Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Amazonian Kichwa People

Claudia Patricia Maldonado-Erazo,José Álvarez-García,María De La Cruz Del Río-Rama,Nancy P Tierra-Tierra

doi:10.3390/land10121395

Claudia Patricia Maldonado-Erazo, José Álvarez-García + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/land10121395

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Abstract

Indigenous communities express their concern about the weakening and low appreciation of their millenary and ancestral manifestations and knowledge, due to society’s accelerated globalization. This fact has caused intergenerational transmission to be minimal, resulting in a gradual cultural erosion and loss of collective memory of human groups. The purpose of this study is to safeguard of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of the Amazonian Kichwa nationality through identification and records of cultural manifestations. The analysis corresponds to a descriptive process of all the information collected, which was built from the development of multiple processes of cultural revitalization that correspond to in-depth interviews with community leaders and participatory workshops with all members of the community. During the process, an increase in the exchange of knowledge was observed, in addition to constant cultural insurgency in which the peoples maintain themselves in order to safeguard their cultures.

Highlights

The current society characterized by both economic, political, social and cultural globalization leads to the homogenization of cultural ones, producing the phenomenon of absorption of minority cultures by majority cultures, which represents a threat to cultural diversity [1] (p. 28)
Indigenous peoples are the holders of a great diversity of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, known as living heritage
Defines indigenous cultural heritage “as the cultural heritage of the past of a community, with which it currently lives, and which transmits to present and future generations, and which is constantly recreated by them based on their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, infusing them with a feeling of identity and continuity, helping to promote respect for cultural diversity and human creativity

Summary

Introduction

The current society characterized by both economic, political, social and cultural globalization leads to the homogenization of cultural ones, producing the phenomenon of absorption of minority cultures by majority cultures, which represents a threat to cultural diversity [1] (p. 28). “Cultural heritage is understood today as a social and symbolic construction generated from and for the present and constitutes a socio-economic resource of attraction for tourism and the cultural industry but, fundamentally, a resource of political claim and identification of native peoples” [2] Indigenous peoples are the holders of a great diversity of tangible and intangible cultural heritage (uses, representations, expressions, knowledge and techniques), known as living heritage. They constitute the uses, representations, expressions, knowledge and techniques together with their material manifestations: instruments, objects, artefacts and socio-cultural spaces that are inherently recognized as integral parts of their cultural heritage.”

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