Panel 5 Rural Intangible Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Rural areas is the place where rural intangible heritage is found rich and diverse, whereas vulnerable to fast social, cultural, political and economic transformations, in particular in developing and underdeveloped areas. Although the concept of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) has been established in UNESCO and accepted by many ICH Convention signatories, it has not been consistently adopted and implemented from international level to local level without divergencies. An analysis of rural ICH is to analyse how rural traditional culture, memories and past are used by different stakeholders for current society. (Re)defining rural ICH is a way to both rethink and develop the existing concepts of cultural heritage held by national and institutional discourses. This panel, which investigates three cases in China and Egypt, will provide evidence and theoretical rethought on the making and use of the concept of ICH in developing countries where the tangible heritage discourses have been well established and the intangible heritage discourse is polemical. These three papers will present diverse and emerging uses and discourses of ICH in terms of conservation, exhibition, commodification, education and musealisation from various perspectives. In particular, this panel will address these issues: 1. How is ICH, or intangible heritage, used in rural areas in the fields of heritage tourism, museum, cultural industries, community development and other purposes? 2. How tourists, (non)-local visitors and other stakeholders contribute to the making of ICH through their cultural practices? 3. How can tangible and intangible heritage be understood and managed in an integrated/holistic approach such as the living heritage approach? 4. Are existing tangible-centred mechanism and managerial tools still useful for rural ICH which relates to local community, tangible elements and the landscape? If not, what improvements should be made?