The meaning and value of intangible heritage
I lived for most of my life in a country where folk culture is not always taken very seriously, indeed, where to take it seriously may invite irony, sarcasm, even ridicule. I’m describing England, here, not the United Kingdom. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have rich and often well-protected cultural tradi- tions in music, performing arts, literature and language. Actually, and this is something to bear in mind in what follows, intangible cultural heritage is closely connected with national and community identity in each country, partly because of England’s dominance within the United Kingdom. Perhaps that is why the UK is not a signatory to the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. One can imagine that an in- dependent Scotland, were that to be established, might take a different view.
England is also a country whose folk culture, such as it is, is not necessarily admirable. One of the most popular folk traditions is Guy Fawkes Night, which commemorates the failure on 5th November 1605 of a Roman Catholic plot to blow up Parliament and King James I with it. Bonfires are lit across the coun- try, in an echo of ancient pagan winter rituals. On them, the most notorious plotter, Guy Fawkes, is burned in effigy, as people were once burned for their religious beliefs. In the Sussex town of Lewes, where 5th November is a big event, 17 local Protestant martyrs of the 1550s are commemorated alongside the burning of Guy Fawkes. The people of Lewes also burn other unpopular figures. In 2001, it was Osama bin Laden and in 2014, Alex Salmond, then First Minister of Scotland and leader of the independence campaign. In 2003, it was a traveller or gipsy caravan. There are laws against incitement to racial or religious hatred in England, but they don’t seem to apply where folk culture and tradition is concerned. Clearly, intangible heritage is a complex subject.
from ‘The Shoreline and the Sea’
The Shoreline and the Sea, v. 3/2022 is the revised text of a speech given at the International Congress on Intangible Heritage Policy, at Willibrordhaege, Deurne, The Netherlands, on 16 February 2012 and published online. This version was published on 2 September 2022 at https://miaaw.net
François Matarasso 