AN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL HERITAGE

October 29th, 2012

WHAT IS HERITAGE? Heritage is anything that is considered

important enough to be passed on to the future generations.

Heritage is broadly categorized into two main divisions.

Heritage

Natural Heritage Cultural Heritage

NATURAL HERITAGE Natural Heritage refers to the natural aspects

like the fauna and flora, landscapes, beaches, coral gardens etc that are considered important enough to be preserved for the future generations.

CULTURAL HERITAGE UNESCO (the United Nations Educational Scientific

and Cultural Organisation) defines heritage as 'the product and witness of the different traditions and of the spiritual achievements of the past and . . . thus an essential element in the personality of peoples' (Davison 1991). A simpler definition is that heritage is what we value from the past. These definitions reflect what we value or reject in our present surroundings, and anticipate for the future (Davison 1991).

Cultural Heritage refers to the cultural aspects like heritage sites, monuments, folklore, traditional activities and practices, language etc that are considered vital to be preserved for the future generations.

These definitions imply difficult questions about the purposes of heritage protection. Why save old buildings or fossil landscapes, for example? A continuing trend nationally is to answer this question in terms of economic benefit through tourism activities. This answer suggests that the main value of heritage is its capacity to generate employment and income (Davison 2000). Heritage is an important economic asset, but it is also clearly much more.

CULTURAL HERITAGE Cultural Heritage can be further divided into

two main groups.

Cultural Heritage

Tangible Heritage Intangible Heritage

TANGIBLE Tangible Heritage refers to those significant

places that advocate the country’s history and culture. For example monuments, mosques, shrines, monasteries etc

INTANGIBLE HERITAGE Intangible Heritage refers to those aspects of a

country that cannot be touched or seen. For example traditional music, folklore, language etc (It can also include the intangible records of our past such as memories, stories and songs, ways of life, customs, attitudes and interactions between individuals and communities, and even the words only used in old crafts and trades. Sometimes these intangibles can be collected as oral histories and stored on tapes or videos or, as with crafts, trades, dances and customs, they can be passed on in a living, viable form to the next generation)

UNDERSTANDING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE

There are 4 main aspects to understand the significance of cultural heritage sites. These aspects help to determine the management policies and procedure pursuant to the particular site. Thus It is very important to understand and determine the significances before embarking on a heritage project.

THE 4 MAIN ASPECTS ARE:Historical Significances The age or relationship to historical era, person

or event. Historical significance is a relatively easy and over bearing trait in heritage management.

Social Significances Social Significance is hard to ascertain. It refers

to the social, spiritual and other community oriented values attributed to a place. This maybe because the place has existed to serve a certain important role in the society for a period of time.

Eg: Olympus Theatre in Male’, Fish Market & Local Market

Aesthetic Significance: refers to this special sense of Importance of a place. This could be in terms of architecture, scale or even the designs seen on the place.

Scientific Significance: refers to the scope or possibility of scientific findings from a site, monument or place. Here the importance lies more in the information that may yield out of understanding and researching the place or site. This can mostly be attributed to archaeological sites or ancient monuments.

IDENTITY Identity refers to an understanding of yourself in

relation to your culture. In short it refers to who you are but it ask to define yourself and how you have become yourself. It today’s context we refer to cultural identity which means (feeling of) identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as she or he is influenced by her belonging to a group or culture.

Cultural identity, if we refer back to culture, is nurtured by the cultural heritage of a country. It is vitalized by the understanding of the tangible heritage, a knowledge of the evaluation of the behavior patterns, values and traditions of that culture.

BIBLIOGRAPHY http://soer.justice.tas.gov.au/2003/her/6/inde

x.php http://www.slideshare.net/HarisDozz/introduct

ion-to-cultural-heritage http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/

Html/199.htm (convention of cultural heritage)

http://www.riotinto.com.au/documents/Rio_Tinto_Cultural_Heritage_Guide.pdf

Thank You..!!