01849nas a2200133   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002100002200043245011200065856013900177300001200316490000700328520138000335                                       d1 aChiara Bortolotto00aThe Embarrassment of Heritage Alienability: Affective Choices and Cultural Intimacy in the UNESCO Lifeworld  uhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85200761789&doi=10.1086%2f728686&partnerID=40&md5=1ba7fd67011ecfa0e8a9b1c59712e9b8  a100-1220 v653 aUNESCO defines intangible cultural heritage (ICH), in contrast to conservation-oriented models, as “living” and as playing a dynamic role in contemporary society, thus bringing to the fore a controversial entanglement with the market. On the basis of multilevel and multipositioned participant observation of the ICH global governance apparatus, I focus on displays of embarrassment (and preventive prudishness) triggered by this entanglement among actors with normative agency in the implementation of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the ICH. In shedding light on their disorientation vis-à-vis the intrinsic commercial dimension of cultural practices recognized as ICH, I highlight the role of affects and emotions in UNESCO’s lifeworld. Distress triggered by the violation of assimilated cultural codes defining heritage as inalienable reveals the cultural intimacy that binds a transnational epistemic community of heritage professionals. Challenging UNESCO’s polished self-representation as a dispassionate, rational bureaucracy, I consider the major international clearing house for heritage policies as a social world with its own affective life. I argue that these affects have a performative influence on the practice of heritage making, despite official, rationalizing narratives such as that of “good” versus “bad” commercialization.