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The primary objective of this paper, one of the products derived from the author's doctoral thesis, is to indicate how the current Brazilian Constitution innovates to define cultural heritage and establish measures for its preservation. With this purpose, the author makes a genealogy of the so-called "Cartas Políticas" of Brazil, which addressed heritage issues. Without examining the process that led to their formation in depth, this paper aims to demonstrate how the current Constitution extends the concept of heritage, albeit with some limitations, such as the naturalization of cultural diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper comes from an ethnographic work in the National Museum of Colombia, and it aims to analyze the objects exhibited in its halls and the store in order to understand the connection between patrimony and consumption. In this sense, the representation of the National Museum consolidates in the creation of a national identity based on the official history of the national heroes and their descendants, which is expressed in most of the objects displayed in the exhibit halls. On the other hand, another narrative guided by the neoliberal economy is constructed in the museum store. It takes afro, indigenous and rural representations that have been marginalized in most of the museum halls, strenghtened by the ethnic economy and promoted by tourism and advertising. This duality leads the museum visitors to consume both representations: the ones built by the State as well as the ones positioned by companies and multinationals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article goes back to museification as a particular way of construction and legitimation of collective memory. Museification generally refers to political and cultural actions deployed by institutions and civil servants that are aimed at selecting and placing an "object"--whether cultural or natural, as well as individuals or communities-- within lines of reasoning and speeches that "petrify" the historical and cultural meanings of these objects. In this paper, we understand museums as institutional places par excellence in which memorial state activities tend to converge. In particular, the article explores two cases in which the museification process can be clearly identified. First, the controversy surrounding the proposal of including the towel of the recognized guerrilla leader Manuel Marulanda Vélez, (Tirjofijo), in the collections of the National Museum of Colombia in early 2001.Secondly, the article explores the case of some indigenous communities located in the country's southern jungles, in which the state lines of reasoning of the territorial control seem to conceive indigenous people and their lands as analogous to "eco-museums". We try to argue how state initiatives on social memory are essentially a field of paradoxes and social struggles. To do this, we rely on a theoretical discussion about memory studies and their relation to specific categories of the museological theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]