EMEA

Malabar Heritage Museum

Heritage Studies provides an exciting new approach to the study of history. It develops an understanding of heritage as the public face of history and encourages a critical awareness of the debates around how we interpret and use the past. Heritage Studies explores a number of different key issues:

• The issue of what is ‘real’ and what is ‘bogus’ history.
• How the past is represented in forms of public history, such as memorials, plaques, statues, art and architecture.
• The representation of the past through TV and film.
• How museum curators and heritage practitioners collect, preserve and represent the past.
• The role of the heritage industry in modern society.
• The role of museums and heritage sites in the processes of lifelong learning.

Heritage is “Anything which has been transmitted from the past or handed down by tradition”. Clearly, the origin of the term ‘Heritage’ seems to be closely associated with Heir, Heredity and Inheritance – anything that is inherited down the generations. Anything, whether tradition, custom, history, religion and religious observances, philosophy, art styles/performing arts, monumental objects and even nature’s manifestations, could be treated as Heritage provided the same has been transmitted from the past. And, further, depending on the nature of the particular object or property, it may be classified, and distinctly identified as ‘Social Heritage’, ‘Cultural Heritage’, ‘Religious Heritage’, ‘Artistic Heritage’, ‘National Heritage’, etc. Ashworth and Tim Bridge opine that the link between the preservation of the past for its intrinsic value and as a resource for a modern community or commercial activity is Heritage.