Most of what we experience as heritage emerges into conscious recognition through a complex mixture of political and ideological filters, including nationalism.  In these processes, through a variety of devices (museums, scholarly research, consumer reproduction, etc.), dualistic classifications articulate a powerful hierarchy of value and significance.  In particular, the tangible-intangible pair, given legitimacy by such international bodies as UNESCO, reproduces a selective ordering of cultural artifacts and practices that follows the bureaucratic formalism of the nation-state and represses and excludes other perspectives.  What losses, distortions, and biases spring from this framework, and how do we confront them?