'A rich ethnographic contribution to the emerging scholarship on heritage governance and bureaucracy. Becoming Heritage reveals how a fraught assembly of international agencies, state institutions, NGOs, tourist economies, and descendant communities combine to promote intangible heritage and defray charges of exclusion and dispossession in an Afro-Colombian setting. Maria Escallón reminds us of the lived realities of those in pursuit of recognition and who pays the ultimate price.' Lynn Meskell, author of A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage, and the Dream of Peace
Preface; Introduction; 1. A new framework of legitimacy; 2. Institutionalizing heritage: bureaucracy, meritocracy, and expertise; 3. Heritage in the face of death; 4. Palenqueras and the trap of visibility; Epilogue; References.