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The Misteri or Festa d'Elx is the main festival of a town (Elche). Although it has survived from the Middle Ages, it was patrimonialised twice in seventy years to be preserved in a historical context of profound changes. Nowadays, the Misteri still is represented, nevertheless, the attitude of the local population towards this Festival shows a polarization that ranges from the indifference of the majority to the enthusiasm of a minority, committed to its maintenance and continuity. In other words, new ways of relating to the Festa have been generated, different from the traditional ones, which implies new cultural meanings. In this paper, we intend to point out these new meanings about this patrimonialised festival. To do this, we analyse discourses and practices of local social agents, especially those involved in their maintenance and safeguarding. We relate them to the historical context that gives them meaning and that is characterized by permanent sociocultural change, and by the influence of globalizing factors at the local level, such as tourism and UNESCO distinctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last two decades, in an effort to democratize and counteract the elitist vision of the heritage institutions linked to the project of modernity, there has been a "participatory turn" in heritage policies. This article analyzes the silent transformations in which this participatory turn in heritage management occurs, as well as the systemic and symbolic violence of the heritage regime. To do so, two dimensions are analyzed: (1) the legal technologies in which this shift has been reflected, such as the incorporation of the requirement of participation in norms, conventions and other patrimonial legal apparatuses, particularly in the case of Spain; and (2) the conflictive basis of the participatory turn through an example from the ParticiPAT project. In the first dimension, the UNESCO Intangible Cutural Heritage Convention of 2003, the Convention of the Council of Europe of 2005 (known as the Faro Convention) or the UNESCO Recommendations on Historic Urban Landscapes of 2011 stand out among the main legal bodies that have introduced this turn. In the second dimension, a specific conflict is analyzed: the polemic that arose as a result of painting the Church of Our Lady of the Areas in Fisterra (Galicia, Spain) and the request for participation in decision-making by the associations in the area. The analysis of these two dimensions is based on three concepts: patrimonial regime, François Jullien's silent transformations and John Galtung's types of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of cante alentejano has resisted the challenges of a rural society in constant transformation, in the progressive tension between experience and expectation. Experience intertwines diverse pasts of a built-in practice, represented, institutionalized, and transmitted by generations and institutions. Expectation is the present future, which can only be predicted from the experiences of its participants, whose action and social intervention are decisive for the continuity of this cultural practice. In this article, I question the power relations associated with the processes of institutionalization and patrimonialization of cultural practices, based on ethnography of historical contextualization of cante alentejano. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intangible heritage label has had unprecedented success in the most diverse countries of the world. This text questions whether this heritagization is contributing in any way to making plural memories visible or whether, as more and more studies point out, this process maintains and reproduces social hierarchy, silencing diversities. Thus, it reflects on the articulation between intangible heritage and folklore and the representations of collective memories. From the case study of the activations of intangible heritage in Andalusia (Spain), we go beyond the explanations that refer to the neoliberal and tourist orientation of heritage or to the dissemination of the UNESCO model, to make the answers more complex. The article addresses political, legislative, and technical decisions, analysing the consequences of the selection mechanisms of heritage institutions (lists, catalogues, inventories); looks at the contradictory role of institutions and the subordinated role of anthropologists in these processes; interprets the reflexivity that folklorist actions have generated in citizens and in their ways of constructing memory concerning intangible heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation and social transformation have impinged upon Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) which is the foundation on which a nation's identity and knowledge is built. Safeguarding and protecting it, therefore, is beneficial to understanding the present and charting the way forward for the future identities and development. Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCE) have over time suffered from misappropriation by the actions of people outside a traditional community. The development of technology has greatly enhanced this misappropriation on a world-wide scale with no benefits accruing to the traditional communities that originally own the expressions. With COVID 19 lockdown and social distancing, several sectors of the society have moved on to the use of technology to ensure that they remain relevant as technological advancement through scientific progress is a way of expressing the right to cultural life. This article appraised ICH, the problems of protection and focussed on Nigeria using traditional craftmanship as a case study. The article proffered modalities for safeguarding, most especially in this era of technological advancement amidst COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article directly responds to an article authored by Iacono and Brown published in Dance Research (2016), and considers issues emerging since its publication. The core topic is the UNESCO Convention from 2003, and in our view, criticism in the 2016 article is based on misinterpretation. We address the claims that the Convention is marked by binarism and provide in-depth background for the concept of intangible cultural heritage. We also caution against using the biomorphic term 'living cultural heritage' as its application stands in an ambiguous relation toward essentialist, organicist and totalitarian ideologies. We end with a discussion on attitudes toward globalisation and the concept of innovation. These, we argue, have profound implications for recent discussions on decolonisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Preamble of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (CSICH) recognizes the connection between indigenous peoples and intangible cultural heritage. The convention indicates that part of its mission is to protect the intangible cultural heritage of indigenous peoples against the processes of globalization and social transformation. The convention, however, has been critiqued for the manner in which it attempts to manage intangible cultural heritage, with critics charging that the convention fosters a power structure that favors states and thereby threatens to marginalize indigenous peoples from control over their own cultures. Such criticism raises a question as to what changes should be made to rectify the power inequalities of the CSICH to aid indigenous peoples. This Article responds to this question, and follows the convention's critiques by using the theories of Michel Foucault to evaluate the power structure created by the CSICH and identify what types of changes to the convention would benefit indigenous peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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China's 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative urges the protection of underwater cultural heritage on the Maritime Silk Road, which demands China's effort as much as that of international community. The Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UNESCO Convention) provides an international legal framework for China to protect underwater cultural heritage and facilitate cooperation with other State Parties. China's concerns over ratifying the UNESCO Convention mainly relate to its jurisdiction, ownership and international obligations on the issue, which can be solved with the basic principles and a revision of Chinese laws. China's ratification will ensure the international protection of underwater cultural heritage on the Maritime Silk Road; and more importantly, it will provide an opportunity for the joint development in the South China Sea, thus breaking the bottleneck of the Maritime Silk Road Initiative. Therefore, China should ratify the UNESCO Convention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the efforts to protect world heritage and the background set in the two UNESCO World Heritage conventions. Canadian media and communication theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the term "global village" in 1964 to depict the homogenized culture's phenomenon that he believed would be the outcome of revolution where the written word was replaced by electronic communication. It discusses the cataloguing of documents and books in archives and libraries.

The article offers information on the May 19-22, 2016 Annual Meeting of the Folklore Studies Association of Canada in Quebec City, Quebec on the theme "The Uses of Intangible Cultural Heritage: 10 Years After the Ratification of the ICH UNESCO Convention."