Resumo
The ideas presented in this colloquium are based on the premise that the so-called heritage regime (Bendix et al. 2012) or heritage machine (Alonso 2013) is creating social structural fractures that are reproduced by the machinery of the system itself, regardless of the elements or practices that become heritage. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the Camino de Finisterre, this presentation will explore the effects that the pilgrimage in having on the local populations. In particular, it will focus on the distance between heritage policies and local perceptions of what constitutes the heritage along the Camino. The large number of studies of the pilgrimage itself contrasts with the near-absence of research into the effects of the pilgrimage on the daily lives of the populations who live along the route and the heritagization processes that the exploitation of the Camino for tourism purposes entails. The analysis is part of the research project ?Heritagization Processes along the Camino de Santiago: Route Santiago-Finisterre-Muxía? (INCITE-09PXIB-606181PR), that integrates various disciplines ?history, anthropology, sociology, archaeology?and various methods ?ethnographic fieldwork, surveys and archival work. Instead of ending in Santiago, as the rest of the caminos, this route reaches Finisterre. In Latin, Finisterre means ?the end of the earth.? Finisterre?s cape is located in the North-West of Spain in Galicia. It is considered the Western-most point of continental Europe, although geographers have demonstrated that the capes of Roca in Portugal and Touriñán ? very close to Finisterre, also in Galicia ? are situated further in the West.