UNESCO action plans as dispositifs of canonisation. The woodcrafting knowledge of the Zafimaniry of Madagascar.

Abstract

Ethnographic accounts of the implementation and impact of safeguarding measures upon the communities of practitioners in postcolonial settings are still relatively small in number. This article reports in-depth ethnographic data on the heritagisation process and plan of action for safeguarding the woodcrafting knowledge of the Zafimaniry of Madagascar, aiming to foster an empirically grounded debate on the uses of heritage in such contexts. The study argues that the inventorying and trademarking act as dispositifs of canonisation imposed upon intangible cultural heritage, and produce its social institutionalisation, whereby new bureaucratic structures are put in place to mediate the spontaneous ways ‘local practitioners’ define and practice their knowledge. Outlining the connective capacity of the heritagisation process to establish relationships between different fields – political, economic, cultural- the article highlights the controversial power/knowledge relations arising in the designation and management process, and the links between the UNESCO recognition and economics.