The marimba de pierna (leg marimba) is a traditional musical instrument found in the southern region of the department of Atl & aacute;ntico, Colombia, specifically in the municipality of Santa Lucia. Blending indigenous and African traditions, its exact origins are uncertain. Along with other musical instruments from the Colombian Caribbean region, the marimba de pierna was widely used in the aforementioned municipality, but its execution began to decline with the advent of electricity in the population. More recently, the phenomenon of globalisation has impacted negatively on the conservation of indigenous traditions of many peoples. In the case of the marimba depierna, it has become less and less interpreted, with only a few families still manufacturing and playing it. This paper presents the results of a research study of this endangered instrument, highlighting its social function, organological structure and repertoire in the hope of contributing to the dissemination and reactivation of this instrument.
The Galo tribe in the Himalayas has a rich heritage of tangible and intangible cultures that are manifested in theirvarious life patterns through arts, crafts, festivals and oral traditions. This paper uses intangible heritage as materials and attempts to reconstruct the early society of the Galo during which significant discoveries and developments took place. Intangible heritage passed down through the ages is a chronological reference and a living archive of historical accounts. The paper traces the cultural shifts over time with the help of these living expressions. Mopin, a perfect manifestation of intangible heritage among the Galo, is embedded in theirculture and exhibits the vibrant aspects of their cultural life. Traditionally, it was a rite of propitiation, performed individually by families only after affirming through chicken liver examination. A nyibo (priest), after invoking the spirits of Mopin, Pinku, and Pinte, sacrificed a chicken, then inspected the veins and arteries in the liver, to determine the necessity of a Mopin-Pintum rite to address the agricultural crisis, when households faced adversities such as crop failure due to weather or pest outbreaks. However, in the second half of the 19th century, a drastic change transformed Mopin into a festival. This study of the Mopin myth goes beyond its evolution as a festival. It also sheds light on the primitive stage of Galo society and the emergence of various customs, especially historical events such as the discovery of paddy, the beginning of agriculture and the development of marriage customs. Therefore, the paper explores the social metamorphosis of Mopin from Pintum (rite) to a festival and the impact of these changes on traditional social settings.
This article explores the indigenous practices of local communities in establishing connections between local spirits and natural features through the cultural process known as Pop (U9u). The term Pop carries multiple meanings: (1) literally, it means 'to soothe, pacify, console'; and (2) culturally, it refers to a malevolent spirit believed to consume the intestines and organs of its host. Pop also refers to a social phenomenon involving the exclusion and expulsion of those who are seen as spiritually afflicted or socially alienated from their communities. The study specifically focuses on the purification process, known as Pua-Pop (sic), conducted in waterfront villages along the Mekong River in Southern Laos. These villages serve as sanctuaries for individuals accused and expelled from their original communities. Consequently, the village becomes a diverse community comprising people who share collective spiritual connections to the land and its natural resources. The study employed cultural landscape surveys that provided initial insights into agricultural land-use practices, livelihoods, and the role of spirits and natural features in the village. Through an analysis of the recovery process experienced by individuals previously affected by Pop possession, the study examined the emergence of the Pua-Pop ritual as a traditional management system in riverfront communities within the Greater Mekong subregion, specifically in Southern Laos. The findings revealed a strong connection between the purification ritual processes and the riverine spiritual landscape, encompassing the Mekong River, grassland and swamp areas.
This study examines the legal and institutional changes that have occurred in the Republic of Korea since 2005 in response to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Since 1962, the Republic of Korea has designated and protected intangible cultural properties, with the system initially established through the implementation of the Cultural Property Protection Act. The legal framework, which had remained largely unaltered since 1962, underwent a substantial revision in 2016 and was transformed into the National Heritage Act in 2024. This study will examine the characteristics of the intangible cultural property system under the regime of the 1962 Cultural Property Protection Act. It will then analyse legal and institutional modifications that have occurred within the 1962 Act system since 2005. It will demonstrate that these changes were the consequence of an initiative to accept the unfamiliar concept of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in parallel with the existing concept of intangible cultural property.
This study aims to explore the profound significance of the Tiska ritual and its pivotal role in fostering and fortifying social bonds among the Oromo people of Ethiopia, specifically the Hidabu Abote of North Shewa, Oromia Regional State. The Oromo, a major Cushitic-speaking community in East Africa, make up almost half of the population of Ethiopia. Amid the current global societal challenges, it is important to value different cultural perspectives. One such perspective is the Tiska ritual of the Oromo people. This rite of sacrifice is performed to ensure a harmonious relationship between individuals, families, clans and communities as a whole. The study used a qualitative research approach and a descriptive research design. Purposive sampling was used to select the study participants. The primary data was collected through the use of ethnographic data collection techniques such as observation, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and informal conversations. Secondary data was obtained from published and unpublished materials. Field data was discussed qualitatively and analyzed thematically. The findings of the study indicate that rituals such as the Tiska indigenous ritual of the Oromo people play a vital role in strengthening social bonds within communities. Through its rich cultural significance, the Tiska ritual fosters unity, cohesion and a sense of belonging among the Oromo people in the study area. Moreover, by gathering individuals together to participate in shared traditions, the ritual creates a space for communication, solidarity and mutual understanding, thereby fortifying social relationships. The study further comprises important recommendations and suggestions for prompt action given the seriousness of the subject matter.
Interpretation of the socio-spatial representations of Setif allows us to understand how the hammam is perceived in the city. The hammam is understood as a socially produced and experienced environment via an examination of its portrayal within the Setifian identity in Algeria. This research examines how the hammam functions as both physical structure and cultural space by analysing how Setif residents interact with, perceive and remember this traditional bathhouse. Through a two-phase methodology, we first conducted a survey with 103 residents of diverse ages and genders, followed by in-depth interviews with ten key participants at distinct locations across the city. This approach, inspired by Kevin Lynch's urban perception studies, allowed us to investigate how the hammam shapes urban identity and preserves cultural memory. Our methodology combines spatial analysis techniques with sensory ethnography to document both the tangible architectural features and the intangible cultural practices, oral traditions and embodied experiences that make the hammam a significant landmark in residents'mental maps of their city. Drawing on cognitive psychology, it has been established that the hammam is a spatial heritage of identity. It is acknowledged not only for its practical purpose but also for its symbolic significance, which is passed down through generations via the transmission of traditions and customs. It serves as a repository of functions and meanings, as well as a carrier of identity, culture and history. It is considered a 'spatial symbol'and a prominent location within the city's boundaries, which the current paper refers to as a 'mnemonic perceptual spatial reference'.
In recent decades, heritage research has increasingly underscored the importance of safeguarding intangible assets and considering the voices of marginalised groups, including children. Using social learning theory and environmental perspective, this study delves into the collective perspective of children from Mixquic, Mexico City, regarding the Day of the Dead (DD) celebration in their town, utilising drawings and interviews. The main findings unveiled: (i) the integral role of playful activities, such as el campanero, in the social learning process concerning intangible heritage; (ii) the offering as the focal point in children's collective representation of DD celebrations; and (iii) recognition of tourism as a generally positive contextual factor in the celebration.
This paper examines the heritagisation process of the Pok Fu Lam Fire Dragon Dance in Hong Kong, tracing its transformation from a village tradition to a recognised intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Through fieldwork and historical analysis, the study explores how the Fire Dragon Dance has evolved in response to urbanisation threats, government policies and the ICH designation. The research highlights how local stakeholders have strategically leveraged the ICH concept to revitalise and maintain their community traditions, while also adapting the practice to meet broader societal expectations. The paper argues that this process involves negotiation and compromise, resulting in a de-villagisation and performatisation of the dance. By expanding beyond its original community and embracing new performance contexts, the Pok Fu Lam Fire Dragon Dance has successfully transformed into a shared cultural resource for Hong Kong, demonstrating the dynamic nature of ICH in urban settings.
This paper illustrates how youth are motivated to safeguard intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in a community of practice (CoP). The study took place at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Luang Prabang, Lao People's Democratic Republic. The study first explores the perceived threats to safeguarding local ICH as seen by youth members. Subsequently, it presents a case study of how the youth members' relationship with the community impacts the transmission and manifestation of ICH as a CoP, emphasising mutual engagement, joint enterprise, shared repertoire and shared identity. Qualitative research methods, including interviews, field notes, observations and multimedia documentation, were employed. The results present the conditions for a youth-driven CoP, supporting youth experiences in: (1) enhancing their sense of local identity; (2) recognising the value of cultural knowledge; (3) engaging in collaborative learning with a culture bearer; and (4) being challenged to find innovative solutions.
Colour is one of the important elements that extends from the urban scale to the space scale. The use of colour is important in expressing the settlement's visual and psychological identity in the construction of place-specific architecture. Each settlement has unique colour cartels. The material is at the beginning of basic structural elements that make up these colour cartels. Havara stone is a cultural heritage item whose unique colour characterises the physical environment of the eastern region of Turkey, which was affected by an earthquake in 2023. The use of havara stone is important in the process of planning the restoration of historical environments in provinces located in the region. This study aims to determine the colours of the stone used, and their proportions. A centralised colour chart has been developed through computer-aided colour mapping techniques based on samples of apostle stone. This chart is intended to function as a referential framework for guiding colour selection in forthcoming restitution and adaptive reuse interventions within the region. It is anticipated that the findings of this study will contribute to ensuring the quality and authenticity of restoration works, and that the colour mapping method will be adopted as a standard approach in the conservation of historical environments characterised by vernacular architecture and a preserved historical fabric.A colourchart is put in the middle with the computer-aided colourmapping method made from apostle stone samples. It is planned that this cartel will be the source of colourpreferences in the restitution and re-functioning studiesto be carried out in the region. It is hoped that the study's findings will assist in ensuring the quality of the restoration worksand thatthe colourmapping methodwill be adoptedfor all historical environments having vernacular architecture with the historical fabric.
Professional discourses within the UK heritage industry have traditionally emphasised its built, tangible assets. Of these, historic houses have often been viewed as symbols of greatness, linked to immutable value and in need of saving from ruination-an embedded elitist perception of British heritage. Over the past decade, public debates on social justice have coalesced in foregrounding a commitment to inclusion and diversity in the heritage sector, to decolonisation in museums, and to a shift in cultural policy that calls attention to the way heritage is used and celebrated in informal processes and practices. In a response to this 'cultural turn'and diversity agenda, the UK Government ratified the UNESCO 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage to officially recognise the country's everyday or living heritage (UK Government 2024). Within this ratification process, during public consultation between December 2023 and February 2024, the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) reiterated UNESCO's guidance on what is intangible cultural heritage (ICH) as '[t] raditional, contemporary and living at the same time: ICH does not only represent inherited traditions from the past but also contemporary rural and urban practices in which diverse groups take part' (UNESCO 2025). The term 'contemporary' reflects how heritage is increasingly understood as having a relationship with the past, but one that is present-centred (Harrison 2013) and embracing the dynamic, evolving and diverse forms of ICH within the United Kingdom. This paper explores a case study of Port Eliot Festival, an annual contemporary event that took place in the grounds of a historic house in Cornwall, United Kingdom, The paper examines the festival's intermingling of tangible and intangible heritage, how it created a gateway for the expression and performance of ICH, and the role of creative practitioners in creating room for experimentation within this cultural space. Further, the study reflects UNESCO's 2003 Convention recognising the 'deep seated interdependence between the ICH and the tangible, cultural and natural heritage' UNESCO (2024.3). Festivals are therefore explored as a form of heritage that provides a social, loose, unpredictable, dynamic cultural space, in contrast to a fixed heritage site. This temporality challenges the assumption that the value of 'heritage' is immutable and fixed; what is important emerges through a personal, sensorial and embodied experience. The paper argues that the looseness of this cultural space is the 'heritage value', and as festivals are increasingly recognised officially in cultural policy as a strategic 'good' (a wellbeing/economic resource for localand regional growth/social cohesiveness), we need to be critical of why they are mobilised, who is involved in the decision-making and who benefits from them. Festivals (whether ancient, revived or contemporary) are more than an end product; they are a socio-cultural process of active valuing, with social interaction between people being a core aspect of this act of heritage-making.
This paper discusses the reasons behind the popularity of hadza lezembgwe (pearl millet thick porridge) among the Kalanga people. It explains what the product is and why some urban restaurants fail to produce it in the way it is preferred by the Kalanga people. The study was done within the dictates of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Therefore, the studyaims to raise awareness of this important intangible cultural heritage elementwhile alerting the impacted community to the need to ensure its survival for their benefit and that of future generations. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The researchers travelled to two districts, Bulilima and Mangwe, in the province of Matabeleland South in Zimbabwe, where most Zimbabwean Kalanga are found. Analysis was then done within the framework of the critical heritage theory, a theory that demonstrates how rethinking heritage beyond fixed monuments opens up avenues to challenge structures of power and promote living cultures. It was established that the processing of pearl millet into gwisa (pearl millet flour) and setje (finer pearl millet samp) is the most important part of producing this special type of hadza. The study concludes by making recommendations that these traditional preparation skills be documented and safeguarded in line with the requirements of the 2003 UNESCO Convention.
In the context of an increasingly globalised world, indigenous rites of maturation - symbols of passage from one life stage to another - have seen a notable decline. Such rites, some of which might strike modern sensibilities as austere or even severe, are becoming vestiges of the past, relegated to commercialised ventures, as exemplified by activities such as bungee jumping, or confined to communities staunchly adhering to their ancestral traditions. Nonetheless, the quinceanera endures as a cultural artifact, not merely maintaining its ceremonial importance but witnessing a revival in its practice. This anthropological inquiry delves into the deep-seated traditions and origins of the quinceanera, its significance among diasporic communities, the structural and symbolic elements of the ceremony, and its broader socio-economic ramifications. At its core, the quinceanera embodies a complex interweaving of cultural narratives, bolstering community identities at the crossroads of historical continuity and contemporary shifts. It also has notable implications for local economic structures. Ultimately, the quinceanera underscores the evolving tapestry of cultural heritage, anchoring community ties and enhancing collective self-awareness.
Agriculture is the predominant economic activity in the state of Nagaland in northeast India. In Naga villages, agricultural knowledge is one of the aspects of the community's cultural heritage that is passed on from generation to generation through the age groups that are associated with the bachelors' or men's houses known as morungs. This paper takes the Angami Naga village of Khonoma as the case study to examine the role of the age groups in the agricultural life of the village. It investigates how the age groups acquire agricultural knowledge through practical activity, and how agricultural knowledge, including knowhow, skills, practices, rituals, festivals and values, is expressed and transmitted by the age groups. It demonstrates how this knowledge is used by the age groups to navigate the economic and social life in the village.
This paper explores the interplay between invented traditions and the Thai nation-state, using the martial art Muay Boran as a case study. The art form serves as an emblem of Thai national identity, yet its roots lie in a regional, not national, past. Drawing upon theories of invented tradition, the study interrogates Muay Boran as an artificially constructed heritage at both local and national levels, further delving into the role of nostalgia in shaping cultural narratives. Despite the martial art's appropriation and commercialisation for political and economic gain, it remains a powerful symbol, stimulating national unity and quelling separatist tendencies. Nonetheless, cultural safeguarding efforts risk stagnation, often promoting an exotic otherness at the expense of genuine cultural evolution. The study concludes by advocating for a balanced approach that acknowledges cultural dynamics and the inevitable transformation of traditions over time.
The Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (United Nations 1972) and the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (UNESCO 1972) paved the way for the Declarations of the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference (United Nations 2012) and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO 2003). Some of these international declarations aim to achieve goals relating to environmental, economic and social sustainability which incorporate culture as a transversal axis. The knowledge and ways of life preserved through past generations have proven themselves to be socially and naturally sustainable, and many of them constitute examples of intangible cultural heritage. Artisanal fishing with clay shelter pots for the common octopus, a resource threatened by overfishing, is an example of such heritage that would result in a more sustainable way of life and better protection of our ecosystem resources if safeguarded (Nocca 2017).
The Olympic Games is more than a mega sport festival and the myriad connections created through the interaction of sport, athletes, education, the public and community through Olympism is one of the great global expressions of education through sport. The linkages between the mega-event, society and sport are reflected in the tangible and intangible aspects of the event. These connections are created through participation, material culture and the intangible aspects of Olympism imbued in its expression. This paper considers material culture and the values education associated with it through an inclusive sporting event, the Nanairo Ekiden, an academic legacy project of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It considers the intangible heritage created through the event and disseminated and maintained through the memories, wishes and hopes of the participants, written on ribbon tanzaku. It also considers the ascription of value to tangible and tangible heritage via actors during the implementation of the ekiden.
Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) has significant potential value and is important for development and sustainability. This has led international organisations and national governments to regulate its protection. Jordan has taken various initiatives in this field. However, those initiatives have encountered challenges because a debate has arisen in Jordan as to whether ICH is public property, or falls under the protection of intellectual property rights, or should receive protection under a sui generis system. This paper is concerned with studying the issue of legal protection of ICH according to the relevant Jordanian legislation. It presents a comparative study of the various systems currently used to protect ICH, with the aim of identifying an effective means of protecting Jordan's intangible cultural heritage.
Awka traditional paraphernalia is the product of many centuries of artistic traditions. Such great works of art may seem lifeless to non-natives, but are functional in all spheres of Awka community life. They depict the various tangible and intangible features of Awka culture. Despite the intricacy and functionality of these traditional artworks, they are gradually losing potency and relevance in Eurocentric post-colonial Nigerian society. The out play of modern museums and contemporary artworks challenged the intangible essence of traditional paraphernalia. Therefore, this study employed historical research method and textual presentation analysis to explore the intangibility of tangible heritage of the Awka traditional community. The mimesis theory of art was used to buttress the relevance of the intangible heritage represented in Awka traditional paraphernalia. The study found that the intangible heritage is the essence of Awka traditional paraphernalia. In addition, it found that traditional artworks were the mainstay of various cultural institutions and activities in the Awka community. It concluded that traditional artworks embody the beliefs and practices of the Awka community. The study suggests that contemporary artworks should be designed to reflect the intangibility of traditional paraphernalia in modern society.
