CONGRESS CANCELED Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Global Middle Ages
Description
The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) was adopted in 2003 and defines ICH as "the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, and skills—as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts, and cultural spaces associated therewith—that communities, groups, and…individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage." Examples include rituals, language, performance, social practices, traditional craftsmanship, food heritage, dance, and more—ephemeral practices, often transmitted orally and through the body rather than codified and recorded in material artifacts or literary records. The Convention was adopted largely in response to the frustrations of non-Western countries that argued their cultures were not expressed in the “heritage” sites celebrated by UNESCO’s World Heritage List, but through ephemeral and intangible practices. Similarly, Western medieval scholarship has often focused on the relatively small region of Western Europe and a relatively limited range of sources and artifacts. This panel features papers on medieval intangible cultural heritage, particularly from regions outside of Western Europe, or that were affected by interactions of medieval people from within and without Western Europe.
Rebecca Straple
CONGRESS CANCELED Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Global Middle Ages
Schneider 1340
The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) was adopted in 2003 and defines ICH as "the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, and skills—as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts, and cultural spaces associated therewith—that communities, groups, and…individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage." Examples include rituals, language, performance, social practices, traditional craftsmanship, food heritage, dance, and more—ephemeral practices, often transmitted orally and through the body rather than codified and recorded in material artifacts or literary records. The Convention was adopted largely in response to the frustrations of non-Western countries that argued their cultures were not expressed in the “heritage” sites celebrated by UNESCO’s World Heritage List, but through ephemeral and intangible practices. Similarly, Western medieval scholarship has often focused on the relatively small region of Western Europe and a relatively limited range of sources and artifacts. This panel features papers on medieval intangible cultural heritage, particularly from regions outside of Western Europe, or that were affected by interactions of medieval people from within and without Western Europe.
Rebecca Straple