Ett religiöst kulturarv av folket? : Folksagor i Sverige som en form av religiöst kulturarv, av och för folket.

Sammanfattning: The aim for this essay was to study the concept of cultural and religious heritage. Background to this essay is a personal interest in Swedish folklore and folk tales but also an interest in cultural and religious heritage as a concept. The theoretical framework is based on the Australian heritage and museum researcher and archaeologist Laurajane Smith. Smith criticize the way western civilizations tends to create and legitimize cultural heritage in a way that some groups’ cultures protects while others risks too fall into oblivion. She discusses the possibilities for the concept of intangible heritage to challenge the heritage creation of today. A major part of the folk tales in Sweden contains several religious themes and motives which originates from Christianity and folklore. Through text analysis, this essay shows the variety of religious themes, motives and subcategories that is the common denominator for the narratives. Discoveries from the text analysis combined with previous research lays the foundation for the discussion. What we consider to be a cultural, or religious heritage today has, according to Smith, been established by a minor elite who has had the interpretive precedence to accept or dismiss certain cultural expressions as a heritage. The folk tales, as an intangible heritage, can become the cultural and religious heritage of, and for the people. In the tales that have been preserved it is not the kings voice, nor the church voice we hear. It is the voice of the worker, the farmer and the crofters. Intangible cultural heritage can provoke the meaning of cultural heritage and who’s heritage we speak of.