Intangible cultural heritage

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UNESCO intangible cultural heritage logo

As intangible heritage ( IKE ; English intangible cultural heritage , I ) or intangible cultural heritage are called cultural expressions that are passed on from generation to generation and constantly recreated and changed borne directly by human knowledge and skills. In contrast to immovable buildings and movable objects (e.g. the known world heritage sites or the world document heritage ), they are not material and therefore intangible .

The intangible cultural heritage is protected by international and often national law. The UNESCO and its partner organizations such as Blue Shield International tried doing to coordinate the actual protection and ensure.

On the concept of the intangible cultural heritage

Intangible cultural heritage includes (as defined by the UNESCO Convention) “customs, representations, forms of expression, knowledge and skills - as well as the associated instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces […], the communities, groups and, where appropriate, individuals as part of their cultural heritage five areas are named for further identification:

a) Oral traditions and forms of expression, including language as the bearer of intangible cultural heritage
b) Performing arts such as music, dance and theater
c) Social customs, social practices, rituals and festivals
d) Knowledge and practices in dealing with nature and the universe
e) expertise in traditional craft techniques

Examples from the lists of intangible UNESCO cultural heritage are the craftsmanship of blueprint, the high school and classical riding art of the Spanish Riding School, alpine mountaineering, the Neapolitan art of pizza baking, the perfume art from southern France, the rich beer culture of Belgium, the production of terrazzo in traditional craftsmanship, Al-Qatt Al-Asiri (an ancient female art form from Saudi Arabia) and Jamaican reggae.

The concept of 'cultural heritage' has changed and expanded significantly in recent decades. Cultural heritage does not end with monuments or cultural property collections. It also includes traditions and vibrant cultural expressions such as: B. Oral traditions, performing arts, social customs, rituals and festivals, knowledge and practices in dealing with nature and the universe and expertise in traditional craft techniques. The understanding that living and lived forms of culture are also cultural heritage comes originally from the countries of Asia and from the indigenous movementand should represent a counter-movement to the Eurocentric protection concept of UNESCO, which is strongly oriented towards monuments. That there is still a rich treasure trove of regional, non-tangible cultural forms in Europe is a recent awareness. The protection of languages, as the largest and most important intangible cultural heritage, should also be mentioned in this context or, according to Karl von Habsburg , President of Blue Shield International , in the age of identity wars, because language, as a symbolic cultural asset, can become a target.

Commercialization and folklore are seen as risks associated with labeling intangible cultural assets . Intangible cultural heritage is therefore also referred to as living cultural heritage (in the English-speaking world there are terms such as living heritage, living national treasure, living human treasure ) and means regionally autochthonous , “lived” cultural traditions of all kinds, which are no longer just in the sense of museum preservation or tourism Presentation of customs is cultivated, but rather represents a vital cultural self-image anchored in everyday life. The concept of the intangible cultural heritage is thus also differentiated from the modernMonuments . While the monument system focuses on the (material) originality of a cultural achievement, material results are seen as an ephemeral side effect in the case of intangible cultural assets, since the focus of interest is on the processes. The concept also differs from the concept of the museum-preserving, the changes in cultural expression in their transmission ('tradition' in the sense of the word) is seen as a central aspect. For this reason, the concepts of intangible heritage are increasingly being incorporated into approaches to sustainability and 'alternative' economic concepts.

UNESCO Convention for the Conservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Convention for the Conservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Title (engl.): Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage
Abbreviation: UN / I
Date: October 17, 2003
Come into effect: April 20, 2006
Reference: engl.
Reference (German): Official translation by the language service of the Federal Foreign Office,
Federal Law Gazette III No. 76/2009
Contract type: Multinational
Legal matter: Culture
Signing: 178
Ratification : 178 countries (as of May 2018) unesco.org
Members of the Convention (as of 2017)
Germany: July 10, 2013
Liechtenstein: -
Austria: April 9, 2009
Switzerland: July 16, 2008
Please note the note on the applicable contract version .

At the international level, UNESCO in particular has been active in the de facto and legal protection of the intangible cultural heritage. In three proclamations in 2001, 2003 and 2005, it named 90 particularly valuable intangible cultural assets from all regions of the world as “masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of mankind”.

In 2003, UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (English: Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage ). The convention came into force in April 2006 after 30 states ratified it. The forms of culture already included on the list of masterpieces were officially transferred to the “Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” on November 5, 2008.

178 states had acceded to the convention by May 2018. The Federal Republic of Germany joined on July 10, 2013 as the 153rd member.

According to the Convention, UNESCO keeps two lists and a register in which a cultural expression or a model project for the preservation of forms of expression can be included:

In addition, there are the lists for the respective country kept by the national UNESCO commissions.

The representative list contains selected forms of cultural expression that make the diversity of the world regions visible. The list currently (January 2020) comprises 549 entries from 127 countries. Of these, 42 cultural forms and model programs were newly added in 2019. Cultural expressions that are particularly endangered are on the list of intangible cultural heritage in urgent need of conservation. 59 cultural expressions urgently in need of preservation are currently listed. For the register of good practice examples, model projects are included in which the objectives of the Convention are implemented in an exemplary manner. There are 19 projects in the register.

In addition to the existing UNESCO World Heritage emblem for cultural and natural sites of exceptional universal value, the contracting states of the Convention have decided on their own emblem for intangible cultural heritage.

National

China

China ratified the UNESCO Convention on the Conservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage in August 2004 and published an initial list of 518 items on May 20, 2006. The creation of the list goes back to a project for the protection of customs and ethnic cultures, which was launched in 2004 by the Chinese ministries for culture and finance. A second list was published in June 2008, containing a further 510 items.

Germany

In December 2011, the Federal Republic of Germany decided to initiate the ratification procedure for the Convention. On December 12, 2012, the Federal Cabinet decided to join the Convention; all federal states subsequently approved this individually. Germany acceded to the UNESCO Convention in April 2013. The official certificate was presented to UNESCO Director General Irina Bokowa by Ambassador Michael Worbs on April 10, 2013 in Paris . The convention came into force in Germany on July 9, 2013.

From May 3, 2013 to November 30, 2013, groups and networks with common interests were invited during the first application phase to apply with their lively everyday culture, knowledge and skills for the new nationwide directory of intangible cultural heritage . After the federal states made a preselection, the Conference of Ministers of Education examined the applications and forwarded them to the 23-person committee of experts on intangible cultural heritage. The committee decided in summer 2014 on the first entries in the directory. For the first proposal list, 128 proposals were received, of which 83 made it onto the shortlist. These proposals covered all possible areas of the Convention. There were 29 proposals from the field of customs, rituals and celebrations, 19 from the field of the performing arts, 19 from the field of handicraft traditions, 13 from the field of forms of knowledge in dealing with nature and the universe and 3 from the Oral storytelling field. In the first edition of the nationwide directory published in December 2014, 27 cultural forms were finally included, including some regional customs. It was also decidedTo nominate a cooperative idea. The “idea and practice of organizing common interests in cooperatives” was taken up in November / December 2016 at the meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In cooperation with 17 other countries, Germany was also involved in the application to expand the intangible cultural heritage of falconry. In March 2016, Germany submitted the nomination “Organ Building and Music” for the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity to UNESCO. In December 2017, the Intergovernmental Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage decided to include this second German nomination in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In Nationwide list of intangible cultural heritage are currently 72 entries. It should grow from year to year and in the long term make the diversity of cultural forms of expression in and from Germany visible. The directory is created in a multi-stage process by the German UNESCO Commission and various German state actors. It is an inventory in the sense of knowledge organization, which intangible treasures our country has to offer, which forms of tradition and organization exist in Germany and how far the spectrum of diversity extends. In December 2015, the first two programs were also included in the register of good practice examples on the recommendation of the Expert Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritageintangible cultural heritage in Germany. Two further programs were launched in December 2016.

In Germany, in addition to the UNESCO Commission, a number of chairs and institutes, including a. the chair for tangible and intangible cultural heritage at the faculty for cultural studies of the University of Paderborn , scientific with the topic. At the Chair for Material and Intangible Cultural Heritage, the master's degree in “Cultural Heritage” is offered. At the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg , the international program World Heritage Studies can be completed as part of a two-year interdisciplinary master’s degree .

The states of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia have also set up their own state lists due to the diversity of their cultural life: the Bavarian state directory of intangible cultural heritage and the inventory of the intangible cultural heritage of North Rhine-Westphalia . In addition, both federal states have set up their own advice centers (in Munich and Paderborn) for intangible cultural heritage. The State Office for Immaterial Cultural Heritage North Rhine-Westphalia is located at the Chair for Material and Immaterial Cultural Heritage at the University of Paderborn. She works on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia. Advisory services are also available in Saxony-Anhalt from the State Home Association of Saxony-Anhalt.

Liechtenstein

The principality has not yet acceded to the convention.

Austria

On January 1, 2006, the Republic of Austria founded a National Agency for Intangible Cultural Heritage within the Austrian Commission for UNESCO and has been the 112th member state of the Convention since April 9, 2009. The list of intangible cultural heritage in Austria already includes around 100 entries, and three entries in the representative world list .

Switzerland

Switzerland has already carried out the ratification procedure in full and is therefore a fully-fledged signatory state with effect from July 16, 2008 (99th accession state). In September 2012 the Federal Office of Culture published a list of living traditions in Switzerland , which represents the inventory of intangible cultural heritage in Switzerland required by the Convention. In 2017, the list of living traditions was updated to include 199 cultural expressions.

literature

  • Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett: Intangible Heritage as Metacultural Production. In: Museum International. 56 (1-2) (2004), pp. 52-65.
  • Karl C. Berger; Margot Schindler; Ingo Schneider (Ed.): Erb.gut? Cultural heritage in science and society. Self-published by the Society for Folklore, Vienna 2009.
  • Valdimar Tr. Hafstein: Making Intangible Heritage. El Condor Pasa and Other Stories from UNESCO. Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN 2018.
  • Dorothee, Hemme; Markus, Tauschek; Regina Bendix (Ed.): Predicate "Heritage". Added value from cultural resources. Lit, Berlin 2007.
  • Intangible cultural heritage. In: German Unesco Commission: Unesco today: Journal of the German Unesco Commission. 54 (1st half of 2007) 1, Bonn 2007, pp. 1-79, ISSN  0937-924X
  • Intangible cultural heritage = Patrimoine immatériel. In: Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences: Bulletin of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences. 2, Bern 2008.
  • Oliver Rymek: Museums and the intangible cultural heritage. Possibilities, limits and strategies of compatibility. Diploma thesis University of Technology, Economy and Culture Leipzig 2008.
  • Eva-Maria Seng: Patrimoine culturel immatériel. Plaidoyer pour une vision global you patrimoine culture l. In: Jean-René Morice, Guy Saupin, Nadine Vivier (eds.), Mutations de la culture patrimoniale , Rennes 2015, pp. 61–72.
  • Eva-Maria Seng: Patrimoine - global - regional - glocal. Patrimoine matériel et immatériel, une alternative? In: Martine Cocaud, Emmanuel Droit (eds.), Le patrimoine culturel immatériel. Regards croisés de France et d'Allemagne , Vitré 2015, pp. 20–34.
  • Eva-Maria Seng: Material equals immaterial / immaterial equals material. The two sides of the same coin . In: Birgit Franz, Gerhard Vinken (ed.), Monuments - Values ​​- Evaluation. Preservation of monuments in the area of ​​tension between specialist institutions and civic engagement , Holzminden 2014, pp. 49–56.
  • Eva-Maria Seng: Cultural heritage between globalization and localization . In: Winfried Speitkamp (ed.), European cultural heritage. Pictures, Traditions, Configurations , Stuttgart 2013, pp. 69–82.
  • Eva-Maria Seng: Cultural Landscapes. The recovery of the intangible cultural heritage in the landscape . In: Lino Klevesath, Holger Zapf (ed.), Democracy - Culture - Modernity. Perspectives of political theory , Munich (et al.) 2011, pp. 201–220.
  • Markus Tauschek: Value creation from tradition: the Carnival of Binche and the constitution of cultural heritage (= studies on cultural anthropology, European ethnology , volume 3). Lit, Berlin (among others) 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10266-9 (Dissertation Uni Göttingen 2009).
  • Convention for the Conservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage . German UNESCO Commission, Bonn 2013, ISBN 978-3-940785-48-0 .
  • Identifying and Inventorying Intangible Cultural Heritage . (PDF; 1.9 MB; 16 pages) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (brochure)

Web links

Commons : Intangible Heritage of Humanity  - collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ^ Quote from the Convention for the Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage .
  2. ↑ UNESCO General Conference 2003: Convention for the Preservation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage , chap. I, Art. 2, Sentence 2. Text of the Convention , p. 3
  3. ↑ Cf. Gerold Keusch: Protection of cultural assets in the era of identity wars. In: Troop Service - Magazine of the Austrian Armed Forces, October 24, 2018.
  4. ↑ analogous to terms such as 'living folk music ' or 'living costume '
  5. ↑ "" Mummification "of these rites". Quote from Ellen Hertz Zurich 2008, quoted below. What does intangible cultural heritage mean for science? 2008, p. 25 (reference pdf p. 13 column 3).
  6. ↑ cf. Michaela Noseck: What is tradition? Ed .: National Agency for Intangible Cultural Heritage, Austrian UNESCO Commission. 2009 ( web document , nationalagentur.unesco.at). Web document ( Memento of August 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Sarah Prehsler: Local and traditional knowledge as intangible cultural heritage: a source of cultural diversity and a guarantee of sustainable development . Ed .: National Agency for Intangible Cultural Heritage, Austrian UNESCO Commission. 2007 ( web document , nationalagentur.unesco.at). Web document ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@2Vorlage:Webachiv/IABot/nationalagentur.unesco.at
  8. ↑ Convention for the Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage , official German language version
  9. ↑ Convention for the Preservation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage , Swiss Federal Laws
  10. ^ Original English text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage
  11. ^ List of the previous contracting states of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
  12. ^ UNESCO - The States Parties to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003). In: ich.unesco.org. April 20, 2006, accessed January 13, 2020 .
  13. ^ Conventions. In: unesco.org. October 17, 2003, accessed January 13, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Culture and Nature. In: unesco.de. Retrieved January 13, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Culture and Nature. In: unesco.de. Retrieved January 13, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Homepage of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@2Vorlage:Webachiv/IABot/unesco.de
  17. ↑ Official website of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office in Germany
  18. ↑ Official emblem for the intangible cultural heritage protected by the UNESCO Convention (blue)
  19. ↑ Intangible cultural heritage in Germany - Germany compiles a directory of intangible cultural heritage. German Unesco Commission e. V. , accessed on August 8, 2014 .
  20. ^ Minister of State for Culture Bernd Neumann: Germany joins UNESCO Convention for the Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, December 12, 2012, accessed on September 11, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Germany joins UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage - Passing on knowledge and traditions from generation to generation. German Unesco Commission e. V. , April 2013, accessed August 8, 2014 .
  22. ↑ Admission procedure - process for the recognition of a cultural form of expression as an intangible cultural heritage in Germany. German Unesco Commission e. V. , accessed on August 8, 2014 .
  23. ↑ 83 shortlisted proposals for intangible cultural heritage - entries in a nationwide directory will be presented at the end of the year. German Unesco Commission e. V. , June 2014, accessed August 8, 2014 .
  24. ↑ 27 Forms of Culture included in the German Directory of Intangible Cultural Heritage , German UNESCO Commission
  25. ↑ organ Craftsmanship and Music UNESCO ICH
  26. ↑ Chair for Material and Intangible Cultural Heritage (University of Paderborn). Faculty of Cultural Studies at the University of Paderborn
  27. ↑ Master's degree in cultural heritage (University of Paderborn). Retrieved January 10, 2019 .
  28. ↑ World Heritage Studies (WHS). Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, accessed on June 25, 2017 .
  29. ↑ Intangible cultural heritage. Bavarian State Ministry of Finance and Homeland, accessed on June 25, 2017 .
  30. ↑ State Office for Intangible Cultural Heritage in North Rhine-Westphalia (University of Paderborn). Retrieved January 10, 2019 .
  31. ↑ Intangible cultural heritage. Landesheimatbund Sachsen-Anhalt eV, accessed on June 25, 2016 .
  32. ↑ Switzerland ratifies the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity and Intangible Cultural Heritage ( Memento of January 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), Swiss UNESCO Commission
  33. ↑ Switzerland's intangible cultural heritage: the list of living traditions has been updated. Federal Office for Culture FOC , accessed on May 5, 2019 .