Associate Professor Valdimar Tr. Hafstein.
Professor Valdimar Tr. Hafstein.

His writings on intangible heritage, international heritage politics, cultural property, and copyright in traditional knowledge have been widely published and translated into French, Italian, Portuguese, Croatian, and Danish. He chaired the Icelandic Commission for UNESCO from 2011-2012.

Abstract

"Heritage in Motion: Masculinity, Modernity, and Uprightness in Traditional Wrestling"

Coming sideways at the conference theme, this lecture considers the movement of the body from the angle of critical heritage studies. It fleshes out questions such as: How is heritage embodied? How are bodies of heritage constituted, disciplined, carried, experienced? How are temporal relationships inscribed on bodies? The empirical focus is on a traditional form of wrestling, glíma, which was declared Iceland's national sport at the beginning of the 20th century and the vantage point that Glíma wrestling offers on body techniques involved in the formation of modern national subjects and in their relationship to time. Relying on rich visual evidence, the lecture analyzes the sculpting of male bodies through glíma wrestling, contrasting the work that the regime of "national culture" did in forming modern national subjects one hundred years ago with the work that the cultural heritage regime does today in forming contemporary, reflexive, fractured subjects, with an emphasis on bodies, senses, and masculinities.