LIVING
TREASURES !
The Tower of Pisa. Machu Picchu. The Taj Mahal. You
probably know them as famous UNESCO1
World
Heritage sites—structures and monuments of great
cultural value. But what about the Mediterranean
diet? The Beijing opera? Or the art of pizza-making in
Naples? What do these have in common?
Traditions like these are known as “intangible cultural
heritage.” In contrast to UNESCO World Heritage
sites, intangible heritage does not include buildings
like palaces and temples. Instead, it includes
traditional art forms, such as music, dance, and craftmaking—living traditions that are an important part of
a place’s culture.
UNESCO began to identify cultural traditions in
2008. Among the first on their list were the Puppet
Theater of Sicily and Mexico’s Day of the Dead
festival. By 2017, UNESCO had approved more than
300 diverse practices. These include cultural events
like the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival; performing
arts including Spanish flamenco; martial arts such
as Brazilian capoeira and Korean Taekkyeon; and
handicrafts like Japanese washi paper-making.
In 2010, UNESCO also began to include important
regional cuisines, starting with French and Mexican
food. Several other types of food and drink have since
been added, such as Korean kimchi and Croatian
gingerbread. Arabic coffee was included in 2015. The
sharing of coffee has been an important aspect of
Arab hospitality for centuries, according to UNESCO,
and is “a symbol of generosity.”
Protecting Cultural Roots
Cultural rituals are an important part of the UNESCO list. An example is the Tlemcen
wedding ritual in Algeria. The ritual begins in the bride’s parents’ home, where
friends and female relatives help the bride prepare for the ceremony. The bride is
first dressed in a golden silk dress. Symbolic henna2
designs are applied to her hands.
Before leaving the house for the ceremony, her face is wrapped in a golden silk veil.3
Later, during the wedding feast, the bride removes her veil, ready to be married. The
tradition has passed from one generation to the next, and marks the community’s
cultural identity.
Some of the cultural items on the list are dying out and in need of protection. An
example is Al Sadu—traditional weaving in the United Arab Emirates. The tradition
was once widely practiced by communities of desert Bedouin women. However,
many Bedouin have now moved to cities, and so the practice has begun to disappear.
Today, Al Sadu is mostly practiced by older women whose numbers are declining.
The main goal of UNESCO is to promote peace through respect for the world’s
varied cultures and common humanity. It hopes that by bringing attention to cultural
traditions such as Al Sadu, they will be more likely to survive. Cultural traditions are
important to fight for, says Cécile Duvelle of UNESCO. “The more globalized the
world becomes,” she says, “the more important it is not to lose these traditional roots.”
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