CULTURAL HERITAGE

REVISION
 TODAY
Date Seminar topic Topic

21 December Revision Wood blocks of

Nguyen Dynasty
Worshipping of
the Mother
Gooddeses
Cham Pottery
Kabuki Theatre
28 December Test Test
 REVISION
CULTURAL HERITAGE
• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE
CONCEPT

• TRANSNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS RELATED

TO CULTURAL HERITAGE

• CULTURAL HERITAGE AS ACADEMIC

RESEARCH FIELD
 EXPANSION OF THE MEANING OF
HERITAGE

• NATIONAL HERITAGE was

created by Édouard Pommier in 1790
when objects were seized from the
clergy – French Revolution
• HISTORICAL MONUMENTS
CONSIDERED AS HERITAGE–
activity from the 1860s
 EXPANSION OF THE
MEANING OF HERITAGE
• 1960s - ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE
• 1970s – CULTURAL HERITAGE came
with the concept of collective memory - both
are part of the identity
• Heritage determines self-identity
 LEVELS OF HERITAGE

• local-regional heritage: individual memory

• national cultural heritage: national self-identification
• European Cultural Heritage - continental heritage -
European Cultural Heritage Days
• World Heritage – transnational, global level
• expansion of the concept - expansion of social actors
involved
 TRANSNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
WORLD HERITAGE CONVENTION (1972)
• international legal system
• system of international responsibility
• Based on ‘Outstanding Universal Value ’-
importance for present and future
generations
TYPES OF THE WORLD
HERITAGE
 UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE
LIST CATEGORIES
:
ruins, buildings, or nature that is registered in
the World Heritage List
treasures for all people
required to be internationally protected,
preserved to the future
World Heritage List Nomination:
• countries that have signed the World
Heritage Convention can submit
nomination proposals
Tentative List:
• an element that a State Party intends
to nominate
DISTRIBUTION OF WORLD
HERITAGE SITES
 PROBLEM: COMMON HERITAGE OF THE
MANKIND OR COMPETITION OF NATIONS?

• underrepresentation of the cultural heritage of non-

Western cultures in the UNESCO World Heritage
• lobbying for national glory, for support from tourism
and from the World Heritage Fund
 LIST OF WORLD HERITAGE IN
DANGER (LWHD) - PROTECTIVE
TOOL
• awareness about the urgent conservation needs of sites
• allows the WH Committee to allocate financial support
from the World Heritage Fund
• mobilize contributions and resources from private
institutions
• assistance to Less Developed Countries (LDCs) and
Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
 HISTORY OF LWHD
88 properties have been listed at least once on the LWHD
34 subsequently removed from this list
POSSIBLE RESULT: material improvements, better
conservation practices
PROBLEM: state-parties consider listing as a sanction
rather than a constructive conservation tool
 WORLD HERITAGE FUND

• established in 1977
• The World Heritage Committee decides
on the budget and on its use
• 5.9 million dollars for the 2022-2023,
plus 0.4 million dollars for Emergency
assistance
 LWHD: A MECHANISM OF
MONITORING AND CONSERVATION
MEASURES
• THREE PROPERTIES DELETED FROM THE WH LIST:
• the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in Oman (deleted in 2007)
• the Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany (deleted in 2009)
• the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City in the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (deleted in
2021)
 THE INTANGIBLE HERITAGE
CONVENTION (2003)

• developed from the critique of tangible

CH
The World Heritage Committee wanted
to broaden the definition of World
Heritage
Aim: to create equal representation of the
cultures and regions
 OBJECTIVES OF THE
INTANGIBLE HERITAGE
CONVENTION 2003
• Safeguarding
• Respect
• Awareness
• Mutual appreciation
• International cooperation and
assistance
 MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF
ICH: LIVING HERITAGE

Defined, recognized, practiced, and transmitted by

the people (communities, groups, and individuals)
Changing
Safeguarding: assisting communities to continue
practicing, managing, and transmitting their ICH
States Parties need to involve communities, groups,
and individuals in safeguarding their ICH
 DOMAINS OF INTANGIBLE HERITAGE

oral traditions and expressions

language
performing arts
rituals and festive events
knowledge and practices concerning nature and
the universe
traditional craftsmanship
 ORGANS OF THE ICH
CONVENTION
.

Intergovernmental
General Assembly: All States Committee: 24 states
Parties are members. members, implement
the Convention.

UNESCO Secretariat assists

in implementation of the
Convention
 INTANGIBLE
HERITAGE FUND

Supports safeguarding,
.

inventory making, capacity

building

States Parties contribute to the

Fund

Some States make additional

contributions
 KEY SAFEGUARDING MEASURES

Inventorying

Presenting information on
Awareness-raising ICH elements in a
systematic way
Encouraging people to
understand and
appreciate ICH
Revitalization
Transmission Strengthening of
as a part of definition of ICH endangered ICH
and as a specific safeguarding practices
measure
 CREATION OF LISTS AND THE
REGISTER (2009)

• Representative List of the Intangible Cultural

Heritage of Humanity
• List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of
Urgent Safeguarding
• Register of Good Safeguarding Practices
 COMPARING TWO
CONVENTIONS

World Heritage (1972) Intangible Heritage (2003)

• Conservation of immovable • Safeguarding of expressions,
heritage and places skills, practices, knowledge
• Cultural and/or natural • Cultural and/or social
• Outstanding universal value • Communities define value as
• Authenticity, integrity help to relevant to them
define value, often limiting
change • People enact and transmit, so
ICH changes over time
RELATED GLOBAL CONCEPTS: ICH
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
‘A development which meets the needs of
the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their
own needs’
(Brundtland Commission 1987)
 SUSTAINABILITY

Idea of sustainability: International Union for the Conservation of

Nature (IUCN) 1969
Aim: management of ‘air, water, soils, minerals and living species
including man
three pillars ’ of sustainability:
• environmental
• social
• economic
 SUSTAINABILITY AND
CULTURE
• UNESCO ’s Action Plan on Cultural Policies for Development
Stockholm 1998
• UNESCO 2005 – culture as the fourth pillar of
sustainability
• Tools: job creation, revenue generation: cultural industries
• cultural institutions
• social cohesion and peace-building by environmental awareness
and actions
INCLUSIVE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT:
ICH AND QUALITY EDUCATION
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY:
ICH AND RESILIENCE TO NATURAL
DISASTERS

Hudhud chants of the Ifugao

© 2008 by J. Uñalivia/NCCA-IHC
INCLUSIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
ICH AND INCOME GENERATION
INCOME-GENERATING OPPORTUNITIES
BY SAFEGUARDING ACTIVITIES
• Tourism
• Use of traditional knowledge to manage environmental resources in a
sustainable way
• Introduction of relevant products and practices from traditional medicine
into the health system
• Sale of handicrafts
• ICH performances with admission fees
• Festivals
• Competitions
• Corporate sponsorship
RELATED GLOBAL CONCEPTS: HISTORIC
URBAN LANDSCAPE (HUL) - 2011

FOCUS on the interrelatedness of:

place
local community
local practices
local identities
BROADENING PERCEPTIONS OF
CULTURAL HERITAGE

• Earlier: aspects of beauty and visual

harmony dominated
• Now: urban heritage
• sense of place - equivalent of the genius loci
• cities - accumulation of cultures and
traditions
 HUL - NEW APPROACH TO
URBAN CONSERVATION

management of change
strengthening of local voices
no comprehensive theory of urban or territorial
conservation
not only aesthetically attractive
or historically significant buildings are important
 RELATED GLOBAL CONCEPTS:
INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE
• sites, structures, complexes,
areas and landscapes and related
machinery, objects or
documents
• industrial processes of
production, extraction of raw
materials
• energy and transport
infrastructures
 TICCIH – THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE
CONSERVATION OF THE INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE

• international organization for industrial archeology and industrial

heritage
• Aims: study, protect, conserve and explain the remains of
industrialization
• www.ticcih.org
 TASKS OF TICCIH
• Choosing what to preserve • Conservation and
• Legal protection community consciousness
• Urban regeneration and • Industrial museums
planning • Care of industrial and
• Adaptive re-use technical collections
• Financial and fiscal incentives • Conserving industrial
• Heritage at risk surveys artefacts
• Post-industrial landscapes • Industrial heritage tourism
• Industrial ruins
 CULTURAL HERITAGE AS ACADEMIC
RESEARCH TOPIC
Elizabeth Betsy Keough, Heritage in Peril: A Critique of UNESCO's World Heritage
Program, 10 WASH. U. GLOBAL STUD. L. REV. 593 (2011)

MAIN PROBLEM: The World Heritage Committee

Its structure and function are not well controlled by the
Member States
The World Heritage Committee has complete control
over who gets funding for which projects
PROBLEM 2: SEVEN-MEMBER
BUREAU OF THE COMMITTEE

• power concentrated in a small group

• the bureau heads the Committee
• sets the agenda
• makes it easy for the Committee to
prefer some projects for ideological,
political, or financial reasons
 INFLUENCE OF THE POLITICAL
PROGRAM OF THE UN AND UNESCO

• cultural relativism
• peacekeeping
• global sustainability
 PROBLEMS

• The committee used the World Heritage in

Danger List for ideological reasons
• Neither the Committee nor UNESCO has the
power to ensure that the states properly use the
funding
• interests of the Member States are fragmented
• States’ interests are in conflict
POSSIBLE CONFLICT REASON:
CULTURAL NATIONALISM
• claim to cultural objects associated with
people or territory
• conflicts among states
• criticism of a state‘s actions with regard to its
sites is interpreted as criticism of the state‘s
expression of its culture
 POSSIBLE CONFLICT REASON:
TOO INTENSIVE LOBBYING
• Japanese tourist authorities
• abandoned mining town
appeared on the World
Heritage List in 2007
• Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine
satisfies none of the
Committee‘s ten selection
criteria
 POSSIBLE CONFLICT REASON:
INCREASED TOURISM

• EXAMPLES:
Angkor, Machu Picchu, Galapagos
• the Committee must find that a site has the
ability to withstand any accompanying tourism
and urban development problems
 PROPOSED CHANGES

• TO NOMINATION PROCESS:
• Member states should no longer be allowed to
submit their own nominations
• INSTEAD: independent groups should recommend
to the World Heritage Committee
• no more extensive lobbying
 POSSIBLE CHANGES:
NEW POTENTIAL DONORS

• The World Heritage program must bring

in money from various sources
• corporations are hesitant to sink money
into UNESCO
• because of extensive bureaucracy and lack
of transparency