ABSTRACT
As theatres of memory, heritage sites and museums are arenas where the social and political status quo is reinforced through individual and collective acts of simultaneous reinforcing, privileged self-esteem and the maintenance of emotional indifference to inequality. Visiting certain museums and heritage sites, particularly those that speak to narratives of nation, are affective practices of asserting, maintaining and inheriting social privilege. Heritage is emotional, and the emotions it engenders work to validate and define the individual and collective meanings and consequences it has for the present. Different forms of heritage – authorised or dissonant – are used in differing and varied ways and have different emotional registers and repertoires that validate and facilitate those uses. The individual and collective acts of visiting are as much about heritage-making as are the professional practices of curation; collection management and acquisition and site interpretation, management and preservation.
