Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts
and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past
generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future
generations. Cultural heritage includes tangible culture (such as buildings,
monuments, landscapes, books, works of art, and artifacts), intangible culture
(such as folklore, traditions, language, and knowledge), and natural heritage
(including culturally significant landscapes, and biodiversity).
The deliberate act of keeping cultural heritage from
the present for the future is known as preservation (American English) or
conservation (British English), though these terms may have more specific or
technical meaning in the same contexts in the other dialect.
THE ETHICS AND RATIONALE OF CULTURAL PRESERVATION
Objects are a part of the study of human history
because they provide a concrete basis for ideas, and can validate them. Their
preservation demonstrates a recognition of the necessity of the past and of the
things that tell its story. In The Past is a Foreign Country, David Lowenthal
observes that preserved objects also validate memories. While digital
acquisition techniques can provide a technological solution that is able to
acquire the shape and the appearance of artifacts with an unprecedented
precision in human history, the actuality of the object, as opposed to a
reproduction, draws people in and gives them a literal way of touching the
past. This unfortunately poses a danger as places and things are damaged by the
hands of tourists, the light required to display them, and other risks of
making an object known and available. The reality of this risk reinforces the
fact that all artifacts are in a constant state of chemical transformation, so
that what is considered to be preserved is actually changing – it is never as
it once was.[3] Similarly changing is the value each generation may place on
the past and on the artifacts that link it to the past.
Kautilya Society in Varanasi - When heritage protection
becomes a fight for legality and participation Film-Camera.png → "They harass me because I demand civil society
participation to public policies and I contrast the misuse of privileges"
Classical civilizations, and especially the Indian,
have attributed supreme importance to the preservation of tradition. Its
central idea was that social institutions, scientific knowledge and
technological applications need to use a "heritage" as a
"resource".[4] Using contemporary language, we could say that ancient
Indians considered, as social resources, both economic assets (like natural
resources and their exploitation structure) and factors promoting social
integration (like institutions for the preservation of knowledge and for the
maintenance of civil order).[5] Ethics considered that what had been inherited
should not be consumed, but should be handed over, possibly enriched, to
successive generations. This was a moral imperative for all, except in the
final life stage of sannyasa.
What one generation considers "cultural
heritage" may be rejected by the next generation, only to be revived by a
subsequent generation.
TYPES OF HERITAGE
Classical Ruins by Hubert Robert, 1798. Elements of
tangible culture depicted include the ruins of the obelisk (foreground) and the
pyramids (background).
CULTURAL PROPERTY
Cultural property includes the physical, or
"tangible" cultural heritage, such as artworks. These are generally
split into two groups of movable and immovable heritage. Immovable heritage
includes buildings (which themselves may include installed art such as organs,
stained glass windows, and frescos), large industrial installations or other
historic places and monuments. Moveable heritage includes books, documents,
moveable artworks, machines, clothing, and other artifacts, that are considered
worthy of preservation for the future. These include objects significant to the
archaeology, architecture, science or technology of a specified culture.
Aspects and disciplines of the preservation and
conservation of tangible culture include:
Museology
Archival science
Conservation (cultural heritage)
Art conservation
Archaeological conservation
Architectural conservation
Film preservation
Phonograph record preservation
Digital preservation
Intangible culture
"Intangible cultural heritage" consists of
non-physical aspects of a particular culture, more often maintained by social
customs during a specific period in history. The concept includes the ways and
means of behavior in a society, and the often formal rules for operating in a
particular cultural climate. These include social values and traditions, customs
and practices, aesthetic and spiritual beliefs, artistic expression, language
and other aspects of human activity. The significance of physical artifacts can
be interpreted [by whom?] against the backdrop of socioeconomic, political,
ethnic, religious and philosophical values of a particular group of people.
Naturally, intangible cultural heritage is more difficult to preserve than
physical objects.
Aspects of the preservation and conservation of
cultural intangibles include:
folklore
oral history
language preservation
NATURAL HERITAGE
"Natural heritage" is also an important part
of a society's heritage, encompassing the countryside and natural environment,
including flora and fauna, scientifically known as biodiversity, as well as
geological elements (including mineralogical, geomorphological,
paleontological, etc.), scientifically known as geodiversity. These kind of
heritage sites often serve as an important component in a country's tourist
industry, attracting many visitors from abroad as well as locally. Heritage can
also include cultural landscapes (natural features that may have cultural
attributes).
[FROM WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA]
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