The “National Fact” and the Notion of Cultural Heritage in Brazilian Constituent Assembly (1987/1988)

The UNESCO Universal Declaration on cultural diversity, states that “cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature”, recognizing cultural diversity as “humanity's common heritage”. In this perspective it is urgent to discuss the relationship between cultural diversity and heritage preservation policies. In 1980, Chastel and Babelon published a work which would become a reference for those researching on cultural heritage: “La notion de patrimoine”. Starting from this work, and arguing that heritage is as much cultural as it is economic and political, we propose to discuss the relationship between heritage and cultural diversity from the idea of “national fact”. To this end, we resort to the process developed by the Brazilian Constituent Assembly of 1987/1988. We analysed minutes of hearings and other documents to conclude that the construction of the constitutional article concerning heritage (article 216) shook the apology of national identity that had shaped public Brazilian policies since the 1920s and 1930s.