Packaging the Past

The commodification of cultural heritage has been vilified by the heritage community. This attitude has resulted in a lacuna of knowledge about how it operates in the heritage context. Yet, heritage is increasingly subject to commodification and the topic can no longer be ignored. Creating a synthesis of the arguments and case-studies presented at the 9th Cambridge Heritage Seminar entitled Packaging the Past: The Commodificiton of Heritage, this article seeks to re-evaluate the process of commodification and explore its consequences (negative and positive) on cultural heritage. Through a critical engagement with the historical development of the concept of commodification, this article explores what changes have occurred since Hewison’s seminal 1987 volume The Heritage Industry. We emphasize investigating the issues of emotion, agency, entertainment, authenticity, legality, value, and memory in this context.