I think of things like traditional cuisine, dance, and there are others. How does UNESCO or whoever determine when such things are labelled? How do they judge that it has been infringed upon?
In: Culture
Well, part of the Convention created by UNESCO says that, basically, when you’re figuring out what things are an intangible piece of heritage that deserves protecting, you need to include members of that culture in the process, since they would know better than anyone what parts of heritage are important elements of their own cultural identity.
The rules governing exactly how you go about putting value on a piece of heritage vary a lot depending on where you are in the world (in the U.S. it’s slightly different in each state), and there’s typically some kind of governmental body/group that helps craft policies AND works with local members of the culture in question to create a sort of inventory or all the tangible and intangible thing that make that culture what it is.
For example, in the early 2000s UNESCO started a four-year project in Ethiopia to make permanent records of traditional dances and music that belong to various tribes and cultures there. This project had a lot of elements to it, including traveling to various towns and villages to record traditional music and dances, having the University of Addis Ababa and the Yared Music School offer classes in ethnomusicology (the study of music from a cultural perspective), and of course talking with lots of locals about what kinds of music and dance they felt were an essential part of their cultural heritage.
The UNESCO rules also acknowledge that cultures naturally change and evolve and shift over time, so their goal is not to take a culture and freeze it in one place forever, and forbid any kinds of changes, but to identify which parts of that culture are really a key part, things that have been passed down from generation to generation (like eating at McDonalds wouldn’t be considered a piece of intangible heritage, even if your family has been doing it since the 60s, but a special kind of bread made from this one kind of yam that only grows in this one part of the world, and has kept this one tribe alive for at least 1000 years, THAT would count at heritage)
They also acknowledge that we need to be sensitive when evaluating a culture’s heritage, because some of the things they consider an essential part of their culture may be a thing that’s always been kept secret from outsiders, it may be some sort of special ritual that only women of the tribe can participate in or even see. This is another reason why it’s so important to involve members of that culture, and listen to what they think and feel and consider valuable.
As far as when things are being infringed upon, that I’m not sure about, but if I find any good info I’ll let you know.
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