Cultural Heritage is All Around Us

Cultural heritage is much more than buildings and monuments – it's something you find everywhere! From books and objects, to music and dance, to skills and cultural practices, why not share with UNESCO the examples of cultural heritage that are important to you? #Unite4Heritage www.unite4heritage.org — with René Friede.

Traditional knowledge of the jaguar shamans of Yuruparí (Colombia)

The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage meeting in Bali inscribed on 27 November 2011 the Traditional knowledge of the jaguar shamans of Yurupari (Colombia) on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The jaguar shamans of Yuruparí share the common heritage of the many ethnic groups living along the Pirá Paraná River in southeastern Colombia. Using traditional knowledge and ritual practices, the shamans heal, prevent sickness and revitalize nature. During the Hee Biki ritual, male children learn the traditional guidelines for these practices as a part of their passage into adulthood.

It is believed that shamans inherited their traditional knowledge from the all-powerful, mythical Yuruparí, an anaconda who lived as a human and is embodied in sacred trumpets.

More information on: http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/RL/00574 and http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/seven_new_inscri...

To know more about Intangible Heritage visit: http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00001

Extended version of this video on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqWoosEGy2Q

Video copyright: © 2010 ACAIPI, Fundación Gaia Amazonas. 4 Direcciones Audiovisual. National Geographic T.V.

NPR Interview: Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding

Click here to listen to or read a transcript of Host Melissa Block as she talks with Frank Proschan, program specialist for the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section of UNESCO, about items being added to this year's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

Editorial: American Intangible Cultural Heritage

The 2003 Convention defines ICH as the practices, representations,

expressions, as well as the knowledge and skills, that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural

heritage.

The definition also indicates that the ICH

to be safeguarded by this Convention:

• is transmitted from generation to generation;
• is constantly recreated by communities and groups, in response to their environment, their interaction with nature, and their history;
• provides communities and groups with a sense of identity and continuity;
• promotes respect for cultural diversity and human creativity;
• is compatible with international human rights instruments;
• complies with the requirements of mutual respect among communities, and of sustainable development.

UNESCO is compiling a list of representative elements of cultural heritage. There are currently 90 such elements

in the list, but none from the United States. The purpose of this editorial is to recommend American submissions for the list.

The Easy Nominations

There are some obvious choices that are much like those submitted

by other nations:

• Music: Jazz, Bluegrass, The American Popular Song
• Events: The Rodeo, the Native American Pow Wow
• Art: Abstract Expressionism

Culture is not merely the arts.

I suggest that some of the most important aspects of American intangible culture would not be included in these categories. For example:

• The National Republic: The United States was the first nation to be established as a republic. Prior to the creation of the United States, it had been assumed that the republican form of government would only be feasible for a small body, such as the ancient Greek city state. In the two centuries since its creation, the American national republic has been emulated in many nations, but we still are in a process of recreating it to meet new challenges and opportunities.
• Civil Society: American society has been recognized at least since de Tocqueville as exceptional in its use of non-governmental organizations to do what in other societies is left to government or the commercial sector. Yet we are in a constant process of reinventing civil society.
• The American System of Manufacture: The idea of interchangeable parts in mass production was first put into operation in the United States, and since has swept the world. Yet our processes of mass production are always being recreated.

The Internet

Let me also suggest that the United States nominate the Internet for the list. We are familiar with the trillion pages of Internet content and the many applications that utilize the Internet. The Internet, however, is fundamentally an abstract concept. The first version of the Internet Protocol that allowed computer networks to communicate among themselves was developed in the United States, and the Internet was first introduced in networking computers in this country. Yet the idea of the Internet is being continuously, if rapidly recreated.

Why Recommend These Elements to the List

Culture includes not only the quaint and picturesque, but also the most practical aspects which contribute to human wellbeing. UNESCO, as the United Nations agency responsible for culture, should focus not only on the protection of the ideosyncratic elements of local culture, but on recognition and promotion of the aspects of culture that contribute to human wellbeing.

UNESCO already recognizes the Internet, but it focuses on the Internet as a technology to be disseminated. Focusing on the Internet as a cultural element, created in the United States, that must be recreated to meet the requirements and opportunities in different cultures would be an alternative, and I believe an even more fruitful role for UNESCO.

Americans are proud of our civil and political cultures as well as our historical role in finding ways increasing the production of goods that meet the needs of people. Our government could help gain more international recognition for those achievements. Moreover, by focusing UNESCO attention on cultural elements that improve governance, social intercourse, and economic productivity the government might help UNESCO become more relevant and useful as a development agency.

John Daly

(The opinions expressed above are those of the author, and don't necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.)

A map of the internet circa 2003 showing the connections between different internet routers

Día de Muertos

El Día de Muertos es una celebración mexicana de origen prehispánico que honra a los difuntos el 2 de noviembre, comienza el 1 de noviembre, y coincide con las celebraciones católicas de Día de los Fieles Difuntos y Todos los Santos.

En ceremonia llevada a cabo en París, Francia el 7 de noviembre de 2003 la UNESCO distinguió a la festividad indígena de Día de Muertos como Obra Maestra del Patrimonio Oral e Intangible de la Humanidad. La distinción por considerar la UNESCO que esta festividad es:

"...una de las representaciones más relevantes del patrimonio vivo de México y del mundo, y como una de las expresiones culturales más antiguas y de mayor fuerza entre los grupos indígenas del pais."

Además en el documento de declaratoria se destaca:

"Ese encuentro anual entre las personas que la celebran y sus antepasados, desempeña una función social que recuerda el lugar del individuo en el seno del grupo y contribuye a la afirmación de la identidad..."

además de:

"...aunque la tradición no está formalmente amenazada, su dimensión estética y cultural debe preservarse del creciente número de expresiones no indígenas y de carácter comercial que tienden afectar su contenido inmaterial."

China, UNESCO, and Intangible Cultural Heritage

Ethnomusicology Colloquium lecture

by Helen Rees

Friday, June 05, 209
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
B544 Schoenberg Music Building
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Helen Rees, Professor of Ethnomusicology at UCLA, has conducted extensive fieldwork on ritual and tourist music of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in the southwest region of China, focusing on the Naxi ethnic minority and the Han ethnic majority.

"Putting culture first: commonwealth perspectives on culture and development"

This report discusses, among other things, the role of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expression "in providing a framework for countries, particularly those with limited government capacity, to implement successful cultural policy designed to support creative production and enhance cultural diversity."

Putting Culture First is the product of extensive consultation with representatives from government, civil society, and the culture and development sectors across the Commonwealth, carried out between February and October 2008.

The Intangible Heritage Network

This network's website is dedicated to the involvement of non-governmental organizations and civil society in topics related with the intangible cultural heritage. The network's founders feel that "the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage represents an important achievement concerning the recognition and advancement of cultural rights. Moreover, it has involved State Parties undersigning it in a consistent exercise towards the identification and study of their intangible cultural heritage."

YOu might want to check out this site with interesting photos posted by the Intangible Heritage Network.

The Intangible Culture Messinger June Issue

Conceived for ICH professionals, national delegations, national commissions, colleagues within UNESCO and other UN agencies, NGOs, private partners and other actors from civil society, the Messenger is intended to provide updates on the status of the Convention’s ratification and implementation. The newsletter also reports on current fieldwork and research, best practices, action plans for Masterpieces, living human treasures, endangered languages, oral traditions, traditional music and dance and much more. Thanks to the regular columns – Calendar and Living Heritage News – readers can keep abreast of conferences, commemorations, publications, exhibitions and changes within ITH.

Go to the June issue (PDF)

Go to the archive of past editions.

Memory of the World

The vision of the Memory of the World Programme is that the world's documentary heritage belongs to all, should be fully preserved and protected for all and, with due recognition of cultural mores and practicalities, should be permanently accessible to all without hindrance.

The 8th Meeting of the Memory of the World International Advisory Committee (IAC) has been held in Pretoria, South Africa from 11-15 June 2007. It has been reviewing review 50 new requests for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register, submitted by 38 countries.

The United States has only one entry in the register now:

Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque Lustrationes (2005)* (The 1507 printed world map, prepared by the Gymnasium Vosagense, St. Dié, France under the direction of Martin Waldseemüller, is the first map on which the name America appears. The Library of Congress possesses the only known surviving copy of this map.)

The last date for submission of new nomination proposals for inscription on the Memory of the World Register will be March 31, 2007. New proposals submitted by that date will be examined during the 2008/2009 session. Click here for more information on nominations.

Editorial Comment: I believe that the United States should pledge to the world to keep safe those documents created here that are part of the world heritage. I think some suitable candidates might be:

Political documents:

• The Declaration of Independence, which has served as a model for so many other nations since it was signed.
• The U.S. Constitution, which is the oldest written national constitution of a major nation (only San Marino may be considered to have an earlier written constitution).

Culture:

• Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian: Photographic Images at the Library of Congress;
  

Technology: A great gift of the United States to the world has been American technology, and it could be commemorated through the papers of our most distinguished inventors:

• Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers at the Library of Congress
• Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University
  
• Samuel F. B. Morse Papers at the Library of Congress, 1793-1919
• Eli Whitney Papers at Yale University
  
• The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers at the Library of Congress

Incidentally, the Gayanashagowa or the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois (or Haudenosaunee) Six Nations, the oral constitution that created the Iroquois Confederacy, might be considered as a nomination for the Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Gayanashagowa is said to have provided significant inspiration to Benjamin Franklin and James Madison in the writing of the United States Constitution, and thus to have inspired political thought in many nations.