“A Vila dos Pequenos Palácios de Porcelana”: os regimes de patrimonialização do conjunto arquitetônico colonial de São Luís do Maranhão.

Abstract

The current thesis i s a study of the processes of declaration as cultural heritage of the urban, architectural, and l andscape complex of São Luís do Maranhão i n northeastern Brazil. On a federal l evel, the complex was registered i n 1974 with IPHAN on i ts Archaeological, Ethnographic, Landscape and Fine Arts l ists. On a state l evel, i t was registered as Historic Cultural Heritage of the state of Maranhão i n 1986. On an i nternational l evel, the Historic Center of São Luís was i ncluded i n the World Heritage List of UNESCO i n 1997. The primary hypothesis i s that the narratives produced by the i nstitutional, political, and social proponents of this official recognition provided the groundwork for the cultural heritage systems that guided these public policies surrounding social and historical memory. Approaching different contexts i n which debates about cultural heritage are found, we i dentify, among many other conflicts, two central debates that complicated the definition of historical and artistic value of the colonial architectural heritage of São Luís. The first narrative emphasizes the value of the historical evolution of the historic center as the most important perspective, one which was eventually adopted by IPHAN and was widely accepted by UNESCO. The second narrative assumes that the artistic value of the architectural authenticity of the Maranhão-style house i s i mposed over the historical and urban values of the l andscape of the old historic city center. Thus, the divergences i n the narratives about the originality of this architectural heritage generate different systems of authenticity that attempt to make “official” an i mage of São L uís t hrough d iverse mechanisms o f l egitimation.