[Besides property and family] there is also a more uncanny inheritance and heritage; the culture– a deeply contested and controversial category –that is our heritage and what we inherit. It was Heidegger who said that we are thrown into the world. At the risk of “downloading” Heidegger and inviting a scholarly discussion of his work (please don’t!), it is this state of being thrown into the world that constitutes the uncanniness of heritage. There is– again, that problematic term –a cultural world that precedes us, that is alien and mysterious to us, that we did not ask for, but which we nonetheless must navigate and live in. We are thrown into it. This is not a metaphor, and, as Hegel said, the mysteries of the Egyptians were mysteries to the Egyptians. What is this claim to mean, if not that this thing we are supposed to be– this heritage –is nonetheless opaque and mysterious to us. “Am I doing it right?”

¶ 1:08 AM