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Diagnoses of cultural loss are everywhere today. Losing culture, identity, traditions and roots and its corollary–the need to pass down–are tropes mobilized by individuals and groups throughout the world, although differently within diverse social and cultural contexts. This phenomenon is what I call the contemporary tout-perdre (losing everything), a specific posture vis-à-vis the past seen as irreversible. Suffice it to think of the heated debates on the Christian roots of Europe, the success of Roots by Alex Haley in the United States, the craze of heritage tourism and the genealogical obsession, but also the claims addressed by many to preserve their culture (from Peuples Premiers in Canada to indigenous communities in South America and passing by Jewish and Muslim families in Europe). 2 Evidence suggests that cultural loss has become a politicized issue, as the concept is regularly used by politicians, local elites, UNESCO experts and some anthropologists. In Europe, right-wing politicians invoke the trope of