ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book shows things about the role of the senses in heritage formation processes. First, it highlights how the senses were evoked to provide immediate embodied validation of expectations about the heritage significance of material cultural forms. In this regard, the book showed how, for example, the vuvuzela caught the public’s attention because of its volume and tone which easily mapped on to ideas about African traditions of horn blowing trumpeted by state and FIFA officials during the tournament. The acceptance or rejection of the sound was therefore cast as a commentary on the ‘African cultural’ status of the instrument. The senses facilitated an aesthetics of persuasion that entangled subjects and objects by providing direct, embodied corroboration of socially constructed expectations about the heritage significance of material cultural forms.
