in relation to a specific case from Guldriket, which highlights value making and issues in preservation in context from both the horizon of the official and the local/layman.