A Definition of Heritage

Humans are obsessed with themselves. As in really obsessed. It’s kind of fun, but it can also be scary—like when the obsessing party misses the big picture. Take for instance the intense focus on cultural legacy. You don’t want the wrong person guiding that conversation. With that in mind, here’s a rudimentary attempt at a definition of heritage.

 

What the Dictionary Says

Merriam-Webster Dictionary provides one definition of heritage we can work with.

• Something transmitted by or acquired from a predecessor.

 

And the Britannica Dictionary gives us another angle.

• The traditions, achievements, beliefs, etc., that are part of the history of a group or nation.

 

Questions

Of course, the above definitions leave plenty of room for interpretation, raising a few questions.

Can the something transmitted simply be stated, or is DNA evidence of such transmission required?

Do beliefs require scientific validation? Should they?

If a child is born in Country A to parents from Country B, what formulas are available to help that household navigate the second definition?

And what if one parent is from Country B and the other from Country C?

Does the loss of one heritage automatically mean the gain of another? In other words, is there a Conservation of Heritage Law?

By emphasizing one’s own heritage, is one implying superiority? Or simply non-inferiority?

As predecessor does not necessarily specify a point in time, how far back do we go? (See below)

 

An Example

The term heritage, as used in modern discourse, is subject to arbitrary and somewhat restrictive temporal guidelines. Take a look at the heritage of hypothetical Individual X when a more permissive approach—one that allows for different timeframes—is taken.

Present day: Country A, based on Individual X’s location of birth.

50 years ago: Probably Country B, based on the location of Individual X’s parents at that time.

200 years ago: Not Country B, as it didn’t exist in its current form.

2000 years ago: Locations C and D, from which two different groups with two different languages migrated to what would eventually become Country B (where a new language would form).

200,000 years ago: Creatures like Individual X (meaning Homo sapiens sapiens) didn’t really exist.

4 million years ago: Some sort of hominid?

65 million years ago: A contemporary of the Tyrannosaurus rex, somewhere on Earth?

3.7 billion years ago: Single-celled organisms, somewhere on Earth?

4.5 billion years ago: Earth might not have existed, making the question of heritage a cosmic one indeed.

14 billion years ago: Existence was contained entirely in a single point smaller than an atom, meaning Individual X’s heritage was similar to, well, everything.

 

Now, you’re probably wondering whether this definition of heritage exercise was really necessary. And to that I would reply: Is this website really necessary?