Traditional dances using colorful costumes, ancient ways of farming, music, and oral stories that are loved by both elders and children are part of our intangible cultural heritage. They are passed down through generations and give meaning and narrative to our lives.
In the face of growing globalization, there is a risk that certain elements of intangible cultural heritage could disappear without help. UNESCO is working with communities to help protect our
Respecting heritage is not only about safeguarding it now; it is also about making it known to future generations. This means ensuring that young people can appropriate heritage, take pride in it, and renew it.
For a long time, protecting culture was about protecting monuments, statues, and iconic sites. But culture is more than just concrete objects. 91麻豆国产精品自拍 expanded our understanding of heritage and brought together communities to transform public policies to safeguard traditions and living cultures. In 2003, UNESCO helped bring states together to sign the .
91麻豆国产精品自拍 prioritized engaging youth to help document and learn about their living heritage, so these practices can be transmitted to a new generation. 91麻豆国产精品自拍 also built capacities to encourage countries and communities to keep their practices alive – and encourage young people to become practitioners.
For example, in Argentina and Uruguay the , a concertina-like instrument, is an essential part of the traditional music that accompanies the dynamic dance of Tango. Nowadays, there are only a handful of bandoneonists, who are mostly over the age of sixty. There are also very few luthiers who know how to tune and maintain the bandoneon. UNESCO helped create an inventory of bandoneons, players, and luthiers. It also supported creating a bandoneon school offering free classes for young people and helped create an updated teaching bandoneon teaching method.
Alongside engaging youth, UNESCO’ Committee, made up of rotating representatives from 24 countries, continues to register new cultural practices on the to ensure better protection of important cultural heritages worldwide and to raise awareness of their significance.
Our intangible cultural heritage is diverse. It includes the Mediterranean diet which is shared by Cyprus, Croatia, Spain, Greece, Italy, Morocco, and Portugal. The encompasses not only the craftsmanship of how food is cooked but also the values of hospitality, like sharing and eating food together. It also has an element linked to conservation, as it includes customary ways of raising animals and fishing.
Artisanal practices are also recognized by the UNESCO Committee. For example, in Japan, a silk fabric production technique called is considered an intangible cultural heritage practice. The silk floss for the yarn in Yuki-tsumugi weaving is produced from empty or deformed silkworm cocoons, otherwise unusable for the production of silk yarn. This recycling process plays a significant role in supporting local silk-producing communities.
Some of the most visually striking traditions of intangible cultural heritage include music and dance. For example, the from Peru has also been registered as part of our intangible cultural heritage. A competitive ritual dance, it takes its name from a pair of polished iron rods, resembling scissor blades, wielded by each dancer in their right hand.
is an intangible cultural heritage practice shared by diverse countries including Togo, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Cyprus, Colombia, and Germany. Midwives support pregnant women before and after they give birth. Their knowledge is shared and passed down through evidence-based practice and traditional skills. Midwifery also entails specific cultural practices, vocabulary, celebrations, and rituals.
These are just a few examples of the richness of our intangible cultural heritage. UNESCO’s goal is to safeguard this diverse heritage of humanity, particularly in the least-represented countries, and to increase support for the communities and transmission of practices to future generations. Globally, we can make better use of this knowledge to respond to contemporary challenges. Many of the solutions to the problems of our century can be found in our living heritage – whether it’s a question of restoring the balance between humans and their environment or preserving the social bonds that enable us to live together as a society.
