Heritage (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what heritage is in various areas, its characteristics and origin. Also, what types of assets exist.

What is heritage?

Heritage is a legacy, an inheritance, something we received from the past or that is part of a valuable heritage and worthy of preservation. However, this term can have very different meanings depending on the area of knowledge from which we contemplate it.

For example, the heritage In the legal sense it is the totality of the assets and liabilities of a natural or legal person.that is, “all those legal relationships (…) that have an economic utility and are therefore susceptible to pecuniary estimation.” The latter means that they can be translated into a monetary amount.

In that sense, when a company loses part of its assets, we understand that it becomes poorer: it has had to sell part of its assets or its shares in other companies, for example. The same thing happens when we say that someone has a gigantic patrimony: that the total of the assets and capital they possess add up to a very significant sum.

However, This term can also be used to refer to historical, documentary or even natural assets. that a nation possesses: this would be its historical heritage or its natural heritage, although they cannot really be sold or bought, since their value would be too great to be measured in money.

See also: Cultural heritage, National heritage

Heritage characteristics

In general, all heritage is characterized by:

From an economic point of view, must be able to be measured or estimated in money. For this reason, fundamental rights are not part of each person's assets, and cannot be bought or sold.
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 assets that could be sold to receive capital) and a passive (all debts, obligations or tax burdens in general).
The assets that constitute someone's assets can generally be inheritedthat is, transmitted through a line of succession. This is especially true for natural, historical or cultural heritage, which accompanies generations of human beings, without belonging to any specific individual.
From a legal point of view, it covers not only the assets of a natural or legal person, but also your rights and obligations.

Origin of the term heritage

heritage origin napoleonic code — With the Napoleonic Code of the 19th century, the modern legal idea of heritage was born.

The term heritage comes from latin heritage, made up in turn of father (“father”) and monium (“received”), so it could be understood as “what was received from the father.” At that time, the family property of noble citizens (called patricians) was transmitted from the father to his male children, since its administration was the responsibility of the paterfamilias (the “father of the family”), although his property was family.

The notion of heritage similar to the Roman one remained alive in law for centuries. However, The Napoleonic Code defined it as individual propertydue to the liberal thinking prevailing at the time. It is precisely at that moment in the 19th century that the modern legal idea of heritage was born.

Types of assets

Heritage can be classified from numerous perspectives, given that it is a concept that has many aspects from which to approach it. We will try to detail a few of them below:

According to its naturewe can distinguish three types of heritage:
- Economic heritage. Which would be the traditional notion, which covers the assets, rights, liabilities and assets of a natural or legal person.
- Natural heritage. Consisting of the set of landscapes, natural wonders, natural resources and geological heritage that belongs to a given nation, and that is relevant from an environmental, scientific and aesthetic point of view. Natural heritage is generally understood to include national parks, nature sanctuaries and natural monuments.
- Cultural and/or historical heritage. Understood as the set of assets that its own history has left as a legacy to a nation, and that therefore are invested with a very important historical, symbolic and/or aesthetic character. Cultural heritage includes both cultural practices, such as archaeological sources, artistic works, popular traditions, etc., in which the particular identity of a nation or a community is contained.
According to its tangibilitywe 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 assets. When it comes to physical, concrete objects that can be carried or moved from one place to another.
  - Tangible immovable assets. When it comes to physical, specific objects that cannot be carried or moved from one place to another, due to their size, weight or fragility.
- Intangible heritage. When it comes to abstract elements, they cannot be touched.
According to your beneficiarycan be distinguished between:
- Personal assets. When it is owned by a single person, natural or legal.
- Collective heritage. When it is not the property of one individual, but of two or more, or of the entire community: a nation, a group, etc.