The wind of the south-east. Regionalism, neo-Sicilianism and heritage policies in Sicily at the beginning of the millennium

Abstract

This essay explores the socio-political dynamics triggered by the inclusion of eight municipalities in South-Eastern Sicily in the UNESCO World Heritage List (WHL). The study examines the interplay between international bureaucratic classification, heritage policies, identity rhetorics, and the political landscape at local, regional, and national levels. It delves into how UNESCO's heritage policies shape identity construction and exhibition within a global institutional framework and how these power dynamics are perceived and manipulated locally. Using ethnographic data from local contexts, the research highlights how local practices and objects are part of broader social poetics, revealing a continuous subversion of temporal axes. The study employs theoretical models from contemporary North American anthropology, particularly Michael Herzfeld's concept of "cultural intimacy," to analyze these processes.