Cum se construiește patrimoniul – câteva observații de teren
How We Create Heritage: Several Field Observations

Summary/Abstract: The present paper takes as a point of departure the field research started in August, 2020, still in progress, in the village of Povergina (the ethnographic area of Făget), within the project “Conservation and restoration of the burnt wooden church, ‘Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel’ (TM-II-mA-06275) from Povergina, Timiș County – D.A.L.I. phase”, financed by the National Institute of Heritage from the Historical Monuments Stamp Duty. As members of a multidisciplinary team (consisting of architects, engineers, landscapers, archaeologists, biologists, dendrochronologists), we made weekly forays into the mentioned village, with a view to conducting what could be called rapid ethnographic assessments (according to the model applied in medical anthropology), a sort of field surveys rather than the immersions recommended by classic studies. I did interviews in which I was interested in discursive connections to the monument (what people narrate about important events in their lives and how they happened, local folklore, beliefs, practices, rites of passage, the moment of the 2015 fire), non-participant observation, photographic documentation, field notes. All this has allowed me to make several comments on how the local cultural heritage is reconstructed / reinvented, starting from different views and discourses: on the one hand, I am interested in the way locals connect to the monument (although it is difficult, comments related to the value given to the monument can be attempted); on the other hand, in the way in which the specialists involved in the project relate to heritage.

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