A contribution to the Transdisciplinary Terminology of Cultural Heritage

Abstract

In the last two decades, the changes in the concept of cultural heritage intensified the attempts to create the foundations and standardize the nomenclature of heritage studies and the heritage theory. The standardization attempts mainly come from the professional associations and international organizations dealing with heritage conservation, but, at the same time, they reflect novel theoretical stand points, being continuously built in the conservation practice. These changes in heritage theory allow for a wider interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary insights in the field. Such a situation opens a question of terminological compatibility of different fields expressing direct or indirect interest in cultural forms and processes, an example of which is covering a range of research programs under the umbrella term of cultural evolution. In this article, an instrumental definition of cultural heritage is generated to support the terminological analysis. The elements of this definitions are further used as a basis for a review of terminology in the fields of cultural evolution and cultural heritage, in order to create clusters of compatible terms in both fields. This article aims at stressing the need for transdisciplinary knowledge synthesis and integrated heritage terminology.