Tomar and its People : On the relationship between local people and their heritage

Sammanfattning: Heritage has been defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “features belonging to the culture of a particular society, such as traditions, languages, or buildings, that were created in the past and still have historical importance”. In plain words, it is what defines a cultural expression and allows this cultural expression to survive, reproduce and thrive like a living organism.The aim of this thesis is to study and analyse how the locals in Tomar perceive their heritage, and how they present it to outsiders.After conducting an ethnographic survey based on informal interviews with locals, both professionally involved with heritage and uninvolved professionally with heritage, it was possible to conclude that Tomar is a case of living heritage, as it is a place where the intangible heritage is kept mostly by the locals despite the lack of assistance of the governing authorities, and the locals have no say on the governing authorities’ management decisions affecting tangible heritage.