TEHIC-Handbook_of_best_practices

2. An overview of the concept of heritage interpretation and its evolution. TEHIC Towards a European Heritage Interpretation Curriculum 22 “Passion for heritage resources and their meanings, passion for the communities that have generated them and bequeathed them to the next generations, passion for the di- versity and perspectives that they must show, even in the case of conflict and pain, because that too is part of the human being and of the collective memory that must be preserved. But also, a passion to show it, to convey it, to share it, with modesty, generos - ity and in a thorough way, but also to receive, to exchange, so that it is truly bidirectional; it is not the museum that shows the world, but a small part of the world that is represent- ed in that museum.” Heritage interpretation as a tool for eco-social transformation B ecause of its specific features, which we have just described, its origins and the recommendations for its application, heritage interpretation is a tool intimately linked to the search for connections with the human being, both from a conceptual and an emotional point of view. It is true that what is called heritage interpretation is not always actually heritage interpretation, and this has caused and continues to cause damage to the development of the discipline. Very often, in the name of heritage interpretation, visitors are provided with a lot of data and information, without any previous creative methodological process. At best, this stems from a lack of knowledge of both the psychological and communicative approach to how people process information and how intimately our behaviour is linked to our cognitive and affective parts; at worst, it stems from an unhealthy need on the part of the professional carrying out the intervention, whether sequential or non-sequential, to show how much he or she knows. Of course, in both cases this is an ineffective approach, to say the least. 7 Seminar on Interpretation of Natural and Cultural Heritage by CENEAM. OAPN. Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico (Spain). The rights of the visiting public. Source: Seminario de Interpretación del Patrimonio Natural y Cultural (SEMIP), CENEAM, 2014 .