SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Exploring the values attached to heritage through an ethnography of craftwork in southern Ghana, this chapter looks at how the routine, quotidian sociality of weaving, engaged in by young men seeking livelihoods, embodies ideas about cultural practices which are quite different than those enacted by local elites. Looking at the antinomies of local craft heritage from the perspective of an annual festival held in celebration of weaving traditions, the material considers how social and political hierarchies, and their attendant conflicting power relations shape engagement with local heritage. Colonial history, Ghana’s post-independence national heritage policies and the contemporary experience of youths waiting for work point to how heritage has become contested as both an element of elite spectacle and the foundation of crafting livelihoods. Approaching craft as a socially stratified and politically fraught part of local livelihood practices offers the opportunity to enliven heritage studies and move beyond elite politics to the lived realities of heritage traditions.