We explain what heritage is in various fields, its characteristics and origin. Also, what types of heritage exist.
What is heritage?
Heritage is a legacy, a inheritance, something that we receive from the past or that is part of a valuable heritage worth preserving. However, this term can have very different meanings depending on the area of knowledge from which we contemplate it.
For example, equity in the legal sense is the totality of assets and Passives of a natural or legal person, that is, "all those legal relationships (…) That have an economic utility and therefore are susceptible to pecuniary estimation ”. The latter means that they can be translated into an amount in money.
In that sense, when a business he loses part of his assets, we understand that he is impoverished: he has had to sell part of his assets or his shares in other companies, for example. The same happens when we say that someone has a gigantic patrimony: that the total of the assets and capitals that he owns yield a very significant sum.
However, this term can also be used to refer to historical, documentary or even natural assets that a nation: this would be its historical heritage or its natural heritage, although they cannot really be bought or sold, since their value would be too great to be measured in money.
Heritage characteristics
In general, all assets are characterized by:
- From an economic point of view, it must be able to be measured or estimated in money. For this reason, their fundamental rights, which cannot be bought or sold, are not part of the patrimony of each person.
- From an accounting point of view, it is made up of two parts: an asset (all capital and financial instruments, as well as all those goods that could be sold to receive capital) and a liability (all debts, obligations or tax charges in general) .
- The assets that constitute someone's estate can generally be inherited, that is, transmitted by line of succession. This is especially true for natural, historical or cultural heritages, which accompany generations of human beings, without belonging to any specific individual.
- From the legal point of view, it covers not only the assets of a natural or legal person, but also their rights and obligations.
Origin of the term heritage
The term heritage comes from Latin patrimonium, conformed in turn by pater ("father and monium (“Received”), so that it could be understood as “what was received from the father”. At that time the family assets of the citizens noblemen (called patricians) was transmitted from the father to his male children, since his management was from pater families (the "father of the family"), although his property was family.
The notion of Roman-like heritage was kept alive in the right during centuries. However, the Napoleonic Code defined it as individual property, due to the prevailing liberal thought at the time. It is precisely at that moment in the 19th century that the modern legal idea of heritage was born.
Types of heritage
Heritage can be classified from many perspectives, since it is a concept that has many edges from which to approach it. We will try to detail a few of them below:
- According to its nature, we can distinguish three types of heritage:
- Economic heritage. That would come to be the traditional notion, in which the goods, rights, liabilities and assets of a natural or legal person are covered.
- Natural heritage. Made up of all the scenery, natural wonders, natural resources and geological heritage that belongs to a specific nation, and that is relevant from an environmental, scientific and aesthetic point of view. Natural heritage is generally understood to be national parks, sanctuaries of the nature and natural monuments.
- Cultural heritage and / or historical. Understood as the set of goods that its own history it has left a nation as an inheritance, and therefore they are covered with a very important historical, symbolic and / or aesthetic character. Cultural heritage encompasses both cultural practices and archaeological sources, artistic works, traditions popular, etc., in which is contained the identity particular of a nation or a community.
- According to its tangibility, we can talk about:
- Tangible heritage. When it comes to concrete, physical elements that can be touched. In turn, it can be classified into two, according to its mobility:
- Tangible movable heritage. When it comes to physical, concrete objects that can be carried or moved from one place to another.
- Tangible real estate heritage. When it comes to physical, concrete objects that cannot be carried or moved from one place to another, due to their size, their weight or its fragility.
- Intangible heritage. When it comes to abstract elements, they cannot be touched.
- Tangible heritage. When it comes to concrete, physical elements that can be touched. In turn, it can be classified into two, according to its mobility:
- Depending on your beneficiary, you can distinguish between:
- Personal assets. When it is owned by a single person, natural or legal.
- Collective heritage. When it is not owned by one individual, but by two or more, or by the entire community: a nation, a group, etc.