Symposion – Intangible cultural heritage and the 20th Anniversary of The 2003 Convention
Mária Michalková’s discussion session, in which the guests - primarily philosophers, but not only them - reflect on the questions that accompany a person on their journey through history, on questions that we sometimes try to ignore but that almost always catch us up. This time, the session hosting Juraj Hamar, General Director of the Slovak State Traditional Dance Company and Ľubica Voľanská, a senior researcher from the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The discussion is devoted to the definition of intangible cultural heritage, also called living heritage. Aware of the wealth of manifestations of living heritage in the world and in countries with no significant number of tangible monuments, buildings or monuments, the UNESCO 2003 Convention undertook to protect intangible forms of cultural heritage as well.
Living heritage is an integral part of our everyday life, although we often do not realize it. It shows us how similar we are to everyone else in the world. It emphasizes the peculiarities of our culture, which can exist in harmony with the peculiarities of other cultures. It allows us to perceive our ancestors’ ingenuity, and thus, we can connect with older and younger generations. Living heritage is also represented by knowledge about growing crops and animal husbandry, folk medicine and craft techniques that allow us to live in harmony with nature without abusing and destroying it.
Text as provided by the organiser(s).
